L’Organo 2024, the series of free daily organ recitals presented by the City of Charleston, South Carolina, in conjunction with the Spoleto Festival at the end of May, contained a number of new features this year.
Alcee Chriss presented the opening recital in Summerall Chapel at the Citadel, on the four-manual instrument newly rebuilt by Cornel Zimmer. New also this year was Zimmer’s rebuild of the pipe/digital organ at historic Mother Emanuel AME church, where Wesley Hall returned to present an eclectic program, “Pirates to Pleiades: From the Seas to the Stars,” with music by Scheidt, Chee, Bossi, Böhm, Hans Zimmer, and John Williams.
Another innovation was a Young Peoples’ Program, with Winthrop University graduate Myron Walker as master of ceremonies, children in the audience, along with two young performers: 16-year-old Abigail Crafton from Savannah, Georgia, and 14-year-old Brody Bett from Greensboro, North Carolina.
Opening the series was Amelie Held from Munich, Germany, a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2023, playing Hollins, Dana Suesse, and Prokofiev. Many programs included works of Florence Price, while other composers heard included Rachel Laurin, Amy Beach, Reger, Glinka, Akiro Nishimura, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Nicholas Quardokus, of Charleston’s Grace Church Cathedral, a prize-winner in this year’s American Guild of Organists improvisation competition, presented a recital of improvisations. There were 14 programs altogether, with recital locales expanding this year to include the all-digital instrument at St. Clare of Assisi Church on Daniel Island and the new Schoenstein instrument at Bishop Gadsden Continuing Care Retirement Community, James Island.
In 2025, L’Organo runs from May 25 to June 7. An online application form for performers can be found at www.piccolospoleto.com/lorgano. Deadline for application is November 1. Committee Chair is Murray Forbes Somerville, former Harvard University organist and choirmaster.
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