The King of Instruments Summer Organ Series: Clara Gerdes
$20 ($15 student/senior)
- Annie Gao, carillon
- Clara Gerdes, organ
Maurice Duruflé — Scherzo, Op. 2
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor — Idyll, Op. 44
Max Reger — Fantasy on the Chorale "Hallelujah! Gott zu loben," Op. 52, No. 3
Sigfrid Karg-Elert — Harmonies du Soir, Op. 72, No. 1
Antonín Dvořák — Carnival Overture, Op. 92
Schedule:
6:30pm | Carillon Recital by Annie Gao
7pm | Organ Recital by Clara Gerdes
About Annie Gao, carillon
Annie is a carillonist and software engineer from the sunny suburbs of Southern California. She discovered the carillon in college at Yale University, where she quickly became an avid member of the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs. She completed her Carillonneur exam in 2020 to join the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, and graduated from Yale in May 2021 with a combined B.S./M.S. in Computer Science. She then had the tremendous privilege of continuing her carillon education in Europe and the US, and is having the time of her life as the current Bok Tower Blanchard Carillon Fellow, studying under Geert D'hollander. In her free time, Annie enjoys competitive ping pong, running, brainteasers, and opportunities to explore and improve her fascinatingly bad sense of direction.
About Clara Gerdes, organ
Clara Bartz serves as Director of Music at Most Holy Redeemer and Nativity Parish in Manhattan, New York, where her responsibilities include directing several youth and adult choirs, running a concert series and overseeing the restoration of the church’s 1891 Roosevelt organ.
Clara is a 2021 graduate of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music where she studied with Martin Jean. She completed her undergraduate degree in organ performance from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Alan Morrison. She received first prizes in the Fort Wayne, Albert Schweitzer, AGO-Quimby Mid-Atlantic Regional, and UNCSA School of the Arts organ competition and was the recipient of the 2020 Baker Prize in Organ Performance and the 2021 Julia Sherman Award for Excellence in Organ Playing from Yale. She has performed around the United States at a number of notable churches and concert halls and as the featured recitalist at the Church Music Association of America annual conference, the American Guild of Organists 2018 National Convention in Kansas City, and at Spoleto, Oregon Bach Festival, Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts and most recently the Uncommon Music Festival in Sitka, Alaska. Clara is an avid accompanist and collaborator, and has accompanied the choirs of St Joseph's Seminary, Westminster Choir College, St Bartholomew's Church NYC and a number of other institutions in liturgical and concert settings. She lives in New York City with her husband and her son.
https://www.claragerdes.com/