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April 2024

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Members’ Recitals: A Retrospective - By Susan LaGrande

April 1997 - Redeemer Lutheran Church, Kingston - featuring one of Don Filkins’s notorious improvisations, as well as a very young Jeffrey Alban, DMA (now living in Virginia)
May 1998 - Grace Episcopal Church, Middletown - in celebration of the church’s 150th anniversary. Mary Caskey was then organist.
June 2000 - St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Poughkeepsie - featuring an organ duet by Charles Callahan played by Polly Beynon James and her mother, Dorothy M. Beynon
June 2001 - United Methodist Church, Poughkeepsie - in memory of Victor Scarchilli
May 2003 - St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Poughkeepsie. Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the chapter. Announcement of AGO Region II-III Convention, to be hosted by CHVAGO in Poughkeepsie in 2005. Introduction of the Margaret Pecoraro Memorial Scholarship Fund.
June 2004 - The Reformed Church, Poughkeepsie - Featuring a young Thomas Sheehan (now Organist and Associate Director of Music at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC) playing the Andante and Finale from Vierne’s Symphony Number 1
April 2005 - Grace Episcopal Church, Middletown - in memory of Nora Strudwick - Featuring two original songs by Alice Cann and a memorable organ duet performed by Past Deans John Sullivan and Al Reese
May 2006 - The Reformed Church, Poughkeepsie
June 2007 - Grace Episcopal Church, Millbrook. Marking John Sullivan’s last official duty as Dean before passing the torch to new Dean Gregory Citarella
May 2008 - First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Poughkeepsie - In memory of William Robert "Bob" Brittenham, Mary Sherman Caskey, and Clara Pankow-Miller. Certificate of Appreciation presented to Kay Pearson, Anita Drake, and Alice Cann.
May 2009 - Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church
June 2010 - St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Poughkeepsie
May 2011 - Zion Episcopal Church, Wappingers Falls - From the Dean’s Letter the following month: “The musical offerings, while mostly 19th and 20th century, couldn’t have been more varied. They showed off the 100 year old organ very well.”
May 2012 - Christ Episcopal Church, Poughkeepsie - featuring 20-year-old Dillon Streifeneder playing Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 3
June 2013 - The Reformed Church, Poughkeepsie. To quote from the Dean’s Letter in the July 2013 newsletter: “The music of Bach, Handel, Lubeck, Duruflé, Widor and others was played at a very high standard - professional concert caliber from each and every one of the players.”
March 2014 - Vassar Chapel, Poughkeepsie. To quote from Dean Craig Williams in the April 2014 newsletter: “I was privileged to play the 106 rank Gress-Miles Organ in this terrific concert. … Thanks to Wesley Joseph, Laura Russell, Alexander Green, Janice Grace, Boyd Herforth, Patrick Walker and Eric Hepp for a very well played variety of great organ music!”
April 2015 - United Methodist Church, Poughkeepsie - To quote from Dean Craig Williams in the May 2015 newsletter: “Let me take this opportunity however to congratulate the performers who participated in our Annual Members’ Recital at Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church this past month! I was gratified by the number of you who were able to come and listen – we had a terrific audience that day.”
May 2016 - North Congregational Church, Middletown -To quote from Craig Williams in his Dean’s Letter for that month: “North Congregational houses a 20 rank E.M. Skinner organ in nearly original condition. Not only does the organ have beautiful voices — noble diapasons, colorful flutes and wonderful orchestral voices — strings and reeds — but, if one of the most important stops on any organ is the room in which it plays, this organ is one of the jewels of the Hudson Valley. The sanctuary of North Congregational is a warm reverberant space accentuated by the church's unique stone structure, lending great power to the organ. I encourage all to participate. The one caveat is that the console does not have working pistons. Therefore, do not bring repertoire that requires many piston adjustments. You or your assistant will be pulling drawknobs by hand.”
June 2017 - St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Poughkeepsie - Dedicated to “eleven members of our Chapter who have died since the last memorial members' recital in 2008: Ray Corey, Robert H. Palmatier, Jack Davis, Kay Pearson, Robert F. Dorum, Don Hoger, Martha Miller, Anita Drake, Don Filkins, Pat Maimone, and Peter Hall. Each of them made important, and unique contributions to organ and choral music in the Hudson Valley.” Concert program with biographies is available at 2017_Members_Recital_Pgm.pdf
April 2018 - Zion Episcopal Church, Wappingers Falls - To quote from the report in the May 2018 newsletter: “Of twelve selections, four were for solo organ and eight were duets with organ and other solo instruments, which included trombone, trumpets, flutes, oboe, soprano saxophone, and cello. … Styles ranged from baroque to romantic to jazz to contemporary praise. It should be noted that some of the instruments, especially the brasses, had difficulty tuning with the organ, which is pitched slightly lower than A 440 Hz. This is a challenge which may require some ingenuity to overcome. Where this challenge was met successfully, the collaboration resulted in beautiful and affecting music.”
May 2019 - St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish, Lagrangeville - To quote from the calendar entry for the event: “The instrument is a Diane Bish signature series Allen organ (80 stop, 3 manuals); the sound space in St. Kateri is expansive and reverberant. This concert will feature music of French composers from the 16th through 20th centuries.” Five chapter members, Charles Faverio, Nancy Brown, Richard Ehlenberg, Janet Nelson Nickerson, and Margaret Small, were inducted into the League of Distinguished Service.
May 2020 - “Postponed” - originally scheduled to take place at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Poughkeepsie on Mother’s Day Weekend. The April 2020 newsletter announced that “all our Chapter programs through October have either been canceled or postponed indefinitely.”
June 2021 - Virtual. To quote from the June 2021 Dean’s Letter: “The annual Member’s Recital will take place on YouTube, and will premiere on June 20th at noon. You will be able to watch it anytime after that date at your convenience.” The link is still available at https://youtu.be/2p368XSkQZM.
2022 - No Members’ Recital. In the April newsletter for this year it was announced that the Members’ Recital would take place in the Fall of 2022, and would focus on organ and choral music by composers of color, but this did not materialize until February of the following year.
February 2023 - Part One. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Poughkeepsie. Featuring music composed by people of color. To quote from the March 2023 Dean’s Letter: “We had a totally AMAZING February Members' Recital at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie, with eight of our members performing a wonderful variety of VERY diverse works by composers of color! I was also blown away by the very large multi-racial turnout of well over 100 people (we ran out of programs!) who represented both a wide geographic area as well as a wide range of AGES! What was not to love????!”
May 2023 - Joint Members Recital with Westchester Chapter. St. Philip’s in the Highlands Episcopal Church, Garrison.
April 2024 - The Reformed Church, Poughkeepsie. This recital was originally scheduled for March 2022 as part of a recital series featuring under-represented composers. Part One, in February 2023, featured music by Black composers, and Part Two (upcoming) will feature music by women composers.

If this trip down memory lane has piqued your interest, you can do some digging yourself in our online archives. From the home page of our chapter web site at www.chvago.org, click on the Newsletter page and select “Click here for the Newsletter Archive,” or click on the Calendar page and select “Click here for an Overview of Past Events.”

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