St. Cecilia plays up pipe organ

The king of instruments will receive full regal treatment in Omaha this month.

St. Cecilia Cathedral and the Cathedral Arts Project will launch a monthlong organ festival. The event will feature free Sunday afternoon concerts, lectures and an exhibit on pipe organs.

Marie Rubis Bauer, organist and music director at St. Cecilia, said the festival was organized to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the cathedral's Martin Pasi dual-temperament pipe organ.

“We want people in Omaha to realize that they have a real cultural treasure in this organ,” she said.

The festival begins today with Bauer performing an eclectic program featuring music from Francois Couperin's “Mass for Parishes” and Bach's Passacaglia. Bauer will also improvise an extended piece that she calls “A Nebraska Landscape.”

“An improvisation will show off all the organ's tonal colors,” she said.

The festival will continue at 7 p.m. July 11 with a lecture by organist Kevin Vogt on the planning and construction of the Pasi organ.

Vogt, who worked with organ builder Martin Pasi on the construction of the cathedral's organ, will give a concert on the instrument July 12. His performance will feature Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E-flat and Cesar Franck's Prelude, Fugue and Variation.

Organist Julie Brown will perform a variety of works on the organ on July 19. Brown's performances of 17th- and 18th-century German music, particularly the music of Dieterich Buxtehude, are acclaimed.

Wolfgang Rubsam, a noted Bach specialist and international recording artist, will conclude the festival with a mostly Bach concert on July 26.

The organ exhibition will be in the Cathedral Cultural Center's Sunderland Gallery.

During July, tours of the Pasi organ will take place Saturdays following the 7:30 a.m. Mass and Sundays following the 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.. Masses. Those taking the tour should meet at the bottom of the staircase near the west end of the cathedral.

Contact the writer:

444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com