Gregory Eaton

About the Program

In the great variety of musical instruments, some are more usually played in ensemble, while others are more frequently solo instruments. Of these, keyboard instruments may be the most likely to play solo, with the organ being the instrument which is usually heard as a solo concert instrument.  In this recital, my hope is to show that the organ can indeed play well with others, and that there is a large concert repertoire of music for organ and other instruments.  While you may think of music for organ and brass, there are many other combinations possible.  It is a great joy to be able to make music with talented colleagues, and I hope that the three collaborations presented today begin to whet your appetite for this music designed for organ and partners. In order to show off the range of this great concert organ, I do begin and end with solo pieces.  Over this last summer, important repairs have been made to the organ, made possible by a generous donation from Mike Korte.  This means that everyone who plays the instrument will have the full resources of the instrument available for the first time in many years.  Many thanks to all of those who donate to keep the music playing, and to allow everyone at the Butler School of Music to continue mentoring the next generations of musicians.

Max Reger
Introduction and Passacaglia in d minor
Born 1873
Died 1916
Composed 1899
Duration 8 minutes

A giant of the German Romantic movement in music, Max Reger was a prolific composer in many genres.  Out of this large legacy, the organ works are the ones most frequently performed today.  The large organ works are highly virtuosic, and call for extreme changes in dynamic, all the way from pppp to ffff.  The Introduction and Passacaglia is, for Reger, a rather moderate work.  It was not published until after the composer’s death, but has proved to be one his most popular works.  The reason that this piece is being played today is that, after a short but highly dramatic Introduction, the Passacaglia begins very softly, and builds through twelve variations back to full organ and a conclusion in D major.  Various semi-pianistic techniques are called for, as well as pedal trills.  This will show the restored range of the Bates Hall organ, now that all stops are again playing.

George Akerley
A Sweet for Mother Goose
Born 1950
Composed 2002
Premiered June, 2004; Los Angeles, CA
Duration 12 minutes

George Akerley is organist/choirmaster of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Philadelphia. For eleven years he was organist for the Philadelphia Flyers Hockey team. In addition to playing the organ during the games, he composed signature themes and a variety of music for the Flyers, Philadelphia 76ers, the Phantoms, Wings and Kicks, and produced radio commercials for the teams. He has composed scores for dance, theater, independent film, production companies, and television. His music can be heard on America's Most Wanted, NBC's Dateline, and HBO Sports. Mr. Akerley teaches composition and music technology at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He and his wife Gintare, a physician, have a 6-1/2 year-old son, Christian Frederick, to whom A Sweet for Mother Goose is dedicated. This delightful work won the American Guild of Organists/Holtkamp Organ Company competition for new organ music in 2004.  The ‘Sweet’ uses music and rhythmically-based narration to express the feeling of six different Mother Goose rhymes.  The styles range from mock Gilbert & Sullivan, to romantic tone-poem, to square dance.  To quote the composer’s performance notes, “Above all, Have Fun!”.

Chris DeBlasio
God Is Our Righteousness, for guitar and organ
Born 1959
Died 1993
Composed/Premiered 1990
Duration 10 minutes

DeBlasio, a native of West Long Branch, NJ, began composing at the age of six.  He later studied theater arts at NYU, and received his Bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where his teachers included John Corigliano and Giampaolo Bracale. Chris found his home in the theater, writing several musicals as well as scores for Off-Broadway plays. His works were commissioned by such diverse sources as the New Orleans Gay Men’s Chorus, Union Theological Seminary, Central Synagogue, and Trinity Church, New York City, for whom he wrote several choral pieces. Chris wrote many individual songs composed in diverse idioms, from popular to cabaret to concert arias. In addition, DeBlasio is particularly known for his song cycles, including All the Way Through Evening ( to poems by Perry Brass), and In Endless Ascent (to poems of Elizabeth Bishop). God Is Our Righteousness was written for an Advent service of worship at Union Theological Seminary, and was premiered there by organist Harry Huff and guitarist Nicholas Goluses. This one-movement piece creates a dialogue between the organ and the  more intimate sound of the acoustic guitar. The inspiration for the piece is from a passage in Jeremiah foretelling the coming of justice and righteousness. “And this is the name by which the city will be called: ‘God is Our Righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 33:16)

David Hurd
Sonata for Saxophone and Organ, for alto saxophone and organ
Born 1950
Composed 2006
Premiered July 2006, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Duration 18 minutes

Composer David Hurd is among the best-known American musicians writing music for both organ and choirs.  After a 39-year tenure as professor of church music of the General Theological Seminary in New York, he is currently director of music at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, NYC.  He has received multiple awards and honorary doctorates for his work in church music and in composing, and is the only person ever to win both the organ playing and organ improvisation competitions of the International Congress of Organists.  About the Sonata for Saxophone and Organ, Dr. Hurd writes:
 

This three-movement work for Alto Saxophone and Organ was composed as a commission from William Powers, saxophonist, and Jonathan Hall, organist. Powers and Hall performed the Sonata’s world premiere in Ljubljana, Slovenia, during the 14th World Saxophone Congress in July 2006. The American premiere of the Sonata was performed by the Powers and Hall duo three months later at the Church of the Holy Apostles, New York City, on 4 October 2006. The Sonata is conventional in its approach to both the saxophone and the organ, and takes inspiration from sonatas for solo instruments and keyboard by Hindemith and Poulenc. Its first movement contrasts a defiant flourish figure with playful and finally more introspective themes. The second movement is marked Andante expressivo and moves in quarter-note chords throughout. The organ is solo for the first half of the movement which is then repeated as accompaniment to the saxophone’s lyric commentary. The final fugue was originally considerably shorter. However, between the Sonata’s premier in Slovenia and the first American performance, it was extended by a B section based upon the subject’s inversion, and a final A1 section in which a pedal voice is introduced playing the inverted subject in augmentation.

David Hurd
Toccata for Organ
Composed 1991
Premiered July 16, 1991, New York, NY
Duration 8 minutes

The second solo work on this program, David Hurd’s virtuosic Toccata is a brilliant, modern expression of a form which appears throughout organ literature. Again, I am please to present the composer’s own description of the composition: 

Toccata was composed in 1991 for Gerald Morton who was music director of St. Philip’s Church in New York City from 1987 until his death in December 1992. Mr. Morton, a brilliant young performer, premiered the work at New York’s Riverside Church on 16 July 1991 in what was to be his last major public recital. Toccata features a rapid pentatonic figure which is systematically repeated in different octaves and transposed to different keys to provide a backdrop for the principal theme stated on the pedals. Additional layers of accompaniment are added in the course of the piece. Overall one can recognize the elements of sonata form with clearly defined exposition, development and recapitulation sections. The well-known organ Toccatas of Charles-Marie Widor (Symphony V) and Maurice Duruflé (Suite, opus 5) provided considerable inspiration for the present piece.
 

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About the Artists

Gregory Eaton

Gregory Eaton is a conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and recorderist active in both sacred and secular music. After an early start at the keyboard, he was privileged to study for five years with Dr. Leslie Spelman in organ. Dr. Spelman was himself a pupil of Joseph Bonnet and Charles-Marie Widor in Paris. He has served as Lecturer in Organ and Harpsichord at the Butler School of Music, The University of Texas at Austin, since 2019. Mr. Eaton is the organist/choirmaster at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, in Austin, TX, where he has been since November of 2014. Gregory is on the Board of La Follia, and was president of the Board of Ensemble VIII from 2017–2024. Mr. Eaton is a member of the American Guild of Organists, and has served as Dean of both the Austin and Brooklyn Chapters of the Guild, and as District Coordinator for Central Texas. He currently adminsters the Certification programs of the AGO for the greater Austin region. Prior to Austin, Gregory was in New York from 1984 to 2014, where he served on of the music staff at Trinity Church, Wall Street; served as director of music for the Church of the Epiphany 1987-1993; served as lecturer in church music at the General Theological Seminary for 24 years; concurrently as director of music at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church for 21 years. At St. Ann’s, he founded a weekly organ concert series on the church’s historic EM Skinner organ, on which he played over 600 concerts in a 15-year span, with a repertoire of more than 650 works.
 

Donnie Ray Albert

Donnie Ray Albert is a regular guest of opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world, including numerous appearances with Opera Pacific, Houston Grand Opera, and opera houses across the U.S., Canada and Europe. He is a resident artist with the Center for Black Music Research at Chicago’s Columbia College. Mr. Albert may be heard on RCA’s Grammy Award and Grand Prix du Disque winning recording of Porgy and Bess, NOW’s recording of The Horse I Ride Has Wings with David Garvey on piano, EMI’s Frühlingsbegräbnis and Eine Florentinesche Tragodie by Zemlinsky conducted by James Conlon, and Simon Sargon’s A Clear Midnight on the Gasparo label.

David Manzanares-Salguero 

Described as “a staggeringly talented young artist with powerful rhythm and elegant phrasing” (Austin Classical Guitar), David Manzanares-Salguero is a multi-award-winning classical guitarist from Houston, TX. He has won top prizes in several competitions including the Philadelphia Guitar Competition and the Southwest Guitar Symposium. Most recently, David was a co-winner in the prestigious Yale Gordon Concerto Competition performing Tedesco’s Guitar Concerto in D Major. Some of his most recent notable performances include performing for the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Festival, Austin Classical Guitar’s play! series, and performing at the Home of the Spanish Ambassador in Washington D.C. David received his Bachelor of Music in performance at The Peabody Institute of Music of the Johns Hopkins University studying with Dr. Thomas Viloteau. He continued his studies at Peabody receiving his Master of Music in performance and pedagogy studying with Professor Manuel Barrueco. Currently, David is pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, where is the teaching assistant to professor Adam Holzman. He is partnered with Knobloch Strings and Le Support and his website is dmsguitar.com.

 Stephen Page

Described by noted American composer Libby Larsen as “fearless on stage,” saxophonist Stephen Page has garnered international prominence as one of today’s leading saxophonists. Dr. Page has  concertized across five continents and released more than twenty recordings as a soloist and chamber musician which can be heard on the Enharmonic, Parma, Mark Custom, Crystal Music, Teal Creek, and AUR Labels. Well known for his interpretations of new and emerging repertoire for the instrument, Stephen has also gained acclaim for his innovative arrangements and performances of the violin repertoire, including works by Strauss, Grieg, Franck, Prokofiev, and Bach. He continues to further the advancement of the saxophone repertoire through the commissioning of new works from composers such as Viet Cuong, JoAnne Harris, Ida Gotkovsky, David Lang, Alexandra Gardner, Gala Flagello, David Maslanka, Marc Mellits, and Martin Bresnick. He has enjoyed significant collaboration as a Musicians Advisory Board member with D’Addario, serving and has served as Yamaha Performing Artist and Clinician for nearly twenty years. Stephen Page currently serves as Associate Professor of Saxophone and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Butler School of Music within The University of Texas at Austin.
 

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Upcoming Events

Butler Opera Center Presents
CInderella 
by Jules Massenet

Massenet’s telling of the beloved fairytale has everything you’d hope for: luxurious love duets, a fairy godmother with atmospheric vocal acrobatics, a missing glass slipper, two ugly stepsisters with a mother you love to hate, and an overlooked heroine who ultimately finds true love. Even at its 1899 premiere, critics and audience members alike adored the opera’s snappy wit, compelling music, and its unavoidable charm (princes included) . . .

Friday, October 17 & 24, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 19 & 26, 4:00 p.m.
McCullough Theatre

Tickets

Anton Nel, piano
Monday, September 29, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall 

Schubertiade with Anton Nel & Friends
Monday, November 3, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall 

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