Feb. 26, 2003 – New York organist Kent Tritle, who played to a full church when he visited St. Thomas last year, will be returning in the first week of March and bringing a friend.
The St. Thomas Reformed Church will host Tritle in an organ recital on March 6 and cellist Arthur Fiacco in recital accompanied by Tritle on March 8. Both programs begin at 8 p.m. Admission is free, but a freewill offering will be taken.
Organist Kent Tritle
Tritle is one of the leading organists and choral conductors in New York City today. Since 1989 he has been director of music ministries at St. Ignatius Loyola Church. Under his direction the church's music program has grown dramatically, both liturgically and in hosting the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series that he founded. The broad liturgical music program explores the musical traditions of the Roman Catholic heritage, from the Gregorian chant, choral and organ music of the solemn mass to the best of contemporary idioms.
In 1991-93 Tritle was artistic consultant on the design and installation of the church's renowned four-manual, 68-stop mechanical action pipe organ by N.P. Mander. In March 1990 he began the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series of choral/orchestral concerts and organ music. Tritle also is music director of The Dessoff Choirs, winners of the ASCAP/Chorus America award for adventurous programming of contemporary music. In his six years with Dessoff, the choir has sung with the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and American Symphony Orchestra, as well as regularly with Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival.
And he is organist of both the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra. With the Philharmonic he has recorded Brahms's "Ein Deutsches Requiem" and Britten's "War Requiem" conducted by Kurt Masur and, most recently, the Grammy-nominated "Sweeney Todd" conducted by Andrew Litton.
Tritle holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School in organ performance and choral conducting and has been on the Juilliard faculty since 1996.
As an organ recitalist, he has performed widely in the United States and Europe. Next fall, he will return for performances as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
He has been profiled in The New York Times and was the subject of a full program on Minnesota Public Radio's "Pipe Dreams," broadcast nationally. Audiophile Audition called his "Romantic Organ" album on the Epiphany label the "best recording of the year" in 1996.
For his St. Thomas recital, he will perform major works of Bach, Cesar Franck, Francois Couperin and American composer Daniel Pinkham. A particular treat for the audience will be his performance of the "Fantasie and Fugue on B-A-C-H" by the legendary 19th century virtuoso Franz Liszt. The work is a monumental tour de force calling for the resources of a big instrument and a performer with big technique.
Cellist Arthur Fiacco
Fiacco has appeared as soloist with the Mark Morris Dance Company, the performance artist Meredith Monk, and Broadway's Patti LuPone at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. He performed the world premiere of Paul Moravec's Pulitzer-nominated cello concerto "Montserrat" as part of the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series. For several seasons he has been a featured chamber soloist at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival.
The New York Times hailed as "definitive" his recording of Mozart's Haffner Symphony in Hummel’s chamber transcription on the Boston Skyline label. His most recent recording, Couperin's "Les Nations" with the Hanoverian Ensemble, is to be released this month.
Fiacco is an active participant in the Lincoln Center, Ravinia, Caramoor, Wolf Trap and Music Mountain Festivals. On baroque cello he has performed with the Boston and Connecticut Early Music Festivals and with the Helicon Foundation. He performs regularly with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and is a featured soloist with the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola on its recording of the Duruflé Requiem.
His St. Thomas program will feature two excerpts from the cello suites of J.S. Bach and a transcription of a slow movement from the fifth organ symphony of Charles Marie Widor. He also will perform works by Benedetto Marcello, Antonio Vivaldi, Johannes Brahms and Tchaikovsky.
Fiacco also will play for the 7 p.m. Ash Wednesday service at the church on March 5.

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