BEST OF BACH WITH ORGANIST RENÉE ANNE LOUPRETTE
Thursday, June 6, 2024 | noon
First United Methodist Church
Visser-Rowland Pipe Organ
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in G, BWV 541
Transcriptions from the Cantatas
Sonatina, from ‘Actus Tragicus’: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit
(“God’s time is always best”), BWV 106
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (“Sleepers awake, a voice is calling”),
from Cantata 140
Schafe können sicher weiden (“Sheep may safely graze”), from Cantata 208
Fugue in G minor (“Little”), BWV 578
Transcriptions from the Cantatas
Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter (“Come Now, Jesus, from heaven to earth”), from Cantata 137
Jesu bleibet meine Freude (“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”), from Cantata 147
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Audio or video recording of this recital, using any device, without prior written consent is strictly prohibited.
Sponsors
Laurie & Bob Glenn
This concert is generously supported by our concert sponsors and by donors to the Victoria Bach Festival’s Annual Fund. Many thanks to our generous supporters!
About the Artist
“She presented herself as a communicative player with no shortage of imaginative ideas, with fingers fully capable of backing them up, and with feet which are not just nimble on the pedals, but every bit as expressively articulate as her fingers.” (Michael Dervan, The Irish Times)
Hailed by The New York Times as “splendid,” and “one of New York’s finest organists,” Renée Anne Louprette maintains an international career as organ recitalist, collaborative artist, conductor, and teacher, and is director of the National Competition in Organ Improvisation. She is a U.S.-Romanian Fulbright Scholar who spent the Fall 2022 season in Brașov, Transylvania, completing research on historic Romanian pipe organs. She is Assistant Professor of Music and College Organist at Bard College where she directs the Bard Baroque Ensemble and leads an annual Bach cantata series. She has directed the organ program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2013 and is a former faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, and the John J. Cali School of Music of Montclair State University.
Ms. Louprette has performed solo organ recitals at Royal Festival Hall in London, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, and at festivals in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Denmark, Sweden, Romania, and the United Kingdom. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Australia, the Auburn Symphony Orchestra in Seattle, and The Orchestra Now in New York. Additional collaborations have included the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Piffaro, American Brass Quintet, Los Angeles Dance Project, American saxophonist Paul Cohen, Romanian saxophonist Zoltán Réman, and traditional Irish musician Ivan Goff. She has released solo recordings of the music of J. S. Bach and 20th-century French organ masterworks to critical acclaim. Her current recording of Bach’s Clavier-Übung III performed on the Craighead-Saunders organ of Christ Church, Rochester, New York, is scheduled for release in 2023.
Renée Anne Louprette holds a Master of Music degree in conducting from Bard College Conservatory, a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in piano performance and Graduate Professional Diploma in organ performance from The Hartt School, University of Hartford. She was awarded a Premier Prix – mention très bien – from the Conservatoire National de Région de Toulouse, France and a Diplôme Supérieur in organ performance from the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse, where she studied with Michel Bouvard, Jan Willem Jansen (interpretation) and Philippe Lefebvre (improvisation).
Renée Anne Louprette is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.
About the Speaker
George B. Stauffer is distinguished professor of musicology at Rutgers University, and former dean of the Mason Gross School of the Arts. He is known internationally as a scholar, performer, and writer on the music and culture of the Baroque Era and the life and works of J.S. Bach in particular. Educated at Dartmouth College, Bryn Mawr College, and Columbia University, he has published several widely cited and authoritative books. He has also contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Collier’s Encyclopedia, Early Music, Bach-Jahrbuch, and many other American, European, and Asian publications. As a speaker, he as lectured at Harvard University, Yale University, University of Leipzig, National Sun Yat-sen University, and many other schools. As a performer, Stauffer studied organ with John Weaver and Vernon de Tar (Juilliard School). He served as university organist and chapel music director at Columbia University, where he appeared frequently in concert.
