Public is Invited to “Discover” the Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ on Its 25th Year

Clayton State University’s Spivey Hall is inviting the public to take part in special events celebrating 25 years of its magnificent Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ. On Organ Discovery Day (Saturday, September 10), guests can see up-close the magnificent 4,413-pipe organ, custom-built in Italy by internationally renowned organ designers Fratelli Ruffatti. Later in September, Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan spotlights his “impeccable musicality” (La Figaro) with Spivey’s other famous keyboard – the Hamburg Steinway piano that is affectionately referred to as “Clara.”

“Organ Discovery Day is a fun, no-risk opportunity for people to learn all about our amazing pipe organ,” said Samuel C. Dixon, Spivey Hall’s executive and artistic director. “In addition to our entertaining new organ video, we’ll have three experts on hand to answer everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the organ, but may have been afraid to ask.”

Dixon added, “I am also proud to welcome Inon Barnatan to open our 2016-2017 concert season. I had the great pleasure of hearing him perform much of his Spivey Hall recital debut program in Santa Fe this summer, and am confident he will make magic with ‘Clara’ in the superb acoustics of our hall.”

Spivey Hall’s Organ Discovery Day will be hosted by internationally renowned concert organist Alan Morrison. Appointed Spivey Hall organist-in-residence in 2015, Morrison holds The McGehee Family Organist Residency, created to coincide with Spivey Hall’s celebrations of the Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ’s first 25 years. An Atlanta native, he is a graduate of both The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, and holds prestigious teaching positions at Curtis as well as Westminster Choir College of Ryder University and Ursinus College.

Joining Morrison will be Spivey’s organ curator, Tommy McCook of Widener and Company, and Integrated Organ Technologies, Inc. founder and president Dr. Dwight Jones. All three are featured in Spivey Hall Education’s new video, The King of Instruments: History, Science and Music of the Pipe Organ, written and directed by Marshall Peterson. The three-part award-winning video, created with generous support from the Chaparral Foundation and the Spivey Hall Friends, provides an informative, engaging and entertaining overview of the organ, and will be formally launched for online distance-education use in school classrooms in this special organ anniversary season. In addition to the video screening, this family-friendly event includes performances by Morrison, audience Q&A with the experts, the chance to come on stage to see the organ console up-close and complimentary refreshments in the lobby. Organ Discovery Day concludes with a screening of Architects of Sound, a 30-minute documentary produced by Melissa Hampton, first aired by Georgia Public Television in 1993, that chronicles the creation of the custom-made Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ by Fratelli Ruffatti in Italy, the shipment of its thousands of pipes and parts across the Atlantic, and its installation at Spivey Hall.

Admission to Organ Discovery Day is free but tickets are required, and are available by calling the Spivey Hall Box Office at (678) 466-4200.

Pianist Inon Barnatan launches Spivey’s 26th Season Series on September 25 with the first concert in the Piano Series. Alan Gilbert, music director of the New York Philharmonic, where Barnatan was appointed as First Artist in 2014, describes him as “a complete artist: a wonderful pianist, a probing intellect, passionately committed, and a capable contemporary-music pianist as well.” The recital program includes J.S. Bach/Johannes Brahms (Chaconne in D minor); Franz Schubert (Sonata in G major, D. 894); György Ligeti (Musica Ricercata); and Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Handel, Op.24.

Program and Audio Web Notes providing detailed background and synopsis information, will be available prior to the concert at www.spivey.org. Audio Web notes are online program notes enriched by short music samples that give patrons the chance to hear what the program notes are talking about.

A Season Opening Celebration reception for the entire audience in honor of Barnatan, hosted by the Spivey Hall Friends, will cap off the afternoon. Barnatan will also be available for post-concert CD signing in the Spivey Hall lobby.

Tickets for all of Spivey Hall’s Season 26 concerts are available online and by calling the Spivey Hall Box Office.

About Spivey Hall

Now celebrating its 26th season, Spivey Hall is the South’s most acoustically superior recital hall, presenting the best in classical, jazz and world music. Located on the picturesque campus of Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, just fifteen miles southeast of Atlanta, the hall has been praised by artists, patrons and journalists alike.

This season, Spivey Hall celebrates the 25th anniversary of its magnificent 4,413-pipe Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ, custom-built in Italy by Fratelli Ruffatti, with special events and concerts.

An intimate venue with just 392 seats, Spivey Hall promotes for the concert-goer a personal connection with the artist both during and after the performance.  Spivey’s extraordinary acoustics and reputation for distinguished programming attract outstanding international musicians who regularly perform at the nation’s major concert venues such as Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. For more information, visit www.spiveyhall.org.

Clayton State University’s Spivey Hall gratefully acknowledges the support of the Walter and Emilie Spivey Foundation and the Spivey Hall Friends.

Spivey Hall’s Season 26 is supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. GCA also receives support from its partner agency – the National Endowment for the Arts.

About Clayton State University

A unit of the University System of Georgia, Clayton State University is an outstanding comprehensive metropolitan university located 15 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta. For more information, visit www.clayton.edu.