Fall Friends Organ Concert: Christopher White

Sunday, October 21   •   3:00 p.m. 

Join the Friends on October 21 for a Fall Organ concert featuring Christopher White, Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and concert organist.

Chris received his Ph.D. from Yale and has also attended Queens College–CUNY and the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. His articles have appeared in Music Perception and in Mathematics and Computation in Music and he has presented papers at national meetings of the Society for Music Theory as well as several regional conferences. His research investigates algorithmic and linguistic theories of music by presenting computational models of musical style, function, meter, and communication.  Chris’ research has also focused on geometrically modeling early 20th-century music, especially the music of Alexander Scriabin and Alban Berg.

Chris remains an avid organist, having studied with Haskell Thompson and James David Christie. As a member of the Three Penny Chorus and Orchestra, he has appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” and as a quarterfinalist on “America’s Got Talent.”

Program:

• J.S. Bach Toccata in d, BWV 565
• Franz Schubert, Lied Du bist die Ruh’ (arr. Chr. White )
• Girolamo Frescobaldi Toccata, from Fiori Musicali
• Nicolas de Grigny Livre d’Orgue (1699)
• Dieterich Buxtehude PrКludium in C
• Edward Elgar;  Nimrod, from the “Enigma” Variations (transcr. Chr. White)
• “Down to the River to Pray” (Underground Railroad Hymn)
• Improvisation on a theme by William Billings