‘Live music: Paris for Christmas’

    

Among the yuletide highlights in New York City is the anticipated concert organized by Bro. Erik Carlson, musical director of my lodge, Publicity 1000. This time, the free festivities will be “Paris for Christmas.” From the publicity:

Thursday, December 19 at 7 p.m.

Church of St. Thomas More

65 East 89th Street

Free admission; reception to follow

This Year, Let’s All Go

to Paris for Christmas!

🎄 Christmas Oratorio by Camille Saint-Saens

🎄 Four Christmas Motets by Francis Poulene

🎄 French Organ Music by Alexandre Guilmant and Octave Parisot

🎄 Featuring the St. Thomas More Concert Choir under the direction of Erik E. Carlson with the St. Thomas More Christmas Orchestra of strings, harp, and organ.

Don’t miss it!

Erik E. Carlson will conduct the orchestra as well as play organ and direct the choir. Erik studied piano from an early age that lead to his formal conservatory training where he graduated from the Hartt School of Music with degrees in both keyboard performance and music theory. He has been a professional church musician in New York City for the last twenty years, specializing in sacramental service playing.

Pursuing his interest in the nineteenth century organ music of France, Erik has played throughout the Saône-et-Loire department of Burgundy, including at the parish churches of Paroisse Saint-Louis, Saint-Gengoux-le-National, Saint-Georges, Sercy, and Église Saint-Didier, Joncy.

At St. Thomas More, he continues this level of French organ music and enjoys the Lively-Fulcher organ for its unique sounds and colors.

Talk about publicity, here Bro. Erik shows off the concert announcement on the wall above the Bowery Mural. 

He is an active member of the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Anglican Musicians, and the National Arts Club.

Outside of church music, Erik enjoys time with his family, including his dearly loved beagle, Brogan.

     

‘Mozart and More on Sunday’

    

Bro. Erik, Organist of my lodge and others, invites us to a free concert Sunday. From the publicity:

Bro. Erik Carlson will perform a free concert, “Mozart and MORE,” at the Church of Saint Thomas More in New York City Sunday, April 21 at four o’clock.

Included on the program will be Mozart’s Missa Brevis in G Major for choir and strings alongside works by Haydn, and others. A reception will follow.

Bro. Carlson is the Director of Music and the Organist at St. Thomas More. The church is located at 65 East 89th Street, between Madison and Park avenues.

     

‘Five not so easy Bach pieces’

     

Bro. Erik Carlson of Publicity Lodge No. 1000 in New York City performs Léon Boëllmann's Suite Gothique at Vincent United Methodist Church in Nutley, New Jersey this afternoon.

Just a quick recap of Bro. Erik Carlson’s organ recital this afternoon in Nutley, New Jersey: Well, I loved it.

Several dozen gathered at Vincent United Methodist Church to enjoy Erik’s mastery of the pipe organ. The pipes are concealed, so I don’t know how many the organ has, but the sound flooded the small, but acoustically marvelous, space. The program offered five Johann Sebastian Bach pieces, and one each from Johann Pachelbel (yes, there is more to Pachelbel than his Canon) and Léon Boëllmann.

Bach – Prelude in G Major (BMV 568)

Bach – Concerto in G Major (BMV 980)
Allegro
Largo e cantabile
Allegro

Bach – Prelude and Fugue in E Minor (BMV 555)

Bach – If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee (BMV 642)

Bach – Pastorale in F Major (BMV 590)
Alla Siciliana
Allemande
Aria
Alla Gigue

Pachelbel – Theme with Eight Variations on O Sacred Head Now Wounded

Boëllmann – Suite Gothique (Opus 25)
Introduction – Choral
Menuet Gothique
Prière à Notre-Dame
Toccata

And Bro. Erik closed the performance with an incredibly rousing Lutheran hymn titled “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

I am unfamiliar with all of these pieces of music, so this was a revelation to me. I probably have heard the Bach compositions before, likely during WKCR’s annual Bachfest during the last ten days of the year, but I can’t say I know them. The Pachelbel piece either. And I’ve never even heard of Boëllmann, much less his Gothic Suite.

Vincent United Methodist Church is undertaking a fundraiser to make much needed repairs to its organ. Feel free to contact Becky Olivo here to help out.
     

‘That elevated science’

     

Magpie file photo

Bro. Erik Carlson at St. John’s Lodge No. 1 AYM, October 2012.

A Brother Freemason, from my own lodge actually—Publicity 1000 in the Fourth Manhattan—will perform an organ recital later this month at a church in Nutley, New Jersey. From the publicity:

Erik Carlson Organ Recital

Sunday, September 13 at 5 p.m.

Vincent United Methodist Church

100 Vincent Place

Nutley, New Jersey

Repertoire of Johann Sebastian Bach,

Léon Boëllmann,

and Johann Pachelbel

Erik Carlson graduated magna cum laude from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, where he completed dual degrees in keyboard performance and music theory. Carlson is a former adult chorister in the Schola Cantorum of Saint Bartholomew’s Church in New York City. He has accompanied choral Evensong at the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Chagford, Devon, UK.

He has conducted at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City and at the College of Preachers in Washington, DC. Most recently, Carlson had the opportunity to play the 1895 organ at L’église Notre-Dame de Dijon, France where Léon Boëllmann’s “Gothic Suite” premiered in 1895.

Carlson today is music director and organist at Saint Philip’s Episcopal Church, New York City. He grew up in Nutley and graduated from Nutley High School.


I have had the pleasure of enjoying Bro. Erik’s music at Masonic Hall, where he serves as sit-in organist occasionally, and I’m looking forward to hearing him perform here.