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Andrew Kotylo: Home

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CONCERT ORGANIST

 

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I experienced a singular joy this past May when I received an invitation from my good friend, Tom Trenney, to perform at First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he had recently been appointed Director of Music Ministries. Tom is one of the phenomenal musical talents of our generation, and whatever medium he touches--be it organ literature or improvisation, choral conducting, singing--turns to gold. Any opportunity to collaborate over the seventeen years that I have known him has never failed to be a profound musical experience, for Tom has the ability to truly communicate through his art like few others. And so when he proposed the idea of joining forces for a performance of Zoltan Kodaly's brilliant cantata Laudes Organi--he conducting his excellent choir at First-Plymouth and I accompanying--it was a decided "no-brainer" as far as I was concerned.

The opportunity to play the fabulous 1997 Schoenstein organ at First-Plymouth Church only made this concert even more of a thrill. With its incredible riches of orchestrally inspired tone colors available in endless combinations and its amazing expressive capability via double and triple swell enclosures, the Schoenstein is the proverbial "candy store" for kids like me who value timbral variety and expressivity as important elements of making music on the organ. Please go to the MUSIC page if you'd like to hear what I mean. While this instrument certainly is an exciting vehicle for much of the solo organ repertoire, the clips I've posted from this performance show it flaunting its "fun" side to great effect.