On the Arents Memorial Organ:

Music for the Royal Fireworks (1748)
Overture


Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 760


Sonata in C Minor, Op. 65, No. 2
Grave–Adagio
Allegro maestoso e vivace
Fuga: Allegro moderato

Ave Maria von Arcadelt, S. 659


Organ Symphony No. 2 (1991; dedicated to Stephen Tharp) Adagio


Pièces de Fantaisie, Deuxième Suite, Op. 53
Toccata

Georg Frideric Handel
(1685-1759)
trans. Stephen Tharp

Georg Böhm
(1661-1733)

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
(1809-1847)



Franz Liszt
(1811-1886)

Anthony Newman
(b.1941)

Louis Vierne
(1870-1937)

STEPHEN THARP, hailed as “the organist for the connoisseur” (Organ magazine, Germany), “the thinking person’s performer” (Het Orgel), “every bit the equal of any organist” (The American Organist magazine) and “the consummate creative artist” (Michael Barone, Pipedreams), is recognized as one of the great concert organists of our age. Having played 30 solo intercontinental tours and more than 800 North American concerts, Stephen Tharp has built one of the most critically-acclaimed and well-respected international careers in the world, earning him the reputation as the most traveled concert organist if his generation. He is the newly-appointed Artist-in-Residence at Grace Church (Episcopal), New York, working with Organist and Master of Choristers Patrick Allen within an extensive music program involving numerous choirs and several well-established concert series. His exhaustive list of performances throughout the world since 1987 includes distinguished venues throughout North and South America, Europe (including Russia), Asia, Australia and Iceland. As a restrospective, NPR’s Pipedreams broadcast in November 2005 an entire programme dedicated exclusively to his career. Stephen Tharp remains an important champion of new music. He has commissioned organ works from Samuel Adler, David Briggs, Thierry Escaich, Eugenio Fagiani, Jean Guillou, Philip Moore, Anthony Newman, Morgan Simmons and Martha Sullivan. Himself a composer, Tharp was commissioned by Cologne Cathedral, Germany to compose for Easter Sunday, 2006 his Easter Fanfares for the inauguration of the organ’s new en chamade Tubas stops. His 12 solo organ recordings can be found on the JAV, Naxos, Organum and Ethereal labels, and are available from the Organ Historical Society and JAV Recordings. Stephen Tharp is included in the 2008 edition of Who’s Who in America.