×
X logo

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox.

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

You may opt-out anytime by clicking "unsubscribe" from the newsletter or from your account.

Fall Concert of Ageless Wedding and Worship Music for Voice and Organ Slated for Oct. 20

Organist Wayne Ernest will present an organ concert and be joined by soprano Linda Cowan on Oct. 20 at West Liberty University. (Photo Provided)

WEST LIBERTY — West Liberty University’s music department invites the public to enjoy an organ concert at 3 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Interfaith Chapel.

Organist Wayne Earnest and soprano Linda Cowan will present a family-friendly fall concert of music especially appropriate for weddings and worship services.

Vocal selections will include such classics Ave Maria and The Lord’s Prayer. Organ music will demonstrate the numerous sounds of the large pipe organ in the chapel.

Cowan is the chair of the WLU Department of Music and Theater and teaches voice. Earnest, who also is an alumnus, is an adjunct instructor in Organ Studies and Church Music.

There also will be a brief audio-visual presentation on the history and mechanics of the pipe organ.

“Around the year 250 B.C. the pipe organ was invented by the Greek physicist and mathematician, Ctesibius. For centuries, the pipe organ was the most complicated “machine” on earth. In ancient days, it was used to evoke emotions from spectators at the arena during gladiator fights – because it could be heard above the noise of the crowds,” said Earnest who is a resident of Washington, Pa.

“Today, a more-civilized use remains when one hears an organ in an arena at baseball games,” he noted.

“As the great cathedrals and basilicas were built during the Middle Ages, the pipe organ shed its secular associations and became the instrument of choice because it could fill those cavernous spaces with sound.”

“Musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) called the pipe organ The King of Instruments – a fitting title for an instrument to make music for the “King of Kings,” he said.

Admission is free and a reception will follow the concert.

The Interfaith Chapel has been the site of countless alumni marriages, funerals and other ceremonies over the years. It includes a 175-seat worship center, six offices and an upper room for social gatherings and opened in 1967.

West Liberty University offers private lessons in organ, for details please contact Cowan or Earnest at lcowan@westliberty.edu or wayne.earnest@westliberty.edu. Or you may call Earnest at 724.206.8854.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today