The Tacoma Bach Festival presents its 2023 Festival from July 28th to 30th. This year’s opening concert, The Chorale Through the Ages, features AGO member Wyatt Smith at Christ Episcopal Church in Tacoma on July 28th in a program that features music by Bach, Langlois, Mendelssohn, Portman and Rakich.

On July 29th, mezzo-soprano Erin Calata and flutist Tracy Doyle team up for a program at Kilworth Chapel at the University of Puget Sound featuring Bach’s rarely heard Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170, and a newly discovered work by Anna Bon di Venezia.

July 30th marks the festival finale with a gala concert at Kilworth Chapel featuring the TBF Orchestra and Chorus in a program that features Bach Cantatas 61, 150, Caroline Shaw’s To The Hands, and Marques Garrett’s My Heart Be Brave. All concerts are at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available at https://www.tacomabachfestival.org/concerts-1 or at the door.

For more information visit https://www.tacomabachfestival.org/.

Nathan Laube, Associate Professor of Organ at Eastman School of Music and International Consultant in Organ Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, will be performing an all-Bach recital at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle on May 5th at 7:30 pm. Michael Kleinschmidt, St. Mark’s Organist and Canon for Cathedral Music, has graciously offered to extend the senior/student $20 ticket price to all TAGO members. Regular admission is $25.

Please use the sign up sheet below and your name will be added to a list in order to receive the discounted ticket price at the door. Deadline for sign-up is midnight May 4th.

This offer is only for voting members of the Tacoma AGO chapter.

The Olympia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists cordially invites you to join us for an organ crawl to Steamboat Island Road and Shelton to hear four interesting, and in their own way, historic organs on Saturday, 10 June.

We will begin at 10:00 at St. Christopher’s church, a paired Lutheran and Episcopal parish to hear their 1891 Pilcher which, it is said, began life at St. John’s Episcopal church in Olympia. We will then hear Paul Fritts’ Opus One which was built as Fritts Richards at Shelton United Methodist at 11:00. At noon, St. David Episcopal in Shelton will host us for lunch and then we will hear, there, Paul’s Opus 2a, also a Fritts Richards. We will conclude the day at Faith Lutheran in Shelton to hear a 1907 Pilcher moved by Randall McCarthy and friends. Questions? Addresses? Call Dennis Northway at 564 999 8333. See you there!

On March 20, members and friends of the Tacoma AGO chapter gathered to enjoy an evening of music by Johann Sebastian Bach on the Fritts organ at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. Performers included Cheryl Drewes (Dean), Emma Kelly, Sheila Bristow (Past Dean), Michael Plagerman, and Dr. Wyatt Smith (Sub Dean). The program centered on recreating Felix Mendelssohn’s all-Bach recital at the Thomaskirche, Leipzig in 1840.

Members were also treated to a lovely reception following the recital (thank you Sandy, Dick, and Jan), along with a CD giveaway (thank you Michael) much . Many treasures were uncovered from those boxes!

Finally, many thanks to St. Andrew’s, Naomi Shiga, and Jonathan Wohlers for being such gracious hosts for this event.