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Music at St. Dunstan’s
Organ Concert Series 2024
“Mixolydiance” with Margaret Martin Kvamme
Pipe organ music by women composers
Sunday, June 2, 2024
Organist Margaret Martin Kvamme will perform a program of eight works by
women composers – two contemporary musicians with Bay Area and Central Coast connections and one who was court musician to Louis XIV
Patrons are invited to a pre-performance reception at the church at 3 pm to enjoy refreshments and hear from Kvamme about the extraordinary composers featured in this concert.
“’Mixolydiance’ is the title of a jaunty piece written by the
youngest member among the eight female composers offered here,
British organist Ghislaine Reece-Trapp, who co-chairs the Society
for Women Organists,” Kvamme says. “The program includes music from the 17th century by a woman who was court musician to Louis XIV, Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre.
The U.S. is well represented on this recital as well, by Florence Price (the first African American woman to be performed by major symphony orchestras), Stanford-educated Pamela Decker who teaches organ and music theory at the University of Arizona and contemporary Santa Barbara area composer Emma Lou Diemer, who recently celebrated her 96th birthday. Several of the pieces are based on well-known hymn tunes, and the range of moods and colors will be varied and refreshing.”
Described by The American Record Guide as "intelligent and especially sensitive to the lyrical qualities of the music," Canadian-born organist Margaret Martin Kvamme has performed throughout California,
Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and New York, and in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec. Kvamme was featured in multiple seasons as solo artist with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival and has been heard on the nationally syndicated radio program, Pipedreams.
Kvamme won the 1993 Naples (Florida) International Organ Festival Competition. She has directed college, high school, church and community choruses and has taught college courses in music theory and conducting, including four years on the faculty at UC Santa Cruz. Currently, Kvamme is active as a freelance organist and private teacher.
Her debut solo organ album, Sevenfold Gifts, was recorded in 2006 at Holy
Cross Church in Santa Cruz and is available on iTunes and at albanyrecords.com. She is represented by Concert Artist Cooperative.
Kvamme will be performing on St. Dunstan’s Op. 94 organ, with more than 1,000 pipes. Visually and aurally beautiful, Op. 94 was honored in the 2016 International Awards Program for Religious Art & Architecture.
Tickets are available at the door the day of the concert: $25, students and under 18 free.
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