The Lake Arts Council will present the Lake Community Organ and Piano Concert at Harper Chapel United Methodist Church in Osage Beach on Sunday, June 28 at 3 p.m. Organ concert history The next concert, also, was in conjunction with the American Guild of Organists. This one was to celebrate the year 2000, and was called “Pipes Spectacular.” On October 15, 2000, our presentation was one of more than 200 concerts across the United States and Canada. The Lake Concert took place at Harper Chapel United Methodist Church in Osage Beach with seven organists, two piano/organ duets and a special arrangement of Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” with the Lake Strings and the organ playing together. On March 3, 2002 the Harper Chapel United Methodist Church hosted another concert. Again, there was a variety of piano as well as organ selections presented. There were eight organists and two pianists who presented a lively program ending with a spectacular organ duet of John Phillip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Two concerts took place at the Community Christian Church in Camdenton on April 18, 2004 and April 10, 2005. These programs had several organists and pianists participating . As a special treat, there were prizewinning piano students who performed brilliantly. The varied program consisted of organ solos, piano solos, piano duets, organ/piano duets, ragtime piano, ragtime organ and an organ/piano duet played by a single musician. On April 23, 2006 the concert was again at Harper Chapel. This program had a great deal of variety with fourteen musicians participating. A special highlight acknowledging Mozart’s Anniversary was presented with a Piano solo by a youth who was the same age as Mozart when he composed the work, and a humorous presentation of another of the composer’s works as a Piano Duet. Another concert at Harper Chapel took place on October 7, 2007. In this one, we expanded the concept and used several other instruments with either the organ or the piano. Again, we had fourteen musicians participating and other instruments that were used were banjo, violin and voice. Because of the many request, the Lake Arts Council is presenting today’s program. All of the participating musicians are giving their time and talent for the benefit of the Lake Arts Council and our enjoyment.
On April 14, 1996, Dorothy Kerr of the Lake Arts Council organized the first all-community Organ Concert. This was co-sponsored with the American Guild of Organists to celebrate the AGO Centennial. Our concert was a part of what was called the “World’s Largest Organ Recital” with over 150 concerts presented in the United States and Canada. All of them began at the same hour, depending on the time zone of the location. Our concert took place at 5:00 P.M. at the Camdenton United Methodist Church. Every recital in the country began with Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor.”
