Simsbury United Methodist Church
Carillon Recital
7 PM Sunday July 19, 2009
George Matthew Jr., guest carillonneur
I. Sonata II for Organ Domenico Zipoli 1.
Preludio – Corrente – Sarabande – Giga (1688 – 1726)
II. Sonatine opus 3 #1 for Piano Gerrit-Jan van Eijken 2.
Allegro – Andante (Theme & Variations) – (1832 – 1879)
Allegretto
III. Allegro from Sonata for Harp Alan Hovhaness 3.
(1911 – 2000)
IV. Jubilate Deo Sister Joyce Evans
V. Fantasy of the Scottish Isles Clifford Ball
(1899 – 1986)
VI. Liebeslied Edward B. Manning 3.
(1874 – 1948)
VII. Pork and Beans Rag Lucky Roberts 3.
(1867 – 1968)
VIII. St. Louis Rag Tom Turpin 3.
(1873 – 1922)
Transcriptions: 1. Albert Gerken 2. Jacques Maassen 3. George Matthew Jr.
George Matthew, Jr. has been carillonneur of Middlebury College and Norwich University in Vermont since 1986. A church organist since the age of 13, he is currently Minister of Music at First United Methodist Church, Burlington, Vermont. He is also Associate Organist of Our Lady of Seven Dolors Church in Fairhaven, Vermont.
Until his retirement in 1998, Mr. Matthew was also carillonneur of the First Presbyterian Church, organist and choirmaster of St. Andrew's Church, and associate organist of St. Mauricius Church, all in Stamford, CT. For 18 years, he served as organist and choirmaster of Temple Sinai and for 23 years as Director of Instrumental Music at Rogers School, both in Stamford.
Mr. Matthew has made 30 carillon concert tours of the USA and 12 of Europe, performing in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Russia. In August 2005, he played two carillon concerts on the new carillon of St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Mr. Matthew is the first American to play carillon in Russia.
He has played organ recitals in the New York and New England area, as well as in Germany and the Netherlands. In recent years, he has made a study of Russian organ music and has played a number of recitals of entirely Russian music on the organ. In July of 2007 he played the 7th such program for the
Summer Russian School of Middlebury College. In June 2004, he was named Artist of the Year by the Vermont Chapter American Guild of Organists.
He has composed and arranged about 100 pieces for carillon, including a number of ragtime piano works; his rather unusual European debut was an all-ragtime program in Ostende, Belgium.
A Carillonneur member of the Guild since 1980, Mr. Matthew has served on the Carillon Directory Committee, the Student Advancement Committee, and the Bellfounding in America Committee (of which he was chairman). He made the US presentation in Zutphen, Netherlands in 1990 at the World Carillon Federation.
He has studied carillon with Arthur Bigelow and Frank Law, organ with Hugh Ross and Ernest White, and composition with David Barnett. He is a graduate of Columbia, Bridgeport, and Wesleyan Universities.