Arts & Culture

Owolabi to present recital on SU’s historic Holtkamp organ Sept. 7 and 8

Monday, August 23, 2010, By Erica Blust

Kola Owolabi, Syracuse University organist and assistant professor in the Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA), will present an organ recital Tuesday, Sept. 7, and Wednesday, Sept. 8, on the historic Holtkamp organ in the Rose and Jules R. Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College. Both concerts will be held at 8 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Free parking is available in the Irving Garage.

The program for both evenings will include Calvin Hampton’s “Prelude and Variations on Old Hundredth,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Trio on ‘Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr,'” Petr Eben’s “Landscapes of Patmos” and Georges Bizet’s “Fantasia on Carmen.” Eben’s piece will feature percussionist Joshua Dekaney, also a faculty member in the Setnor School.

A native of Toronto, Owolabi has held positions as assistant organist at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto and at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montreal. He is a published composer and has received commissions from the Royal Canadian College of Organists and the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. In 2002, he was awarded second prize and the audience prize at the American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance.

As a recitalist, he has performed across Canada and the United States, appearing most recently at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City, Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Massachusetts, Spelman College in Atlanta, and Cornell University. He is also the sub-dean for the Syracuse chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Setnor Auditorium’s organ was rebuilt in 1950 by Walter Holtkamp and consists of 3,823 pipes, many of which are from the original organ built by Frank Roosevelt in 1889 and rebuilt by the Estey Organ Company in 1924. The organ was awarded a Historic Organ Citation by the Organ Historical Society in 1989.

For more information, contact Owolabi at (315) 443-5043.