MONROE — The theme or the April program of Midday Masterworks, a quarterly organ mini-recital series presented by organist Deborah Krauss Smith at two Monroe churches, “In Honor and Remembrance.”

The free, half-hour program scheduled for Wednesday, April 26 at 12:15 p.m. at the United Methodist Church of Monroe, and repeated at 5:15 p.m. at St. Victor Catholic Church (St. Clare of Assisi Parish), will include settings of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”; “America, the Beautiful”; “Melita” (the Navy Hymn), and others.

This program is particularly special in that it is in  memory of the organist’s foster cousin, S2C David Joseph Riley, a victim of Pearl Harbor and Green County’s first casualty of WWII. S2C Riley’s remains, which were identified Feb. 24, 2021, will be returning to Green County to be reinterred in Juda with his foster parents, Elmer and Della (Matzke) Asmus, on May 27 following a special program at Juda High School.

Midday Masterworks began in 2002 as a quarterly Wednesday noon-hour organ mini-recital series intended to showcase the new 3-manual 39-rank Berghaus pipe organ of the United Methodist Church of Monroe. In 2008, a repeat of the program later in the day was added at St. Victor Catholic Church to feature the new 2006 Matthew Ronald Buholzer Memorial Pipe Organ, a unique hybrid combination of a 1968 Möller pipe organ and a three-manual Rodgers digital organ.

All of the mini-recitals are on the 4th Wednesday of the months of January, April, July, and October. They are free and open to the public. Both churches are handicapped-accessible and have ample parking available. More information is available at http://coldspringsroad.com/MiddayMasterworks.html.