MONROE — Midday Masterworks, a quarterly organ mini-recital series, will present a program titled “2020 Vision for a New Year” from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22 at the United Methodist Church, 2227 4th Street, Monroe. The program will be repeated the same day from 5:15 to 5:45 p.m. at St. Victor Catholic Church (St. Clare of Assisi Parish), 1760 14th Street, Monroe.
The program, played by Monroe organist Deborah Krauss Smith and violinist Robert Eversman, will feature music that is in some way related to vision or sight. Included are settings for organ of the old evangelical hymn, “Open My Eyes That I May See;” “Battle Hymn of the Republic;” also known as “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory;” variations for organ and violin on “Be Thou My Vision;” and others.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the organist has a double applied major in both organ and voice, having begun organ studies in Monroe with the late Merruth Seaton, continuing with Jerry Evenrud and David O. Parsons while at UW-EC, and then for many years with the now late Lawrence G. Kelliher, former longtime organist/music director of Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison. She has served congregations of various denominations as a church musician in Monroe, Eau Claire and Madison for over 40 years. In 2012 and 2014, she had the privilege of leading Madison Symphony Orchestra-sponsored hymn sings, playing the Klais organ in the Overture Hall of the Overture Center for the Arts in downtown Madison. A member of the American Guild of Organists, she is Vice-President/AGO Chapter Sub-dean of the Madison-based Association of Church Musicians. The granddaughter of Swiss and German immigrants to Green County, she has also directed the Monroe Swiss Singers mixed choir since 1985.
Violinist Robert Eversman, who resides in rural Monroe, is music director/organist at Heritage Congregational Church in Madison, where he has served for the past 18 years. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Northwestern University with a concentration in violin performance, having studied with Myron Kartman and Edgar Muenzer. He also holds a Master of Music degree from UW-Madison, where he studied organ with John Chappell Stowe. He is currently President /AGO Chapter Dean of the Madison-based Association of Church Musicians.
Midday Masterworks began in 2002 as a quarterly Wednesday noon-hour organ mini-recital series featuring the new 3-manual keyboards, 39-rank (different sets of pipes/sounds) Berghaus pipe organ of the United Methodist Church of Monroe. In 2008, a repeat later in the day of the noontime program was added, featuring the newly-built hybrid combination of a 1968 Möller pipe organ with a three-manual Rodgers digital organ at St. Victor Catholic Church. The half-hour programs are themed and include quality music for organ that is enjoyable by general audiences of all ages.
Both churches are handicapped-accessible. A free-will donation is accepted, all of which goes to the maintenance fund for each church’s instrument. More detailed information is available at http://coldspringsroad.com/middaymasterworks.html.
