MONROE — Following a three year hiatus due to the pandemic, the quarterly organ mini-recital series, Midday Masterworks will resume Wednesday, Jan. 25 with two performances. 

Monroe musicians, violinist Robert Eversman and organist Deborah Krauss Smith, will present a free, half-hour program at 12:15 p.m. at the United Methodist Church of Monroe, 2227 4th Street, and repeated at 5:15 pm at St. Victor Catholic Church (St. Clare of Assisi Parish), 1760 14th Street.

The program will include Baroque works by Handel and Corelli as well as the well-known Cantilena by Romantic Bavarian composer, Josef Rheinberger.  Sortie Fanfare (Toccatina) by French composer, Jean-Baptiste Maillochaud, will conclude the recital.

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. This very unique instrument, the work of organ builder Kelly Monette, is a hybrid combination of a 1968 Möller pipe organ with a 3-manual Rodgers digital organ. The superior acoustics of St. Victor Church only enhance the sound of this amazing instrument. 

All of the mini-recitals are on the fourth 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://cold

springsroad.com/MiddayMasterworks.html.