MACON – Pipedreams, a syndicated show carried on National Public Radio stations across the country, will air Mercer University Organist Robert Parris’ performance of Leo Sowerby’s “Concerto for Organ and Orchestra” at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The recording will air during the week of April 19 and is the first time it will be broadcast since the 2004 performance at the National Convention for the American Guild of Organists.
Only four people have ever performed this challenging piece. Parris performed the concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, one of the finest performance halls in the nation. It was the inaugural performance on the hall’s Manuel Rosales-designed pipe organ.
The spectacular piece consists of three movements, all of which require and make extensive use of a full orchestra. Parris, who performed the piece in 1996, is the only person still living to have publicly performed it with an orchestra.
The performance can also be heard by visiting http://pipedreams.publicradio.org.
About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,000 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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