Anniversary Music Festival: Tabernacle Organ Celebration

Organ recital commemorating our own Hook and Hastings organ (built in 1881 and relocated to Craigville in 1961).

Recorded July 14, 2022 in Craigville Tabernacle

Click to view program

The recital was designed to give a “snapshot” of the extraordinary diversity of music written for the pipe organ. After opening with a 20th century American work perfect for a festive celebration like Craigville’s 150th – Conrad Susa’s March for a Joyous Occasion – we turn 150 years before the village founding with a pair of contrasting pieces – an English “voluntary” by John Stanley, and a monumental fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach. Belgian composer Joseph Jongen returns us to the 20th century with a beautiful work both romantic and impressionistic in style – perfect for a summer evening! The religious foundation of the village comes through in a set of preludes based on three well-loved hymns and spirituals. John Knowles Paine’s Concert Variations on the Star-Spangled Banner conclude the recital. Paine is one of America’s first widely-recognized composers. The Variations were composed in 1861, the same year he joined the faculty at Harvard.

Michael Shake
Director of Music,
First Presbyterian Church, NYC

Michael Shake was appointed the sixth director of music for the First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York in June 2019. Michael previously served the communities of King of Glory Lutheran Church and Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas; and, Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, hailed by USA TODAY as one of the “ten great places to be enthralled by heavenly music.” He has performed throughout the South as a solo and collaborative artist, including the 2011 Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the 2013 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, the 2017 Southwest Regional Convention of the American Guild of Organists, the 2017 East Texas Pipe Organ Festival, and has been heard on American Public Media’s Pipedreams.

A native of Florence, South Carolina, Michael holds degrees in organ and sacred music from Erskine College and Emory University. His teachers include Timothy Albrecht, Robert Glick, Gerre Hancock, Eric Nelson, and Sheila Paige. He has been a conductor at the Choral Institute at Oxford, a collaborative program of Westminster Choir College and St. Stephen’s House, Oxford, and a conducting fellow of the Voices of Ascension Conductor Academy with Dennis Keene.