Civic Music welcomes elite organist Prieto Ramirez for Weidner Center concert

GREEN BAY — The pairing of one of the world’s most dynamic concert organists and the magnificent, 3,702-pipe Wood Family Organ promises a memorable evening of music at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, at the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts, 2420 Nicolet Drive.

The concert featuring Spanish-born Raúl Prieto Ramírez is presented by the Brown County Civic Music Association as the season opener of its five-concert classical subscription series for 2018-19.

General admission tickets, available at the door, are $25 for adults, $10 for students 18 and under, and $15 for members of the American Guild of Organists.

Formerly of Barcelona, Ramirez has been based since January in San Diego, Calif., where he is organist in residence for Balboa Park’s renowned Spreckels Organ, the largest outdoor musical instrument in the Western Hemisphere. Hired after an international search that included audition concerts by the finalists, Ramirez was lauded for his technical excellence, expressive musicality, and charismatic performance skills. He is known for being one of the few top-tier concert organists who perform from memory.

The program for his Green Bay concert will open with the intense and richly layered Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541, by Johann Sebastian Bach.  He will follow with the Allegro movement from Charles-Marie Vidor’s Symphony VI in g minor Op. 42 No. 2, which premiered in 1879 at the Paris World Exhibition. The third selection, Rhapsodie Op. 7 No. 1 by Camille Saint-Saëns, was inspired by the composer’s deep affection for French culture and folk music.  The final piece before intermission will be a Franz Liszt orchestral work transcribed by Ramirez and conveying passion, sensuality and dramatics:  Mephisto Waltz No. 1 ‘Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke’ (The Dance in the Village Inn).

The second half of the program will be devoted to the Liszt masterpiece,  Fantasia and Fugue on the chorale “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam” (Latin for “Come to us, to the waves of salvation”). The operatic work begins with dark drama, shifts to quiet contemplation and energetic lyricism, and concludes with a triumphant coda.

Prominent among many career milestones for Ramirez was appointment in 2006, at the young age of 27, as the first organist in residence for the Auditorio Nacional de Música (the national concert hall) in Madrid. He went on to found Spain’s most successful organ festival, the International Organ Festival of Barcelona, where he continues as artistic director. His global schedule regularly takes him to major festivals and concert halls throughout Europe and North America, and he wins critical praise for performances described as “awe-inspiring” and “electrifying.” His first two compact discs, on the Brilliant Classics label, were recorded at Milan Cathedral in Italy and at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.

Organist Jeff Verkuilen, a Green Bay business person and Civic Music board member who helped arrange the visit of Ramirez to Wisconsin, says the concert will be a celebration not only of the artist’s singular talent but of the quality of the Weidner Center and its Casavant organ.

“It’s a phenomenal instrument,” Verkuilen says. “It’s a rarity – a blessing – to have a pipe organ of that magnitude and quality in a community the size of Green Bay. We’re proud to give people a chance to hear it played, and to hear it played by such a talented performer.”

Following the organ concert at the Weidner on Oct. 12, the Brown County Civic Music series will return to its traditional venue at Holter Auditorium, Green Bay West H.S., for its next three concerts:  vocal ensemble Cantus, Saturday, Nov. 10; the Siberian Virtuosi string ensemble, Friday, March 22; and Vienna-based crossover quartet Janoska, Thursday, April 4. The season finale, on Saturday, May 11, returns to the Weidner with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, special guest Catherine Lan and that evening’s musical centerpiece, the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2. Information on purchasing a season pass, $80 for adults and $25 for students, may be found at www.bccivicmusic.org or by calling 920 338-1801.

####

Raúl Prieto Ramírez – Program

Raúl Prieto Ramírez, Concert Organist
Weidener Center for the Performing Arts, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Friday, October 12, 2018 at 7:30pm

Program

Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Allegro (from Symphony VI in g minor Op. 42 No. 2)
Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)

Rhapsodie Op. 7 No. 1
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

Mephisto Waltz No. 1 ‘Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke’
(‘The Dance in the Village Inn’) S. 514
Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)
(arr. Raúl Prieto Ramírez)

Intermission

 

 

Fantasia and Fugue on the chorale “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”
259 (from Meyerbeer´s opera ‘Le Prophète’)
Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)

 

Audio or video recording of this recital, using any device, without prior written consent is strictly prohibited.

 

www.raulpr.com

 

Raúl Prieto Ramírez is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC

www.concertartists.com

E-mail:  email@concertartists.com       Phone: 860-560-7800

PO Box 6507, Detroit, MI 48206-6507

Raúl Prieto Ramírez – Biography

Season Listing | Biography | Program

Raúl Prieto Ramírez, Concert Organist
San Diego Civic Organist and
Artistic Director of the Spreckels Organ Society

With words such as “sizzling”, iconoclastic”, “impeccable”, and “transcendent” used to describe his performances, Raúl Prieto Ramírez is the first Spanish organist in recent times to establish himself among the elite of the international pipe organ scene. The powerful personality, passionate expressiveness, gift for communication, and outstanding technique of Spanish organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez make him shine in a wide range of repertoire and styles”. (Los Angeles Philharmonic)

In December 2017, Raúl Prieto Ramírez was appointed the San Diego Civic Organist and Artistic Director of the Spreckels Organ Society, where he will preside over the famed Austin organ at the city’s Balboa Park Pavilion – the largest outdoor pipe organ in the Western Hemisphere. Mr. Ramírez is the eighth Civic Organist to serve San Diego on the Spreckels organ bench.

Mr. Ramírez was appointed at age 27 as the first Organist-in-Residence of the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid—Spain’s National Concert Hall, a position that had never existed until his appointment. Within the first six months of his tenure there, he increased attendance at the hall’s organ recitals by a multiple of 30, and critics hailed him as one of the most exciting talents in the music scene in Spain. His global schedule takes him to major festivals and concert halls (from the Mariinsky Theater and Moscow House of Music in Russia to organ churches and cathedrals through Europe and the US), performances and lectures for universities and institutions (such as Indiana University, Moscow Conservatory, Graz University, and Chapters of the American Guild of Organists), collaborations in summer academies, and as jury member at international competitions.

After studies in Spain where he received the highest distinctions and awards, Mr. Ramírez moved to Stuttgart on a scholarship from the German government to study organ performance with Ludger Lohmann. At the same time, he was developing his technique with pianist Leonid Sintsev at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. He also worked on interpretation of the different schools of organ literature with Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Eric Lebrun, Lionel Rogg, Zsigmond Szathmáry, and Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, and he also intensively studied composition, orchestral conducting, improvisation, and continuo playing. The premieres of his works have been recorded and broadcast in Spain, including chamber music, organ music, many pieces for solo instruments and a concerto for organ and orchestra that was premiered in Barcelona.

As a result of his varied studies, Mr. Prieto Ramírez possesses a wide and deep knowledge of organ repertoire, styles, and schools, from the 14th century Robertsbridge Codex to the new compositions he commissions. He is respected as a specialist in such disparate subjects as Spanish music, historic keyboard techniques, and modern symphonic transcriptions for the organ. His transcriptions of Liszt’s piano études and Mephisto Waltz have been praised by audience and critics alike in Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Critics have also highly praised his interpretations of the music of Buxtehude, Bach, Franck, and Reger.

From 2013-2017, Mr. Ramírez was organist-in-residence at Sursa Concert Hall and served on the organ faculty at Ball State University, Indiana. He continues as the Artistic Director and Founder of the Barcelona Summer Organ Festival and Academy. Mr. Ramírez has been widely recorded and interviewed for radio and television in several European countries and in the US. His first two compact discs, on the Brilliant Classics label, were recorded at Milan Cathedral in Italy (music of Franck, Liszt, Reger, and Saint-Saëns) and at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona (music for piano and organ duet). In June 2016, Mr. Ramirez and his wife, Spanish pianist Maria Teresa Sierra, were featured duo artists at the American Guild of Organists’ national convention in Houston.

Raúl Prieto Ramírez is represented exclusively in North America by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.

Bonus concerts in Marinette-Menominee

A bonus of your Civic Music membership is reciprocity with our sister organization in Marinette-Menominee. That means your membership is actually good for six concerts – our five PLUS one of the four offered by River Cities Concerts. Their series offers DSQ Electric, Nov. 5; Leon Williams Sings Noel, Nov. 29; Boston Brass, April 5; and the Jersey Tenors, May 6. Contact the Civic Music Office to reserve a spot on the pass list. Visit RCConcerts.com for concert information.

Artstreet drawing winners

Brown County Civic Music Association had a booth Artstreet again this year. Les Heckman and his volunteers did a fabulous job. Visitors to the Civic Music booth were invited to enter a drawing for two tickets to the concert of their choice. Our ten winners are listed here. If you see them at a concert this season be sure to say hello and invite them to become members next season.

The following ten people won:

  1. Randy Westberg, Green Bay, WI
  2. Michelle Sprerl, Green Bay, WI
  3. Althea Rosenberg, De Pere, WI
  4. Dakota Alvarado-Ortiz, De Pere, WI
  5. Kristen Hubbell, Green Bay, WI
  6. Donna Biebel, Green Bay, WI
  7. Collin Hess, Green Bay, WI
  8. Ebony Harvey, Green Bay, WI
  9. Melody Wuest, Sheboygan, WI
  10. Tomas Dominguez, Green Bay, WI

Pianist Lan signs on for MSO concert

Catherine LanCivic Music has announced that internationally known pianist Catherine Lan will be the featured artist when the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra returns to Green Bay on Saturday, May 11, 2019. Lan and the MSO have settled on the showy and always crowd-pleasing Saint Saens Piano Concerto No. 2 (Opus 22) as the centerpiece of our closing concert of 2018-19. Now based in Florida, Lan made her international debut at age 8 and has performed and won competitions in Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, France, and the USA.