The second concert in the 2019-2020 Emmanuel Concert Series will feature organist Nicole Simental, Assistant Director of Music and Principal Organist at Saint Joseph Cathedral in Columbus, Ohio on Friday evening, November 8 at 7:30 p.m. A Chicago native, Ms. Simental is a candidate for a Doctorate of Music in organ performance at Indiana University where she studies with Dr. Christopher Young.

Nicole Simental has studied piano since the age of seven, organ since the age of ten, and harpsichord throughout her undergraduate studies at Oberlin College Conservatory. She holds the Master of Scared Music from Notre Dame and has a Bachelor of Music from Wheaton College. She has served as a church organist and accompanist for choirs and opera companies. She has won numerous prestigious organ competitions,including the International Goedicke Organ Competition at the Moscow Conservatory in Russia in 2018 and was a soloist at the national convention of the Organ Historical Society in 2018.

The 27^th season of the Emmanuel Concert Series continues the emphasis on up-and-coming young performers with Ms. Simental’s appearance. This tradition began in 1994 with a young Canadian student at the Curtis Institute who has become one of the top concert organists and teachers in the world (and who has appeared on every Emmanuel Concert Series since), Ken Cowan, and  continued with many young organists who have become well-known concert artists.  We look forward to welcoming Nicole Simental in November. Tickets are $20 at the door. (Students $5).

For more information call the Church Office at 410-778-3477

Emmanuel Church Presents a Concert featuring Organist Tim Robson with Cary Ebli playing English Horn on Friday Sep 6, 2019, 7:30 p.m.  Tickets $20, ($5 for students) at the door.

Timothy Robson, a graduate of Drake University and Case Western Reserve University returns to Emmanuel Church for a program of organ and English horn music. Timothy served as Director of Music at Euclid Avenue Congregational Church in Cleveland for 27 years. Now retired, he substitutes at churches all over Northeast Ohio and serves as acting assisting organist at Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland.

Cary Ebli, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music plays English Horn in the Toronto Symphony.

Cary and Tim have been playing as a duo for over thirty years and have performed most of the repertoire for English horn and organ, including several new works written especially for them. Their September 6 recital at Emmanuel will include two of these commissioned works, Lisa Rainsong’s “Lukasson Celebration” and Thomas Massella’s “Without Words.” The program will also include Cary Ebli’s new performing editions of Mozart’s “Adagio” (known to choral singers as “Ave Verum”) and a “Concertinto” by Gaetano Donizetti, 19th-century Italian composer of bel canto operas such as Lucia di Lammermoor.

Emmanuel Church is located at 101 North Cross St., Chestertown.

Emmanuel Church, Chestertown is pleased to present an organ recital by Elizabeth Lenti on April; 26, 7:30 p.m.   Tickets $20 at the door. (Students $5)

Ms. Lenti is Organist and Director of Music at Charlotte’s St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. She, also, is Artistic Director of the Choir School at St. Peter’s.

Prior to joining the staff of St. Peter’s and its Choir School in 2014, Ms. Lenti was Associate Director of Music and Worship from 2011-2014 at Cleveland’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. For six years prior, she served as Associate Organist-Choirmaster at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California.

Ms. Lenti completed her undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music, studying with David Higgs. She earned her Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Todd Wilson.

Her interest in teaching lead to an appointment to the organ faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she taught classes in Organ Repertoire, Choral Repertoire, and Choral Conducting. She also provided private instruction in organ performance.

Ms. Lenti is active as a recitalist, having performed on concert series throughout the United States. She has played at regional and national conventions of both the American Guild of Organists and the Association of Anglican Musicians.

Emmanuel Church is located at 101 N. Cross St. Chestertown.  For more information, Tel is 410-778-3477

Emmanuel Church presents an organ concert on March 29, 2019 featuring organist Nicole Keller. Tickets are $20 available at the door ($5.00 for students).

Nicole Keller is an active solo and chamber music recitalist in the United States and abroad.  She enjoys exploring all aspects of organ repertoire, especially pairing new music for the instrument with the staples of the repertoire.   She performs regularly as a solo and collaborative artist on the organ, piano and harpsichord.  She is on faculty at the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio and the Associate Organist at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland

Ms. Keller’s extensive church music experience includes work in with volunteer and professional choirs and instrumental ensembles devoted to the highest level of music for worship.  Ms. Keller has created organ and choral scholar programs at small to mid-size parishes, developed successful children’s choir programs, and led choirs on tour including a residency at Bristol Cathedral in the UK in the summer of 2011 with concerts at Bath Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral.

In April of 2011 Ms. Keller won first prize in the North American round of the Michael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition, earning a place in the second round in Kaliningrad, Russia in September of that year.  In Kaliningrad she was awarded the Special Shabyt Prize from the Kazakh National University of Arts “the most promising organist for inspiration and luck.”

Ms. Keller received the Performer’s Certificate and the Master of Music Degree in Organ Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York under the tutelage of David Higgs.  She received the Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio.

Emmanuel Church is located at 101 N. Cross St.  Chestertown. Please call the Church office at 410-778-3477 for additional information.

The Maryland State Boy Choir will perform a choral concert at Emmanuel Church on Nov 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Founded in 1987 by Frank Cimino with just 14 boys, the mission of The Maryland State Boychoir has remained clear: to foster the boychoir tradition by offering talented boys opportunities to sing and build self-esteem, self-discipline and character. Thirty years later, the Boychoir still embraces that goal.

Today, The Maryland State Boychoir (MSB), Maryland’s “Official Goodwill Ambassadors,” is comprised of approximately 130 choristers, ages 7 to 20, who represent a wide range of ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds. They come from nine Maryland counties, Baltimore City, and the D.C. suburbs.

Not only do choristers receive training in voice lessons and music theory, they also develop friendships with boys from varied backgrounds, build self-esteem and self-discipline through hard work and dedication, and develop a sense of community through their commitment to the organization.

The MSB performs over 80 times annually. They have performed throughout Maryland, in surrounding states, and on tours that have taken them many countries overseas, including such prestigious venues as the White House, and the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

The Boy Choir performed at Emmanuel Church in March 2016 to critical acclaim under the direction of Stephen Holmes and Joseph Shortall. The choir will showcase a selection of choral works, sacred and secular spirituals, hymns, gospel, and popular music.

Tickets are $20 available at the door $5.00 for students). Emmanuel Church is located at 101 N. Cross St. Chestertown. Please call the Church office 410-778-3477 for additional information

Bruce J. Barber II, organist will give an organ concert at Emmanuel Church, Chestertown on Friday, October 12, at 7:30 p.m.   Tickets are $20 per person, ($5 for students) and are available at the door. Emmanuel Church is located at 101 N. Cross St. Chestertown.

Mr. Barber currently serves as Director of Music at Christ Church Christiana Hundred, Greenville, Delaware. Prior to his work at Christ Church, he served as Director of Cathedral Music of St. James Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois, from March 2004 until February 2015.  He served as Canon Precentor and Director of Cathedral Music at the Cathedral Church of St. John, Albuquerque, New Mexico, from May 1994 until March of 2004, and he served as Parish Musician at Christ and Holy Trinity Church, Westport, Connecticut, from July 1984 until May 1994.

As an orchestral musician, Mr. Barber has performed with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Symphony Orchestra, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and since moving to the Midwest, has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of such notable maestros as Riccardo Muti, Bernard Haitink, James Conlon, David Zinman, Helmuth Rilling, Semyon Byshkov, Charles Dutoit, and Michael Tilson Thomas. An avid conductor, he has conducted a wide range of sacred music, orchestral literature and concerto repertoire ranging from Bach to Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart, Brahms to Duruflé, Bernstein and Stravinsky.

Trained as a choral and orchestral conductor, an organist and cellist, Mr. Barber holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, and a Master of Music Degree from the Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. His primary teachers have included Alexander Anderson (Rollins), Dr. Robert S. Baker and Dr. Gerre E. Hancock (Yale).

In 2010, the Cathedral Choir of St James Cathedral released its first recording in over 25 years under Barber’s direction – Arise, Shine! (MSR Classics) – which has garnered high praise in national reviews. He has made two CD recordings with the Musicians of St. Johns Cathedral, To the Creator of Light: Choral Music from the Cathedral Church of St. John and All This Time: Music for Advent and Christmas, both of which have been critically acclaimed as well.

Ken Cowan will make his 23rd consecutive appearance at Emmanuel Church on May 4th. This remarkably talented organist has played every year to enthusiastic followers since Emmanuel’s Harrison organ was installed. Besides displaying a huge variety of organ compositions at his recitals, all of the music is memorized.

Recent feature performances have included appearances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa California, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, Spivey Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall, as well as concerts in Germany and Korea. In addition, Mr. Cowan has been a featured artist in recent years at the national conventions of the American Guild of Organists held in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, has performed at many regional conventions of the AGO, and has been featured at several conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

Ken received the Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music/Institute of Sacred Music, studying organ with Thomas Murray. Prior to attending Yale, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with John Weaver. His major teacher during high school years was James Bingham, Organist/Choirmaster at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, in Buffalo, NY, which is not far from his hometown Thorold, Ontario, Canada.

In 2012 Mr. Cowan joined the keyboard faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University as Associate Professor and head of the organ program.

For more information and ticket information please go here