Concerts & Performances
St. Dunstan’s concert series and public offerings of musical programming contribute to the music ministry by offering three or four public concerts each year. These often feature our director of music and visiting artists on the Dobson organ, sometimes playing with musicians with other instruments, and choral groups. These concerts expand the church’s liturgical repertoire and encourage the next generation of organists and other musicians. Through these musical programs, Music at St. Dunstan’s reaches the larger community, inviting people to share the joyful appreciation of sacred and secular music.
Inaugural Concert with Frederick Burgomaster, Organ
New Director of Music at St. Dunstan's
Sunday, September 22, 4 pm
Reception follows
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, Carmel Valley, is delighted to present a recital by its new Director of Music, Dr. Frederick Burgomaster, playing compositions selected specifically to draw out the dramatic qualities of the church’s Dobson tracker pipe organ.
Dr. Burgomaster’s program will feature organ music from across five centuries, representing composers from Germany, France, England and the United States, ending with the scintillating Toccata by Leo Sowerby. Composers will include Dietrich Buxtehude, J. S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Kenneth Leighton, and French virtuoso organist and improviser Jean Guillou.
“I chose these particular composers and pieces to display the tonal variety of the St. Dunstan’s organ, as well as its ability to handle repertoire from five centuries of organ building and composition,” Dr. Burgomaster says. “Each piece will explore the different sounds and styles of a particular country and composer. The St. Dunstan’s organ represents not only individual beauty in its various stops but is also wonderfully eclectic in its overall combination of sounds.”
In addition to his role at St. Dunstan’s, Dr. Burgomaster is Canon Organist and Choirmaster Emeritus of Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, and former conductor and music director of the Indianapolis Festival Chorus and Orchestra and the Indianapolis Baroque Singers. Prior to his Indianapolis tenure, he was organist and choirmaster of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buffalo, NY, and served as conductor and music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus (under orchestra conductor Michael Tilson Thomas). While in Buffalo, he was also organist and music director at Temple Beth Zion.
Dr. Burgomaster holds a DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) degree from the University of Southern California; an SMM (Master of Sacred Music) degree from New York’s Union Theological Seminary; and an Associate degree from the American Guild of Organists. As a Fulbright Scholar, he studied organ and conducting with noted Bach interpreter Karl Richter and sang with the Munich Bach Choir. As an organist, he was a finalist in the Bruges International Music Competition and has played recitals throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
He has conducted major works for chorus and orchestra and has composed several anthems for mixed chorus.
Tickets are $25, available at the door. Students and patrons under 18 are free.
