Announcements
ROOSEVELT ORGAN TO BE USED IN MAJOR WORK
On Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 7:30 PM, the Froula Memorial Organ at Roosevelt High School in Seattle will play with the RHS Symphony the second movement of the Symphony No. 3 in C minor by Camille Saint-Saens. This piece, commonly known as the "Organ Symphony," is remarkable for its use of the pipe organ in two of the four movements as originally composed by Saint-Saens in 1886. The symphony is believed to represent the zenith of the career of this remarkable composer with evidence in the music of his own virtuoso piano passages, brilliant orchestral writing characteristic of the Romantic period, and the breadth of sound of a pipe organ.
The director of the event will be Anna Edwards of the faculty of Roosevelt
High School. She leads three orchestras at the school, and her efforts and
those of her students have resulted in a number of prizes both regionally
and nationally. Taking on the major Saint-Saens symphony is rarely done on a high school level not only because of the complexity of the work, but also because a pipe organ is almost never available to high schools. In this
regard, the Pipe Organ Foundation is pleased to have made a contribution to
the truly superb fine arts program at Roosevelt.
The organist for the event will be George Shangrow. After graduating from
Roosevelt High School, Mr. Shangrow received his musical training at the
University of Washington, and he began his conducting career at the age of
18. He founded the Seattle Chamber Singers in 1969 and Orchestra Seattle in 1979. He has taught and performed broadly. He currently serves the
University Christian Church in Seattle as Director of Music. Seattle music
lovers also know him as a regular announcer on Classical KING-FM and host of the Live By George show, a nightly radio program featuring live, in-studio
classical music performances.