March 19, 2024

Concert series to begin with Grinnell College organist

The First Presbyterian Church of Newton will kick off its annual Sundays at Four Concert Series with an organ recital by Linda Bryant, Grinnell College organist, at 4 p.m. Sunday at the church, 220 N. Second Ave. E.

The recital is free and open to the public. A reception with refreshments will follow in the church fellowship hall.

Bryant has degrees in organ performance from Drake University and Valparaiso University, where she studied with Russell Saunders, Carl Staplin and Philip Gehring. She also has earned the colleague certificate from the American Guild of Organists. She has played recitals in Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina and West Virginia, including one for the AGO Regional Convention in 2011. She also has certificates in piano pedagogy and has taught piano and organ for a number of years. She has a degree in music education from Fairmont State University and is an experienced classroom general music teacher. She was a consultant for Chalice Hymnal and wrote several articles for the related Companion.

Bryant is active in the Central Iowa Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She has been Grinnell College organist and Organ AMA since 2001.

Bryant will present a varied program of music, which will showcase her talent and the range of the organ. Selections will include “A Trumpet Minuet” by Alfred Hollins, “Prelude in C Major” by J.S. Bach, two of Henri Mulet’s “Byzantine Sketches,” “The Musical Clocks” by Franz Josef Haydn, “Three Global Songs” by John A. Behnke and Dan Locklair’s “The Casavant Diptych.”

Of particular interest will be “The Musical Clocks”, six charming pieces written in 1792 for a famous clock in Vienna which were played automatically on a small flute organ operated by the clock mechanism. The recital will exhibit some of the beautiful flute stops on First Presbyterian’s Quimby organ.