For Immediate Release
LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG NAMES FELIX HELL DISTINGUISHED
ORGANIST IN RESIDENCE
LTSG-04-50c June 16, 2004
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010
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GETTYSBURG, PA- The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
announced this week that the young German Organist Felix Hell will
become the seminary’s first Distinguished Organist in Residence.
Mr. Hell, who at 18 years of age has recently become the youngest
organ major graduate in the history of the Curtis Institute of
Music in Philadelphia, plays more than 60 organ concerts a year
to packed, enthusiastic audiences all around the world.
The prodigious and prolific performer will continue to play for
Music, Gettysburg! two times per year on the 38 rank Andover Organ,
Opus 84, one of the most striking features of the Seminary chapel.
As Distinguished Organist in Residence, Mr. Hell will also teach
organ on the Gettysburg instrument, and organize master classes.
“
I fell in love with this instrument the first time I played [the
seminary’s Andover organ]” said Mr. Hell. He continued “It
so wonderfully plays the whole repertoire of J. S. Bach and other
composers of the Baroque era. And, even more important, it is an
almost ideal instrument for learning and teaching.”
Dr. Stephen Folkemer, an excellent organist in his own right, and
Music Director for the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg,
assisted in establishing the arrangement. Folkemer said that in
the four times Felix Hell has played for Gettysburg audiences and
in more than 350 public concerts around the world, “he has
amazed his audiences with not one dazzling masterpiece, but concerts
full of them. Whereas most organists play one of these difficult
masterpieces for a recital, Felix Hell plays one after another
and makes it look easy.”
In this year alone, the Mr. Hell will perform more than 50 organ
concerts in America, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and
Europe. The young musician began to play the piano at age seven,
took his first organ lessons at age eight, and within a year was
on duty in his first performance in a liturgical setting at a Roman
Catholic High Mass on Easter in 1994 and gave his first solo recital
abroad.
Beginning in September 2004, Mr. Hell will be available once a
week at the seminary. His next performance in Gettysburg will be
January 30th, as a part of the 25th anniversary season of Music,
Gettysburg! He will also offer a recital in May of next year.
Felix Hell spent a year at the Juilliard School in New York on
a full tuition scholarship. He recently completed his bachelors’ degree
through study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia,
where he studied with Dr. John Weaver, then chair of the organ
departments both of Juilliard and the Curtis Institute, and Mr.
Alan Morrison. Mr. Hell will next study for his Master of Music
degree and his Artist Diploma at the Peabody Institute, the oldest
conservatory in the USA, now associated with Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore, Maryland.
Mr. Hell has recorded six critically acclaimed CD’s and his
music has been broadcast several times by the nationally distributed
program “PipeDreams” of Minnesota Public Radio in addition
to several radio programs in Germany, The Netherlands, England,
and Australia.
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, the oldest of
the eight seminaries of the 5.2 million member Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, prepares women and men to be outreach oriented
public theologians and mission leaders. It provides programs in
continuing studies, advanced theological education, and specialized
educational programs for informed lay persons, ordained and other
rostered leaders, and high school youth.
Music, Gettysburg! is a free concert series featuring international,
regional and local musical artists supported by both the Lutheran
Theological Seminary and the wider Gettysburg community.
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Office of Communication
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
Gettysburg, PA 17325
717-334-6286 ext 3010 or 2107
Email: info@ltsg.edu www.ltsg.edu
