CARBONDALE, Ill. — New York Philharmonic organist Kent Tritle, one of the nation’s leading choral conductors, will perform at Southern Illinois University Carbondale later this month for the Marianne Webb and David N. Bateman Distinguished Organ Recital Series.
International concert organist and choral conductor Kent Tritle, organist of the New York Philharmonic, sits at the organ of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Tritle will perform a free concert for the Marianne Webb and David N. Bateman Distinguished Organ Recital Series Sept. 25 at SIU Carbondale’s Shryock Auditorium. (Photo credit: Maike Schulz)
The SIU School of Music performance is at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, in Shryock Auditorium, home of the Marianne Webb Pipe Organ. The concert is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
This is the 27th concert in the endowed series, established in 1990 by Webb and Bateman, both former SIU faculty members.
Tritle is a “tour de force musician” in New York City, said Lynn Trapp, the series’ principal artistic director since its inception. He described Tritle is a “luminary in the field of organ, choral and church music.”.
Tritle is director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. He is also the Grammy-nominated music director of the Oratorio Society of New York — the esteemed volunteer chorus, and music director of Musica Sacra, New York’s elite professional chorus. He is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School’s vocal arts department.
A native of Spirit Lake, Iowa, Tritle has graduate and undergraduate degrees from The Juilliard School in organ performance and choral conducting. He has been featured on ABC World News Tonight, National Public Radio, and Minnesota Public Radio, as well as in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He was featured in the WIRED video series “Masterminds,” an installment titled, “What Conductors Are Really Doing.”
In honor of Marianne Webb
Tritle said he’s excited to come to SIU Carbondale, “where the legendary Marianne Webb taught so many of the country’s leading organists during her tenure.” He will bring a program that spans more than 400 years of composition and believes there will be more than ‘something for everyone.
“The audience will come away with a sense of the breadth and scope of sound and emotion that this pipe organ brings,” Tritle said. “The organ is truly a majestic and yet ethereal instrument. It can take us to places that no other sound does- and be deeply moving as we travel the air waves together!”