Organ Recital Series on the Fritts Organ
University of Notre Dame
Sunday, February 28, 2016, 2:30 and 5:00 PM
Kola Olowabi, organist
Associate Professor of Organ
University of Michigan
Tickets at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center box office 574-631-2800
A native of Toronto, Canada, Kola Owolabi is Associate Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There he teaches courses in organ, improvisation and church music. From 2006 to 2014, he taught at Syracuse University and served as University Organist. He also held positions as Sub Dean and Dean of the Syracuse Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He holds degrees in organ performance and choral conducting from McGill University, Montreal, Yale University and Eastman School of Music. His former teachers have included Bruce Wheatcroft, John Grew, Martin Jean, Thomas Murray, Hans Davidsson and William Porter. In 2002, Dr. Owolabi was awarded second prize and audience prize at the American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance. Dr. Owolabi is a published composer and has received commissions from the Royal Canadian College of Organists and the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. His solo organ composition Dance was selected for the Royal Canadian College of Organists National Competition in August 2013, where all of the finalists performed this composition. He was a featured performer at the American Guild of Organists National Convention in Boston in June 2014, performing three recitals at Methuen Memorial Music Hall. He also performed a concert for the Organ Historical Society Convention in Syracuse in August 2014. He has performed numerous concerts as organist and harpsichordist with the Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire and Firebird Chamber Orchestra, based in Miami, FL. Upcoming engagements for 2015-2016 include solo performances at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, The University of Notre Dame, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and St. James Episcopal Church in Los Angeles.
Program:
Toccata Quinta (from Apparatus musico-organisticus, 1690) Georg Muffat
(1653-1704)
Toccata Seconda Michelangelo Rossi
(1602-1656)
Canzon Quinta (First Book of Canzonas and Ricercari, 1615) Girolamo Frescobaldi
(1583-1643)
Magnificat Quarti Toni Heinrich Scheidemann
(1595-1663)
Improvisation: Chorale Partita on “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen” Kola Owolabi
(b. 1977)
Trio Sonata No. 2 in C minor, BWV 526 Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
I. Vivace
II. Largo
III. Allegro
Sonata No. 3 in Bb Major Theophil Andreas Volckmar
(1684-1748)