Photo of Benjamin N. Duke Memorial Organ keyboard.

The Organ Recital Series at Duke University is sponsored by Duke Chapel. All recitals are on Sundays at 5:00 p.m. (unless otherwise indicated), and are free and open to the public. The series is made possible through the generous support of the Marvin B. and Elvira Lowe Smith Memorial Fund, established by their daughter, Alyse Smith Cooper.

2011-12 Organ Recital Series
Duke University Chapel*        
Sundays at 5:00 PM*

Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 2:30 PM & 5:00 PM

David Arcus

David Arcus is the Divinity School Organist as well as Associate University Organist and Chapel Organist at Duke. He opens this year’s Organ Recital Series on the Brombaugh organ in the Memorial Chapel with music by South and Central German composers, including Schlick, Hassler, Erbach, Muffat, Kerll, Froberger, Poglietti, Pachelbel, and Bach. This program will be presented at 2:30 PM and again at 5:00 PM.

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Sunday, October 16, 2011, at 5:00 PM

Wilma Jensen

Wilma Jensen has been heralded as “technically and musically an artist of the first magnitude” as well as “the consummate musician.” Formerly on the faculty of the School of Music at Indiana University, she has maintained a focus in three directions: performance, teaching, and church music. After a hiatus in her long concert career (already established in the 1950s), she has resumed an active recital schedule. Her program on the Aeolian organ will feature music by French, English, and American composers.

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Sunday, November 13, 2011, at 5:00 PM

Andrew Unsworth

Andrew Unsworth is one of three full-time organists at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, where he participates in the daily recital series and accompanies the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on their weekly radio and television broadcast, "Music and the Spoken Word." He has been described as “an organist to be reckoned with” who exhibits “amazing technical acumen as well as impressive musicality” (Deseret News). Dr. Unsworth received his Ph.D. in Music from Duke in 2001, and he returns to the University as the second organist in the new “Alumni Series.”

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Sunday, January 29, 2012, at 5:00 PM

David Arcus

David Arcus has performed throughout the United States, in Europe, and in Great Britain. His playing has been lauded for demonstrating “exalted pomp and spirit, and a genuine affection for his listener” (Fanfare).  Dr. Arcus has won national awards in improvisation and composition, and several of his pieces are published by Concordia, Hinshaw, and Wayne Leupold Editions. His second program in the series will feature music from Canada, including a tribute to the Canadian rock band Rush.

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Sunday, February 26, 2012, at 5:00 PM

Dongho Lee

Dongho Lee was awarded both the First Prize and the Audience Prize in the 2010 American Guild of Organists’ National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance, held at the 50th national convention of the AGO in Washington, DC. A native of Seoul, South Korea, Ms. Lee has played in her native country as well as throughout the United States and Europe. She will present her recital at Duke this year on the Aeolian organ.

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Sunday, March 18, 2012, at 5:00 PM

Robert Parkins

Robert Parkins is the University Organist and a Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke. His recordings have appeared on the Calcante, Gothic, Musical Heritage Society, and Naxos labels, and his performances praised as “artistic, technically flawless, and imaginative” (The American Organist). This season’s recital program, “Fantasies and Fugues,” will include works by Bach, Franck, and Reger on the Flentrop and Aeolian organs.

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*unless otherwise indicated

Past Organ Recital Series (links to PDF downloads)