The Friday Evening Music Club of the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra presents the 2024-2025 season, “A Year of Collaboration!“
2024-2025 Recital Dates
February 28, 2025- Organ Highlights at First Presbyterian Church, Greensburg
The Friday Evening Music Club of the Greensburg area announces its February recital, an annual event featuring organists and other club musicians. It will be held at 7:30 pm, Friday, February 28 at First Presbyterian Church, 300 S. Main Street, Greensburg.
Organist Matt Klumpp, will perform Rockingham by Kenneth Leighton and Bach’s Little Prelude and Fugue in F Major, BWV 556. Organist Sylvia Andrae has chosen to play two settings of the English Folk Tune KINGSFOLD by two American composers, Brenda Portman and Maureen Howell. Mary McCormack, soprano, and Christine Loughran, piano, will perform Visi d’arte from the opera Tosca by Puccini as well as The Prayer by David Foster.
Guest organist, music director at Zion’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, David Bridge, will open his portion of the program with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 549, followed by Americana: Organ Settings of Early American Hymn Tunes by composer Gilbert Martin.
We are also very honored to be celebrating Black History Month. First Presbyterian’s music director, Jeff Jones will bookend the recital, beginning with a Mark Hayes piano arrangement of George Allen’s Precious Lord, Take My Hand. To close the evening, he will head up to the organ loft to share George Shearing’s arrangement of Amazing Grace, Adolphus Hailstork’s setting of Deep River, and Carl Haywood’s Spirit Fantasy, based on the spiritual, “Every Time I Feel the Spirit.”
Admission is free to club members, and voluntary donations are accepted from non-members at the door. All are invited to a reception following the recital.
January 24, 2025 – Student Recital – Campana Chapel
The Friday Evening Music Club of the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce our annual student recital, to be held on Friday, January 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Campana Chapel and Lecture Hall on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg (UPG). The recital will feature students of four FEMC members.
Pianists for the evening include Nicholas Maynard (playing JS Bach/Grieg), student of Jacqueline Herbein; Maverick Steffey (Bobby Scott) and Georgia Evans (Paul de Sennville), students of Leslie Nemeth; Barani Oo (Cornelius Gurlitt, Lynn Freeman Olson), Johan Paul (JS Bach/Grieg), Levi Pecorari (JS Bach/Mozart), Bilgehan Akdeniz (JS Bach/Chopin), and Demi Schwartz (Debussy); all students of John Kulik.
Pianist Matt Klumpp will collaborate with flutist Jack Lynch (Chopin) and flute/sax duo Allyson and Austin Steffey (Martin Nystrom). The flutists study with Michele Boulet.
Admission is free to club members and voluntary donations are accepted from non-members at the door. All are invited to a reception following the recital.
Upcoming:
February 28, 2025 – Organ Highlights – First Presbyterian Church
April 25, 2025 – Season Finale – Campana Chapel
Past: December 6, 2024 – ‘Tis the Season -Campana Chapel
The Friday Evening Music Club of the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce our December recital will be held on Friday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Campana Chapel and Lecture Hall on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg (UPG).
The recital will feature Debussy’s Pagodes and Hills of Anacapri, Sibelius’ The Birch and The Spruce, evoking the majesty and tranquility of a Nordic Forest and Liszt’s Beside a Spring, performed by guest pianist, adjunct WVU faculty member, Amy Simpson.
We will then kick off the Christmas season with vocal and instrumental arrangements of seasonal tunes. Flutist Janice Decker and pianist Beverly Hritz will present a beautiful arrangement of the Fantasia on Greensleeves, adapted from the opera Sir John in Love, by Vaughan Williams. Michael Rozell, baritone, and Hazel Braun, piano, will share two well-loved songs with contrasting American roots. African American spiritual, Go Tell it on the Mountain, likely out of the oral tradition, celebrates the Nativity, while I’ll Be Home for Christmas, by Kent and Gannon, was written to honor soldiers fighting in WWII who longed to be home with their loved ones. Baritones Marc Tourre and Endy Reindl will collaborate with pianist Sylvia Andrae to present the traditional 16th century English Coventry Carol. The evening will conclude with a rousing (4-part) Christmas Carol Sing-Along, led by Tourre, with Rozell on piano.
Admission is free to club members, and voluntary donations are accepted from non-members at the door. All are invited to a reception following the recital. The more, the merrier!
“There’s really no other [group] like it. It allows you to make connections, it allows you to meet people that you would not ordinarily meet.” ~ Matt Klumpp, member and pianist
Mission
To draw area performers and audiences for shared artistic programs and camaraderie, and to encourage excellence in young musicians through performance and scholarship.
About the Friday Evening Music Club
FEMC was founded in 1944 to promote the performing arts in Westmoreland County and give musicians a place to practice and socialize. It is a community of area musicians, some of whom are private music teachers, but many who work in other fields and enjoy music-making as an avocation. Some club members simply enjoy being part of the organization by attending the concerts; the concerts are open to members and non-members alike.
In 1969, FEMC’s leadership helped to found the Westmoreland Symphony. Reuniting with them fosters the musical growth of our shared community, with mutual support, stability, and strength. We have common interests and common fellowship, but also provide unique avenues into the experience and sharing of great classical music. We now celebrate our shared roots and come back home to be together again.
Venues
- First Presbyterian Church – 300 S Main St, Greensburg, PA 15601
- University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg – Campana Chapel: 150 Finoli Dr, Greensburg, PA 15601 University of Pittsburgh Greensburg Webpage | PDF Map
Admission is free to club members and voluntary donations are accepted from non-members at the door.
