This preview has been provided by the St. Stephen’s Concert Series.
On May 19, Pentecost Sunday, the St. Stephen’s Concert Series will present a free organ recital in which the gifted 17 year old organist Jacob Reed will give a complete performance of Part III of J. S. Bach’s Clavier-Ubung. The concert will take place at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Durham at 4p.m. It will be preceded by a half hour discussion at 3p.m.
Clavier-Ubung, Teil III (or C3 as it is sometimes called) is one of the most important and challenging works for organ. Also called the German Organ Mass, C3 is a transcendent expression of Bach’s Lutheran faith. It is the work which Paul Jacobs fittingly chose to perform in 2010 as part of the White Light Festival in NY to celebrate the return of the organ to Alice Tully Hall.
Jacob Reed is a multitalented high school senior. A year ago he gave a full length organ recital at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill … plus a piano recital … plus a cello recital! And he is also gifted academically. Presently (April 26) he is both an academic and an arts semifinalist in the prestigious Presidential Scholars program for high school seniors. He was selected as an arts candidate from a group of 152 YoungArts Finalists in 2013 (which included just 21 instrumentalists and composers) out of an applicant pool of nearly 10,000.
Jacob studies organ with Dr. Wylie Quinn, organist/choirmaster at the Chapel of the Cross, but during summers he has studied at the International Organ Academy in the Netherlands, the Oberlin High School Organ Academy, and the AGO Pipe Organ Encounter/Advanced in Boston. As a result he has benefitted from a veritable Who’s Who of organ teachers, including James David Christie (Oberlin), David Higgs (Eastman), Alan Morrison (Curtis), Olivier Latry (Paris Conservatoire and Notre Dame Cathedral), and Margaret Phillips (Royal School of Music, London).
Although Jacob did not begin to study organ until 2009, he has already had considerable experience as a church organist and recitalist. He plays regularly for services in the Chapel of the Cross and he has been a substitute organist at Duke Chapel. This year he appeared on the Harvard Organ Society series and the Fridays at Trinity recital series in Boston. Additionally, he played a featured recital at the North Carolina Music Teachers Association Annual Conference last Fall.
Complete performances of C3 are rare. Its complete performance by a 17 year old high school senior is possibly unique.