Music for a sacred space
GREENSBORO — The soul-stirring music that emanates from the Kleuker Organ at Our Lady of Grace Church will be online for all to hear at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 16. The German-made instrument is one of six Greensboro organs selected for a free, three-week virtual concert series set to close the 30th anniversary season of “Music for a Great Space.”
The series offers something in-person concerts often don’t. “Many times, when you see an organ performance, you’re sitting far away maybe just looking at the musician’s back,” says Rebecca Willie, executive director of “Music for a Great Space.” “One of the wonderful benefits of this kind of virtual presentation is that we get to see hands moving across keyboards and pulling stops, and maybe a little bit of expression on their faces you’d normally miss out on.”
Founded in 1990, “Music for a Great Space” began its first season celebrating the music of the Fisk Op. 82 organ of Christ United Methodist Church. The same organ, played by Chris Dederer, also kicks off the current virtual series Friday, April 9. Each year, “Music for a Great Space” produces performances by high-caliber musicians in significant Greensboro venues.
As a landmark, Our Lady of Grace certainly is notable. The church was completed in 1952 as a memorial to Ethel Clay Price, an ardent devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and has been lauded for its fine Tudor Gothic architecture.
Ethel’s husband Julian Price and their family sought the finest materials to build the memorial. The church is adorned with stained glass from Belgium pieced together to depict the Blessed Mother under many of her glorious titles, period sculptures, and Italian marble for the altar and sanctuary. Its soaring ceiling makes for top-notch acoustics – the extent of which wouldn’t be realized until decades later with the installation of the rare Kleuker Organ.
A gift to the church from the Bryan family commemorating the golden wedding anniversary of Joseph M. Bryan and Kathleen Price Bryan, the “Jubilee” organ was built by the Detlef Kleuker Organ Co. of West Bielefeld, Germany. The yearlong installation was completed in the fall of 1977. The new organ features 2,226 individual pipes, 32 stops and 47 ranks over three manuals and pedal, and its installation was feted with a series of organ recitals by world-famous artists.
As unique as the organ is, rarer still is the singular talent of the parish’s organist and music director, Andrew O’Connor. Not long after majoring in organ music at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, O’Connor earned his current role at Our Lady of Grace Church, but it was hardly his first time playing the instrument. At just 15, he became a substitute organist for the parish and by 16 was playing there on a regular basis. However, his passion for organ music ignited long before that.
In fact, one of the pieces on the list to play for “Music for a Great Space” was, by divine providence, the very piece that drew O’Connor to organ music as a young child.
“When I was looking through the pieces selected for the series, I found the William Boyce voluntaries and, lo and behold, the first one, when I started to sample it, is the piece that made me fall in love with the organ when I was at the beach in Southport when I was 5 or 6. We sat right next to the organ, and you could just feel this 
majestic piece. … I was like, ‘Wow, I never knew what that piece was.’”
For the concert, O’Connor will play Boyce’s “Voluntary 1 in D Major,” as well as “Organ Concerto in G Major” by J.S. Bach (BWV 592) and his own “Fantasia on Regina Coeli: The Marian Antiphon for Eastertide.”
O’Connor composed the third piece extemporaneously during a Latin Mass two years ago: “Father was supposed to process out while we sang the Marian Antiphon. I hadn’t planned another piece and didn’t have any music in front of me, so I played my take on the antiphon. Friends urged me to transcribe what I played, and I’m excited to share it in this organ series.”
Anyone who has listened to O’Connor play the organ at Mass knows how easy it is to get swept up into an otherworldly experience.
Many say that to watch him create music in this sacred space is to be in the presence of something truly special.
He explains, “Being surrounded by these beautiful windows with titles for Our Lady, hearing about how important Mary was to Our Lord and our Catholic faith, playing this artistically built organ in this magnificent church with the excellent reverb – and surrounded by so much holiness, smelling the incense and the candles, it’s just an experience like no other.”
— Annie Ferguson, Correspondent
Watch the concert online
At www.musicforagreatspace.org: Andrew O’Connor of Our Lady of Grace Church performs at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 16. Check-in begins at 7 p.m.
To watch the organ concert streamed online, sign up for a free account.