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Inaugural concert of the newly restored pipe organ
at the Unitarian Church. Unitarian Church, 25 Main Street, Peterborough, New Hampshire, 03458 Sunday, March 14th 2004, at 3:00 in the afternoon. The music is organic. Entrance is free. Sumptuous refreshments afterwards.
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Peter Sykes is one of the most
distinguished and versatile keyboard artists performing today.
He has appeared in recital at conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, American Institute of Organbuilders, International Society of Organbuilders, the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society, at the Boston Early Music Festival, Library of Congress, Aston Magna Festival, New England Bach Festival, with Ensemble Project Ars Nova, The King's Noyse, Musica Antiqua Köln, and throughout the United States, including an appearance in Boston's Jordan Hall as a featured soloist (Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto) in the Bank of Boston Emerging Artists Celebrity Series. He is frequently heard on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Pipedreams." Recent appearances include recitals for the symposium The Organ in the New Millennium at Pacific Lutheran University; an all-Bach inaugural recital on a new organ built by Fritz Noack for the Langholtskirkja in Reykjavik, Iceland; Bach's Goldberg Variations for the Renaissance and Baroque Society in Pittsburgh; the opening recital of the Organ Historical Society Convention in Boston and the closing recital of the OHS conventions in Greensboro and Chicago. He was a member of the continuo team at the 1999 and 2oo1 Boston Early Music Festival Opera productions of Cavalli's Ercole Amante and Lully's Thésée, and appears regularly in concert and on recordings with Boston Baroque. His solo recordings include J.S. Bach's complete Leipzig Chorales recorded on the Noack organ of the Langholtskirkja in Reykjavik, From The Heartland - Two Nordlie Organs in South Dakota, Harpsichord Music of Couperin and Rameau, A Nantucket Organ Tour, and MAXimum Reger: Favorite Organ Works. His bestselling recording of his organ transcription of Holst's orchestral suite The Planets was named Best of 1996 by Audio Review, a "Super CD" by Absolute Sound in 1999, and garners accolades in every review. He appears on the Cambridge Bach Ensemble recording The Muses of Zion, performing organ works of Tunder and Buxtehude on the Fisk meantone organ of Wellesley College, the Music from Aston Magna recording of the oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth, in which he performs the first known organ concerto movement of Handel, and on the Grammy-nominated Boston Baroque recordings of Handel's Messiah, Bach's B-Minor Mass, and Monteverdi's Vespers. A new solo recording has just been released: Modern Organ Music, a disc of music by Hindemith, Heiller, Pinkham, Woodman, and Icelandic composers on the Noack organ in the Neskirkja in Reykjavik. He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Gabriel Chodos, Blanche Winogron, Mireille Lagacé, Robert Schuneman, and Yuko Hayashi, and Concordia University in Montreal, where he studied with Bernard Lagacé. In 1978 he was winner of the Chadwick Medal from the New England Conservatory for outstanding undergraduate achievement; in the same year, he was a winner of the school's annual concerto competition, playing the Harpsichord Concerto of Frank Martin. In 1983 he was the winner of the Boston Chapter American Guild of Organists Young Artists Competition; in 1986, winner of the Second International Harpsichord Competition sponsored by the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society. He was the 1993 laureate of the Erwin Bodky Award for excellence in early music performance. He is Director of Music at First Church in Cambridge, Congregational and a member of the faculties of the Longy School of Music, Boston University, and the New England Conservatory. He has served as adjudicator for competitions sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Bach International Harpsichord Festival, serves a director of the Cambridge Society for Early Music, and is a founding board member and current president of the Boston Clavichord Society. |
