Organist to Play Scandinavian Works as Part of Holy Cross Chapel Artist Series

WORCESTER, Mass. – Andrew Paul Holman, concert organist, and Michael Calmès, tenor, will perform Sunday, Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. in St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross. The concert is free and open to the public.

As part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, the program will feature organ works by contemporary Scandinavian composers alternating with works for tenor and organ by renowned composer Daniel Pinkham, who died in December of 2006. This concert, as well as the entire 2007-2008 Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, is dedicated to his memory.

Holman received his B.A. from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and his M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Mass., where he studied early music performance and harpsichord.  He has studied organ with world class performer and professor emeritus of organ and church music at Luther College, William Kuhlman; one of the finest organists of his generation and distinguished artist-in-residence at Holy Cross, James David Christie; and Canadian organist, harpsichordist, and teacher Bernard Lagacé.  He has given solo and ensemble performances in New England, the Midwest, on the West Coast and in Scandinavia. His concerts in the U.S. often include works by Scandinavian composers; conversely, he introduces American organ works to Scandinavian audiences.

Holman has performed numerous premieres of organ works composed for him by Pinkham. He is currently the organ instructor at the University of Massachusetts – Boston and has been music director at Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church in Cambridge, Mass. since 1989.

Calmès’s performances include a large repertoire of concerts, recitals, chamber music, oratorio, and opera. Since his 1982 Boston Lyric Opera Company debut in Puccini's Madame Butterfly, he has been acclaimed by audiences and critics alike in operas ranging from the sophistication of Richard Straus’s Ariadne auf Naxos to the comic genius of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus. Calmès maintains an active schedule as a guest soloist with numerous choruses, orchestras, and other ensembles. He excels in great oratorios such as Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Creation and Mendelssohn's Elijah; concert works include Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Symphony No. 9, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Calmès has an extensive repertoire of both well-known and rare works encompassing Monteverdi, Mozart, and contemporary masters – most notably, Pinkham.  He appears in many concert series and music festivals in the U.S., and has been featured on NPR broadcasts.

Pinkham, one of America’s most active and most-performed composers, taught at New England Conservatory from 1958 until 2000.  In addition to composing, he was an organist, harpsichordist, conductor, pioneer in the early music movement, and longtime music director at Boston’s historic King’s Chapel. With an A.B. and an M.A from Harvard University, his scholarship and work were recognized with a Fulbright Fellowship in 1950 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1962. He received six honorary degrees: New England Conservatory, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Adrian College, Westminster Choir College, Ithaca College, and the Boston Conservatory.