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December 1
“Telling”
Christmas Music from the 20th Century and present
Program
Andrew Jenning, violin, and Gail Jennings, organ,
Adoration by Florence Price (1887-1952)
Ave Maria by Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992 )
A Collage of Christmas Carols, Arr. by Gail Jennings
I- Sacred Carols of Adoration
II-Wassailing Gigues for the Yuletide
Shin-Ae Chun, piano,
Christmas Sonatina by Carl Reinecke
In the Bleak Mid-Winter and Go Tell It on the Mountain by Shin-Ae Chun
Fugue on Veni, Veni Emmanuel for Four Hands (with Gail Jennings) by Kyle Shaw
Tom Strode, organ,
Christmas (Variations on Adeste Fideles) by Gaston Dethier
Gail Jennings has been the Organist at Bethlehem United Church of Christ in Ann Arbor for 30 years and is an active chamber musician and accompanist. A native of New York City, she attended the Mannes College of Music studying piano with Nadia Riesenberg and the Juilliard School studying composition with Roger Sessions and Hal Overton. The Juilliard School awarded her the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Award in composition on her graduation. She received her Masters of Music in organ performance at the University of Akron. She has studied organ with Phillip Steinhaus, Anthony Newman, and Marilyn Mason. As a duo with her husband Andrew, she has performed most of the violin/keyboard repertoire.
Violinist Andrew Jennings was born into a family of painters but rather than follow the family “business” (and not having received the graphics gene) he turned to music, graduating from the Juilliard School and going on to become a member of the Concord String Quartet. Winner of the Naumburg Award and touring across the globe., the Quartet made many recordings and commissioned and premiered the works of many formidable composers. After the quartet ended he began a teaching career already underway at Dartmouth College, then at Oberlin College Conservatory and finally at the University of Michigan. In addition he has been a member of the artist faculty at Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony, for the past thirty-seven summers.
Dr. Thomas Strode, a native of Portland (Oregon), did his graduate work with Dr. Marilyn Mason at the University of Michigan, where he earned the M.Mus. and the DMA degrees in organ performance. He has been a church musician for 57 years, and retired from his last position at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor, in June of 2019. Prior to his appointment at St. Paul, he was Organist & Choirmaster at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor. He was Founder/Director of the Boychoir of Ann Arbor (1987), having led the choir on tours to Washington, DC, Minnesota, and the Czech Republic. He retired from that position in 2017. He has performed recitals in several states as well as in Spain, Italy, and England.
As a concert organist and harpsichordist represented by Concert Artist Cooperative, Shin-Ae Chun has given concerts on festivals and concert series as soloist and with ensembles and orchestras in the U.S, South Korea, Germany, Poland and Romania. She has also taught on both organ and harpsichord at various workshops. Her two organ solo CDs were released upon the request by Redeemer Lutheran Church in St. Clair Shores, MI: The Angels Dance and On Cherubim Wings, some music selections of which were featured on Pipedreams, a nationally broadcasted radio station devoted to organ music. She is organist at First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor. Besides her church duties, she runs AD LIBITUM Concert Series