Winter 2018

In this issue…

Bienvenido, Raúl —Page 2 Spreckels Exhibit in Coronado —Page 3 Insider Tour is March 24 —at right

Upcoming Events

The Spreckels Organ plays every Sunday, rain or shine, at 2 p.m for a free public concert in the heart of Balboa Park.

Sat. Feb. 24 – Navy Band Southwest with Tucson Concert Band – 2 p.m.

Tues. Mar 6 - US Navy Sea Chanters – 7 p.m.

Sat. Mar 24 - Brunch-Concert-Tour of Spreckels Organ

Sun. Apr. 1 – EASTER SUNDAY – Annual Sunrise Service

Sun. Apr. 8 – Drive to 5000 Donor Reception, after Sunday concert

Sat. Apr 14 – Inaugural Concert for Raúl Prieto Ramírez – 7:30 p.m.

Sat. Apr. 21 – AGO / SD Organ Crawl – registration required www.agosd.org

Sun. Apr 22 – EARTH FAIR in Balboa Park

Sat. May 26 – FIESTA BOTANICA celebrates Balboa Park’s 150th Birthday! Or-gan Concerts at 1 pm. and 2 p.m.

Tues. Jun 19 – Opening Concert: “Twilight in the Park” music series 6:15 p.m

Mon. Jun 25 - Opening Concert of 31st International Organ Festival, 7:30 p.m.

Mon. Aug 6 - Annual SOS Membership Meeting on Pavilion Stage at 5:30 p.m.

Mon. Aug 20 – Movie Night Beer/Wine Tasting Fundraiser at Japanese Friendship Garden, 5 to 7 pm.—followed by annual Silent Movie at Organ Festival.

Mon. Sept 3 – Finale Concert of the Summer Organ Festival

Sat. Oct 6 – Onstage fundraising luncheon including intimate concert

Sat. Dec 1 – Community Christmas Center opening – 3 p.m.

Fri / Sat Dec 7-8 – December Nights in Balboa Park

Tues. Jan 1, 2019 - New Years Day Concert

Audience members greet San Die-go’s new Civic Organist, Raúl Prieto Ramírez, after his debut concert on January 7 (story inside).

More Events/Concerts

Saturday Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. .— Or-ganist Cameron Carpenter in con-cert at Poway Center for the per-forming Arts, 15498 Espola Road - Poway CA 92064. Box office 858-748-0505. Discount for Spreckels Members – ORGAN18 is your code.

Saturday Feb. 24 at 6 p.m.— The-atre Organ Society of San Diego presents The Mark of Zorro (1920) with Russ Peck in accompaniment - 3902 Kenwood Dr. Spring Valley 91977 – Your Organ Society mem-bership card gets the Theatre Soci-ety member discount!

Saturday March 17 at 8 p.m. .— Theatre Organist Russ Peck ac-companies a screening of Metrop-olis (1927) at Copley Symphony Hall. Tickets: 619-235-0804.

Saturday March 24 at 6 p.m. .— Theatre Organ Society of San Die-go presents Organist/Musicologist Adam Aceto accompanying Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

Saturday April 14 at 7:30 p.m.— Special INAUGURAL CONCERT by San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez—his first “long form” concert on the Spreckels Organ.

Saturday May 26 at 1 and 2 p.m. The Spreckels Organ will play brief concerts as part of the City’s celebration of the 150th anniver-sary of the founding of Balboa Park. The event, “Fiesta Botanica,” includes tours, performances, a flower wagon parade, and more.

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Welcome New Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez On January 7, San Diego welcomed its eighth Civic Organist, Raúl Prieto Ramírez, for his first Sunday concert. In his review for SanDiegoSto-ry.com, music critic Ken Herman lauded Raúl’s ability to achieve “solidly integrated, authentic orchestral sonority.” The large concert crowd loved every note, and recent weekly concerts have sustained larger-than-usual audiences. The moment capped a search process that started in the autumn of 2016, when Civic Organ-ist Emerita Carol Williams announced her plans to move east to continue her career closer to her family in England. The search for someone to build on Dr. Carol’s impressive record required cooperation with the City Park & Recreation De-partment, expert input from an expert Search Committee, and plenty of work from applicants: they all had to submit 26 weeks worth of Sunday programming ideas. In the summer of 2017, a handful of finalists were picked to play audition concerts. Raúl’s con-cert was October 1; audience surveys agreed with the Search Committee that he was first choice. Audiences, Society members, neighbor organi-zations in Balboa Park, and musical collaborators of all types are in the process of getting to know this talented artist, who together with his wife Te-resa Sierra is getting settled in the UTC area, where they’ll be sharing space with Raúl’s elec-tronic practice organ and a grand piano, on which Teresa will offer student instruction. Now in the midst of scheduling the Society’s Summer Organ Festival, Raúl is brimming with ideas for collaboration, marketing, and education-al development. Watch the Society’s online pro-file in weeks and months to come – there’s musi-cal growth and excitement ahead.

SPECIAL THANKS to volunteer photographers Bob Lang and

Mike Cox, whose photos grace these pages. They wish

to remind you that Facebook is the fastest way to see the photos they take at concerts!

In partnership with the Veterans Museum and the US Navy, the Spreckels Organ Society is proud to host two special concerts on the Organ Pavilion stage:

Saturday Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.— The U.S. Navy Band Southwest and the Tucson Concert Band present “Prisms.”

Tuesday March 6 at 7 p.m.— The U.S. Navy Sea Chanters in concert.

Dear Members and Friends of the Spreck-els Organ Society,

It's a pleasure to start getting to know so many new friends. Since my arri-val in San Diego at the new year, I have had the pleas-ure of many conversations and new acquaintances. I hope that you, in turn, have enjoyed the concerts these past few Sundays.

There is so much more music to share! I look forward to an excellent experience as we build the organ pro-grams together. All of us can play a part. I am eager to develop the music, and I hope that you will be just as eager to sup-port the Spreckels Organ Society with your member-ship, goodwill, and creative thoughts. Already we are working on improvements to our educational program and social media. I hope that you will make a point of attending the Inaugural Concert on April 14 and I invite you to en-courage your friends and neighbors to give us a try. We can make their concert attendance a musical intro-duction all its own. Sincerely,

Raúl Prieto Ramírez Civic Organist / Artistic Director

We have excitement, friends: Our new Civic Organist / Artistic Direc-tor, Raúl Prieto Ramírez, has taken not only Spreckels, but seemingly the whole city of San Diego, by storm in one month. Our Sunday attendance figures are dou-bled, we have many new Society mem-bers, and there is a decided uptick in dona-tions! It was a year and a half ago when Carol Williams called to let me know that she was moving to Vir-ginia. After my initial shock and a scheduled public an-nouncement, I put together what turned out to be a wonderful search committee. They represented various facets of San Diego’s musical world and were creative and forward-thinking. The committee, which I chaired, consisted of: Concert Soprano Diane Alexander, San Diego Opera General Director David Bennett, Society Trustee Joe DeMers, Ex-Trustee and Benefactor Extraordinaire Dwight Gordon, Balboa Park Man-ager Susan Lowery-Mendoza, San Diego Master Chorale Conductor John Russell, Spreckels Organ Curator Dale Sorenson, and San Diego First United Methodist Church Di-rector of Music Stan Wicks. In addition, we had wonderful staff support from Lizbeth Persons Price, our publicity guru, and Executive Director Ross Porter. Each of these individuals has my undying thanks and gratitude for a wonderful job. We publicized the position worldwide and wound up with 20 applicants, each of whom had the background to be con-sidered for the job. We asked for their responses to a very detailed application process, then narrowed the list down fi-nally to six who we had Skype interviews with, and from that process we had four finalists. Each of them played a Sunday concert this last summer, and we offered the job to Raúl, who was unanimously chosen by the search committee and by the Board of Trustees. Every time that I was interviewed by TV, radio, and print media during the process, I said that we needed to find some-one who could play the Spreckels Organ beautifully and mag-nificently, and also had the charisma to bring people into the Pavilion during concerts and to keep them there for the dura-tion. Any of you who have attended one of Raúl’s concerts knows that he fills the bill beyond our wildest expectations. If you have not heard him yet, come down any Sunday at 2:00. He also will be giving an inaugural concert on Saturday, April 14, and will be playing in the Summer Organ Festival. So, at this point, I will just say: BIENVENIDO, Raúl. It’s great to have you! . Warmly, Jack Lasher

President

Page 2 StopTab Winter 2018

Supporting Music in the Park As a member of the Spreckels Organ Society, you’re supporting a musical legacy in Balboa Park and through-out San Diego County. The Society has a range of special programs that you can boost: visits by Fifth Grade stu-dents to the great Spreckels Organ… scholarships for stu-dents of organ… and summer concerts under the stars. Contact Ross Porter at 619-702-8138 – sosorgan@gmail.com – to learn more about how your financial gift can make a difference in these exciting programs.

Page 3 StopTab Winter 2018

StopTab: A Quarterly published by the

SPRECKELS ORGAN SOCIETY 1549 El Prado, Suite 10, San Diego CA 92101-1661

(619) 702-8138 / SOSorgan@gmail.com / www.SpreckelsOrgan.org

Officers President - Jack Lasher

Vice President - Dang Nguyen Treasurer - Clifford McMillan

Secretary - Jean Samuels

Trustees Kris Abels Pamela Hartwell Manuel Aguilar Ralph Hughes Gary Allard Kenneth McMillen Mitch Beauchamp Max Nanis Andrea Card David Nesvig Joseph DeMers Marion Persons Len Filomeo Lynn Reaser Dennis Fox Paulette Rodgers-Leahy Lukas Florczak Paul Saunders Charles Gunther Tony Uribe Tony Valencia

Ex-Officio Trustees Lyle Blackinton—Curator Emeritus

Ross Porter—Executive Director & StopTab Editor Dale Sorenson—Curator

Raúl Prieto Ramírez—Artistic Director

Music Celebration: Healy Willan

After J.S. Bach, English-Canadian composer Healy Willan (1880-1968) is one of the most prolific composers of liturgi-cal music. To mark the 50th anniversary of Willan’s passing, a year-long musical celebration is being offered at All Saints Episcopal Church (6th and Pennsylvania Avenues, San Die-go). For a complete schedule of the WillanWest events, see events calendar at www.WillanWest.org.

John D. Spreckels: The Man, The Legacy

The story of John D. Spreckels is the subject of a new exhibit by the Coronado Historical Association that opens March 1. More than a generous philanthro-pist, he was an active force in the creation of today’s San Diego County. The Coronado Museum, 1100 Or-ange Ave., Coronado 92118. Open daily 10am-4pm. Exhibit closes August 31.

Sunday March 4 – 2 p.m. Spreckels Organ Concert

featuring Robert Plimpton, Civic Organist Emeritus

with Eric Starr, Trombone

A Sunday concert full of musical surprises!

Onstage at the Pavilion after Raúl’s first concert, Leslie Wolf Robb enjoys a cookie offered by Manuel Aguilar, one of three new Trus-tees joining the Society in 2018. More great photos online at www.SpreckelsOrgan.org.

The Famous THURSDAY CLUB RUMMAGE SALE Saturday March 10, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday March 11, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Free Admission Balboa Park Activity Center, 2145 Park Blvd.

Tell your friends about these two spe-cial concerts featuring musicians of the U. S. Navy — in partnership with the Veterans Museum at Balboa Park. Pre-sented free to the public at the Spreck-els Organ Pavilion:

Saturday Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.— The U.S. Navy Band Southwest and the Tucson Concert Band present “Prisms.”

Tuesday March 6 at 7 p.m.— The U.S. Navy Sea Chanters in concert. The Sea Chanters are the United States Navy’s official chorus, performing a variety of music ranging from traditional choral music, including sea chanteys and patriotic fare, to opera, Broadway, and contemporary music.

Tickets will not be issued for these concerts—it’s open seating.

News from Carol Williams,

San Diego Civic Organist Emerita:

Dr. Carol Williams, Artistic Director of the Virginia International Organ Festival, announces the line-up

of artists for the Virginia International Organ Festival 2018:

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27 May, Anthony Newman; 3 June, Gordon Turk; 10 June, Rising Stars; 17 June, Silent Movie with Steven Ball; 24 June, Grand Finale with Carol Williams.

The concerts are on the Schantz organ at Court Street United Methodist Church 621 Court St, Lynchburg, VA 24504

All concerts are at 3pm and free. Website: https://www.facebook.com/621CourtStreet/

Welcome, New Trustees The Spreckels Organ Society welcomes three new trustees in 2018: Manuel Aguilar, Lukas Florczak, and

Ken McMillen. Here’s to a great year ahead!