GUILFORD — Friends of Music at Guilford presents “The Four Bs: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms & The Barn,” its 5th Annual Spring Recital at the Organ Barn in rural Guilford.
The concert is Sunday, May 26, at 3 p.m., and features the “Dynamic Two-O” of organist Kenneth Olsson and soprano Julie Johnson Olsson, with an assist by the Guilford Chamber Players.
The program offers selections from the great organ master himself, J. S. Bach.
Kenneth will play “Fantasia in G Major” (BWV 572), and the “Prelude and Fugue in E flat Major” (“St. Anne”). Julie will offer soprano arias from sacred and secular cantatas with accompaniment, including a small ensemble on winds and strings.
Beethoven's contribution is the “Fugue for Organ in D Major,” his only solo organ work. The program concludes with selections from Brahms' “Chorale Preludes,” Op. 122.
Ken is now Friends of Music's Labor Day Festival orchestra conductor, following David Kidwell's 15-season run, but was previously featured at the circa-1897 Guilford Tracker Organ on Labor Day weekend in 2011, performing an all-Bach program.
A graduate of Ithaca College in vocal performance, he is a multifaceted musician who sings tenor as well as performs as conductor and keyboardist on piano and organ. He has appeared on stage with several opera companies in the region and further afield, has been music director for area productions at Main Street Arts in Saxtons River and St. Michael's Catholic Church in Brattleboro, and is in his second season as conductor of the Springfield (Vt.) Community Chorus.
Julie Johnson Olsson began her professional career at age 17, performing the role of Mrs. Hopkins in the American Musical Theater production of “My Fair Lady.” She, too, earned her degree in vocal performance at Ithaca, then studied at the International Institute of Vocal Arts and the University of Missouri–Kansas City, performing many iconic operatic roles in the process.
Returning East, she joined the Salt Marsh Opera Company (Stonington, Conn.) for their productions of Madama Butterfly and Tosca. More recently she appeared in “H.M.S. Pinafore” at Main Street Arts in Saxtons River, and “Don Giovanni” with the Raylynmor Opera of Keene. She was featured with her husband as accompanist in Friends of Music's “Winter Songs” program in February 2012.
The music will be followed by a lavish holiday barbecue with grilling items for both vegetarians and carnivores, a variety of salads and other “fixin's,” and festive desserts. A variety of non-alcoholic beverages will be provided; attendees are welcome to bring their favorite beer or wine to enjoy with the meal.
The Organ Barn is at Tree Frog Farm on Kopkind Drive in Guilford, just off Packer Corners Road, about nine miles from the junction of Route 5 South and Guilford Center Road.
This event is a modest fundraiser to support the considerable costs of the Labor Day Weekend Festival at the same locale.