Summer Fest free concert series to kick off 2023-24 Peoria AGO season

The Peoria Chapter of the American Guild of Organists will once again present a series of free concerts in August to be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1420 W. Moss Ave. in Peoria.

Four accomplished area organists will perform works from many different composers of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern periods. Original arrangements or compositions may also be included in each organist’s program.

These free concerts will be performed on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 pm.

To kick off the 2023-24 season, Dr. Kipp Cortez will present the first recital on August 9. Click here for a sneak peak of his program.

Kipp has led a varied and interesting career as a church organist and choir director, university professor, carillonneur, and organ builder. Since April of 2021, he has worked in the service department at John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders where he has worked on the restoration and renovation of several historic instruments. He serves as Assistant Organist at the Chapel of Saint John the Divine in Champaign where he regularly plays Buzard Opus 7.

Take it away, Kipp!

When planning a recital, I always strive to plan a program that celebrates the innate character of the instrument. What can this instrument do well? Owing to the largely Neo-Baroque character of the Visser-Rowland organ at Westminster, Bach Passacaglia and the d’Aquin Noel were given. I then ponder what music could provide appropriate stretching of the instrument’s resources. Though outside of the time period of the previous two, the Mendelssohn and Hindemith sonatas land on this instrument with as much comfort; the clarity of the ensemble lends itself to the contrapuntal nature of the former and the variety of reed and mutation voices provide a color palette demanded by the latter. It is my hope that aspects of the Widor Adagio from the G minor Symphony and Duruflé Soissons Fugue might be illumined in different ways by featuring them on this instrument.

– Dr. Kipp Cortez

Kipp is originally from the Chicago suburb of LaGrange Park. He took degrees in organ and sacred music at Valparaiso University (B.Mus) and the University of Michigan (M.Mus and D.M.A.). His organ teachers were Dennis Northway, Lorraine Brugh, James Kibbie, and Marilyn Mason. He also studied carillon with Steven Ball and Dennis Curry. He was named to the Diapason Magazine 20 under 30 class of 2016.