Pipe Organ Dedication & Recital

St. James Anglican Church LaHave

7pm Friday, November 2

Freewill offering.

Mark Himmelman

Performs works by Bach, Buxtehude, Franck and others.

 Wine and cheese reception after the concert with tasting of wines

from the Petite Riviere Winery.

A native of Bridgewater, Mark Himmelman began playing the organ at the young age of seven and by age eight had played his first church service.  Mark holds a bachelors degree in music performance from the University of PEI.  Subsequent studies in organ have included the Mount Royal International and the McGill Summer Organ Academies. He is currently organist and director of music at the Presbyterian Church of Saint David in Halifax, NS.   As a performing artist Mark has concretized throughout Canada and the US and in 2006 released his first CD entitled “Enigma”.

The Story...

 

Dalhousie University Department of Music had been looking for a home for a practice organ which it was no longer in need of.  The Department only occasionally has an organ student and when they do come, they normally connect with a local Halifax church and practice there.  The organ is an electric action pipe organ built by Hill, Norman & Beard (London, England) in 1971.  They were offering the organ free of charge, on an as-is, where-is basis.

 

Mark Himmelman, current organist at St. David’s Presbyterian Church in Halifax, knew of the Department’s desire to find a home for the organ.  He asked the people of St. James’ Anglican Church in LaHave, the church he attended as a child, if they would like this gift.  He offered to disassemble the organ from the practice room and reassemble the organ at St. James and to give a recital.  The congregation and rector were most enthusiastic about the gracious offers of the Dalhousie Music Department and of Mark Himmelman’s time and skill. 

 

Mark volunteered two weeks of his summer holidays in August and several Mondays in September and October to complete this complicated and delicate task of disassembling and then reassembling the organ in its new home and tuning the hundreds of pipes of all shapes and sizes.  Mark had the help of his uncle Melvin Himmelman, a warden at St. James, and others to do some of the heavy moving.  Only about a dozen of the hundreds of magnets which control the opening and closing of air valves for the pipes have had to be replaced.

 

Mark will give an organ recital at 7pm on Friday November 2 at St. James Anglican Church in LaHave.  The pipe organ will be dedicated to the glory of God and in memory of Mark’s father, Wendell Himmelman, and great grandmother, Florence Himmelman.  There will be a wine and cheese reception following the recital with a tasting of wines from the Petite Riviere Winery in Crousetown.

 

On Saturday November 3, from 10:00am to 2:30pm Mark will offer a pipe organ workshop at St. James.  This workshop in intended for the rural organist or pianists that have been forced onto the organ bench!  It will cover creative and effective hymn/service playing, easy and accessible music for preludes postludes and offertories, and a demonstration of how a pipe organ works.  Participants are also encouraged to bring music of their own as they will also have an opportunity to play a hymn of prelude as part of the workshop.