World Premiere of Dan Locklair’s Noel's Psalm (A Sonata for Organ) Performed by Dr. Robert Parkins on March 25 at Duke University Chapel in Durham, No

The World Premiere of Dan Locklair’s Noel's Psalm (A Sonata for Organ) will be performed by Dr. Robert Parkins on March 25 @ 5 PM at Duke University Chapel, 401 Chapel Drive in Durham, North Carolina.

Dr. Parkins will present the piece along with Locklair’s organ transcription of In Memory - H.H.L. for string orchestra, which was originally composed in late summer 2005 for string orchestra and bears the following dedication: In loving memory of my mother, Hester Helms Locklair (1918-2005).

The composer writes, “Noel’s Psalm (A Sonata for Organ) is the result of a commission from Rebeccah Neff. The piece honors the memory of her brother, Noel J. Kinnamon (1943-2012), on what would have been his 75^th birthday (September 6, 2018).  Dr. Kinnamon was a distinguished scholar of English literature and a consummate university professor, dedicating 45 years of his professional life to the Department of English at Mars Hill University in Mars Hill, North Carolina. I was fortunate to have been among the thousands of students that he taught. His love for poetry brought about the creation of a number of poems, some of them published. Spring Planting: Psalm 65, published in the Spring 1986 edition of Christianity & Literature (An Interdisciplinary Journal), was one of those poems. It is that poem that provided the extra-musical stimulus for Noel’s Psalm (A Sonata for Organ).”

Other works on the program, performed on the chapel’s Aeolian organ, will be music by Max Reger, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Florence Price, Kent Kennan, Robert Ward and Adolphus Hailstork.

This event is free and open to the public. For more concert information, please visit https://music.duke.edu/events/organ-recital-series-dr-robert-parkins.

Dr. Robert Parkins, University Organist and a Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke, has performed throughout the United States and Europe, as well as in Central America. His organ and harpsichord recordings have appeared on the Calcante, Gothic, Musical Heritage Society, and Naxos labels.

Dan Locklair's music is widely performed throughout the U.S. and around the world. His catalog includes symphonic works, a ballet, an opera, chamber, instrumental, vocal and choral compositions. Locklair's commissioned compositions have been performed by musicians worldwide, including the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Kansas City Symphony, the St. Louis Orchestra, the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys of New York City and the Saint Paul’s Cathedral Choir of London. Broadcasts of it have included Vatican Radio, Czech Radio, Radio Finland, NPR, the BBC and the CBC. Recent CDs include the critically acclaimed Tapestries, Choral Music of Dan Locklair on MSR Classics (MS 1463) and Gloria (Sacred Choral Works) on Convivium Records (CD033). Recordings of his works are also available on Naxos, Ondine, Koch, Albany, Loft, Priory (UK) and other labels. His primary publishers are Ricordi and Subito. Dan Locklair is Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

####