VIDEO: Preview Great Music at St. Bart's New Year's Eve Concert

The great Aeolian/Skinner organ of St. Bartholomew's Church is the largest in New York City, and the fifth largest church organ in the Western Hemisphere. It is one of the few organs in the world to feature a division of the instrument whose pipes reside in the dome of the church, allowing for acoustically brilliant effects with timbres such as ethereal celestes, colorful flutes, orchestral reeds, and brilliant trumpet sounds. Aptly entitled The Celestial Organ, this division was out of commission and completely restored by the Foley-Baker Organ Co. during the 14-month restoration of St. Bart's dome (see it in time-lapse photography), which was unveiled in September of this year.

So, when St. Bart's Director of Music and Organist William Trafka performs for the church's annual free New Year's Eve concert, A Concert To Usher In the New Year, on Sunday at 11:00 pm, all can hear the organ in its full splendor - particularly at the stroke of midnight, when Trafka will play his own arrangement of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man for organ and percussion - get a taste below.

Sunday, December 31, 2017, at 11:00 pm in the Church

A CONCERT TO USHER IN THE NEW YEAR

William K. Trafka, organ

In an annual St. Bart's tradition, William Trafka, Director of Music and Organist, performs works by Bach, Guilmant, and Mendelssohn on St. Bartholomew's grand Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ, one of New York's greatest musical treasures. Trafka's own transcription of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man will be played at the stroke of midnight.

A free Champagne toast will follow the concert.

Admission is free

For more information, visit www.mmpaf.org, or call 212-378-0248. St. Bart's is located in Midtown Manhattan, 325 Park Avenue at 51st Street.

Great Music at St. Bart's, the concert series produced by the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation (www.mmpaf.org), for the past seven years has presented music in St. Bartholomew's Church, a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of New York located in the heart of midtown Manhattan. The magnificent 1918 Romanesque-style church, a National Historic Landmark, features a portal designed by Stanford White and a grand Byzantine-style interior - and two of New York's unlikely but outstanding concert spaces. The 150-seat chapel is an intimate and acoustically brilliant space perfectly suited for contemporary chamber music, and the majestic 1,000-seat sanctuary - outfitted with comfortable chairs enabling flexible seating -boasts an Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ that is the largest in New York City and one of the finest examples of the American Classic Organ in the U.S.

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