Organist Gordon Turk Will Perform Rarely-Heard Work, 'The Storm' in Ocean Grove

As part of Ocean Grove's Victorian Day and Illumination Night Celebration, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association's organist-in-Residence Dr. Gordon Turk will perform Clarence Kohlmann's The Storm, on the historic Great Auditorium Pipe Organ at 12 Noon on Saturday, August 14, 2021 in Ocean Grove, NJ. This is a FREE concert.

The Great Auditorium is located at Pilgrim and Ocean Pathways in Ocean Grove, NJ. All facilities are handicapped accessible. For more information, visit www.oceangrove.org/victorian.

"The Storm" was written in the mid-1920s by Clarence Kohlmann, who served as the organist in the Great Auditorium from 1924-1944. This rarely-heard piece follows a Civil War army unit as it marches and encamps with snippets of music from that era: "Dawn" from the Peer Gynt Suite," a bugle's reveille, "America," hymns and church bells, a funeral march. An ominous storm approaches, with rushing winds, loud thunder and lightning that will reverberate throughout the 5000-seat Auditorium, showcasing the organ's 12,000 pipes. As the storm passes, peace returns with a hymn, a camp song and taps. Historical note: The Storm was recorded in 1929 by Thomas Edison in the Great Auditorium.

A critically acclaimed concert organist, Dr. Gordon Turk is celebrating his 46th Anniversary as Resident Organist and Founder and Artistic Music Director for the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Summer Stars classical music series. In these roles, he performs weekly recitals and at worship services on the massive Great Auditorium Pipe Organ and overseas a five-concert classical series in the Great Auditorium.

Turk travels nationally and internationally for concert performances, and has played at Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center and other landmark concert halls in the US, Europe, Japan and Russia. He is particularly proud to have been selected to play at in opening recitals for the inauguration of the new pipe organ at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center in May 2006. A graduate of the famed Curtis Institute of Music, he studied piano with Vladimir Sokoloff and organ with Alexander McCurdy, and studied with New York composer and organist McNeil Robinson at the Manhattan School of Music, earning the Master's degree and the Doctor of Musical Arts, both with honors. He taught as Professor of Organ at West Chester University in PA, from 1992 - 1999.

Ocean Grove's Great Auditorium Pipe Organ is among the largest working pipe organs in the world, and is the heart-beat of the Christian, Victorian resort by the sea. This historic, 12,000+ pipe instrument was built and installed in 1908 with original design innovations that became standard elements still extant in modern organ construction. It is made of over 40,000 feet of California No. 1 Sugar Pine and weighs 20 - 25 tons. In its illustrious 123-year-history, this remarkable instrument has been played by numerous distinguished organists, including Virgil Fox, Will C. MacFarlane, Clarence Kohlman, Josephine Eddowes, Harold Fix, Clarence Reynolds, Beverly Davis, Jon Quinn, and Robert Carwithin.

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