Weekend picks: Central California Baroque Festival, Isabelle Demer with Keyboard Concerts

By Donald Munro

This is a golden weekend for fans of the organ. Not one but two noted organists perform:

• Joy Leilani-Garbutt is a special guest artist at the Central California Baroque Festival (Saturday, Jan. 25, at University Presbyterian Church).

• Isabelle Demers performs for the Philip Lorenz International Keyboard Concerts series (3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, at First Congregational Church).

Here’s a rundown:

Baroque Festival

Garbutt, organist at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco, is a prominent performer, educator and advocate for women composers. She is co-founder of Boulanger Initiative, a non-profit organization “dedicated to supporting music composed by women through performance, education, and commissions.” She will lecture and perform at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Baroque festival along with alto Jessalyn Levine.

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I enjoyed reading about Garbutt in a New York Times story headlined  “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Organ.” 

The festival, which kicks off at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, is sponsored by the Fresno County Music Teachers’ Association of California, The Bob Bennett Baroque Educational Fund, and Fresno Musical Club. It includes a festival recital and two awards recitals along with the guest artists. Admission is free.

Keyboard Concerts

Demers returns to the annual organ concert sponsored by the Keyboard series. Andreas Werz, artistic director of the series, calls her “one of the most celebrated concert organists in America today — we are extremely privileged to be able to present her again in Fresno.” Demers first appeared with the series in 2015.

A native of Quebec, she studied at Juilliard, performs across the U,.S. and Canada and currently serves as professor of organ at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

The concert is co-sponsored by the San Joaquin Valley Chapter, American Guild of Organists. Tickets are $40 general, $30 seniors and $5 students.

(Patrons should note that the venue (the First Congregational Church) differs from the regular Keyboard venue at Fresno State.)

WIN TICKETS: The first reader to leave a comment on this post will get a pair of free tickets to Sunday’s concert.