EXCELLENCE...
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle 

NJCS wraps up the 2007-2008 season on May 31st with a concert featuring AN AMERICAN ICON, organist Frederick Swann. Mr. Swann currently holds the office of National President, American Guild of Organists. His career has spanned more than 65 years, including an association with the music ministry of the famed Riverside Church in New York City from 1952 through 1982. Mr. Swann is Organist Emeritus of the Crystal Cathedral and of First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, and Organ Artist-in-residence at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, California. During his tenure at the Crystal Cathedral, Mr. Swann was widely regarded as the most visible organist in the world, as millions in every major city in more than 165 countries worldwide saw and heard him on the weekly televised services. 

Our concert will be held at the West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, NJ, with Mr. Swann playing the new 51-stop 65-rank three-manual instrument, built by Nichols & Simpson, Inc., of Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Randall Thompson – Alleluia
Rene Clausen - All That Hath Life and Breath Praise Ye the Lord
Arr. Frederick Swann - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty                     
Frederick Swann - Let the Whole Creation Cry
Cesar Franck - Choral No. 2 in B minor
Camille Saint-Saens - Veni Creator Spiritus
Joakim Seidevall - Veni Creator Spiritus
        WORLD PREMIERE  *read about it below 
Antonio Vivaldi - Cum Sancto Spiritu 
Sigfrid Karg-Elert - Fugue, Canzone and Epilogue, Op. 85, Number 3
Louis Vierne – Messe solennelle in C# minor, op. 16
Mack Wilberg – Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Eric Dale Knapp, conductor 
Garah Landes, guest accompanist

One performance only! 

Saturday, May 31 at 8:00 p.m.
West Side Presbyterian Church
6 South Monroe Street, Ridgewood, NJ 

The Inside Line will be presented at 7:00pm by Dr. Matthew Lewis, Organist and Director of Music at the Church of the Incarnation in Manhattan, member of the organ faculty of the Juilliard School Pre-College division, Artistic Director and Conductor of St. George's Choral Society and Organist at Temple Israel in Lawrence, New York.

Advance tickets: $20 adults/ $17 seniors, students, and patrons with disabilities
Add $3 at the door

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A chance encounter in a Sydney, Australia coffee shop has resulted in this premiere of a young Swedish composer's music. In July 2006 NJCS's artistic director and conductor, Eric Dale Knapp, was leading a massed choir of 250 singers from around the US and England for the Voices in the House Music Festival in Sydney, Australia. While Knapp was sipping coffee at a local shop, reviewing his score of Duruflé's masterwork Requiem, the signature choral work for the festival, he was approached by a waiter who had more than a casual interest in music. Joakim Seidevall, age 31 at the time and recently relocated to Sydney from his native Sweden, had been composing music since age 14. Intrigued by Seidevall's story, Knapp met with him later that week to review another Requiem - this one written by Seidevall between Septembers of 2001 and 2003. He had begun writing this work after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, compelled to express himself in a Requiem, to "give comfort and relief to anyone who had lost a dear one." 

Knapp invited Seidevall to New York a few months after their meeting in Sydney to discuss some collaborative opportunities. During the long flight across the Pacific, the composer hand-wrote an a cappella setting of Veni Creator Spiritus, which he dedicated and presented to Knapp upon his arrival. During his visit, Seidevall sat in on an NJCS rehearsal, giving the singers a chance to get to meet the composer personally, prior to performing the premiere of his piece this May 31.