June 1998

Thelma Olava Michelson died on March 3 at her home in Park Ridge, Illinois, after a long illness at the age of 96. She was a Chicago area music director, church organist and choir director most of her life. Throughout the years she was associated with Moorland Lutheran Church, Ebenezer Lutheran Church, Chicago; St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Park Ridge; St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Evanston for 21 years; and Congregation Solel of Highland Park for 14 years. She was a member of Edison Park Lutheran Church, Chicago, for over 50 years.

Richard Watson casts bells for Mercersburg

A small, rural town in south central Pennsylvania is home to
a fine carillon. In that virtually all carillons in North America--including
the one in Mercersburg--were produced abroad, it is significant that the
carillon bells recently added to this instrument were cast and tuned by an
American. Mercersburg Academy Director of Music, Organist, and Carillonneur
James W. Smith sends the following news.

Harrison & Harrison, of Durham, England, has built a new organ for Trinity Episcopal Church, Vero Beach, Florida. The instrument stands behind the high altar, speaking directly towards the nave, which seats about 350. The east end of the church was specially lengthened to receive it, and a further enlargement of the church is planned. The organ is about 18 wide, 12 deep, and 28 high; Great and Swell are at the main level, Solo at the upper level towards the apex, and Pedal on either side.

Marilyn Mason led a group of organists on the University of
Michigan's Historic Organ Tour XXXVII in Spain, February 28-March 8. The group
gave organ concerts in the Cathedrals of Málaga, Córdoba and
Segovia. Performers included Karen Phipps, Edmund Price, Dale Shoemaker, Carol
Clausen, Ronald Larson, Hugh Young, Lawrence Smith, and Dr. Mason, playing
works of Torrelhas, Cabanilles, Correa de Arauxo, and Soler.

“Frank Ferko inhabits a unique and unusual musical
world.  In the background is his
love of the music of Olivier Messiaen. In the foreground appears mystery, and
thus his intense interest in the visions of Hildegard, her music, and the world
of medieval chant. None of this is unique or unusual in the decade of the
1990s, but his vivid musical imagination, sometimes terrifying, in other
instances timelessly static and meditative, is unique.”1