Friends of Music is celebrating its 50th Anniversary! This group was founded to promote the incredible world-class Beckerath organ that was built for St. Stephen’s Church in 1970.
The 2019-2020 50th Anniversary Beckerath Organ Series will feature the following recitals:
Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 4pm – Dr. Paul-Martin Maki Organist and Director of Music, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Larchmont, NY
Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 4pm – John Charles Schucker Organist, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Millburn, NJ
PLEASE NOTE: The Sunday, April 19, 2020 organ recital featuring Johann Vexo, Organiste de Choeur, The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris will be RESCHEDULED when it is safe to do so at some point in the future. We hope you will be able to join us then!
Sunday, November 6, 2022 organ recital featuring Johann Vexo, Organiste de Choeur, The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris
About Friends of Music
The St. Stephen’s Friends of Music group is dedicated to sharing the gift of beautiful music with the wider community. This recital series relies heavily on the generous financial support of its Friends of Music to maintain the series, now in its 50th season. As you are able, please consider supporting the series as a Friend of Music with a tax deductible donation, entitling you to admission to each recital and acknowledgment in the program. Donors are listed in the following categories:
PHILANTHROPISTS $300 or more
BENEFACTORS $200 to $299
PATRONS $100 to $199
SPONSORS $30 to $99
Please make checks payable to St. Stephen’s Church – Friends of Music and mail to: Friends of Music, c/o St. Stephen’s Church, 119 Main Street, Millburn, NJ 07041. Please print your name as it should appear in the program, and include your postal address as a backup.
Thank you for your support!
About the Beckerath Organ
Designed and built for the interior of St. Stephen’s Church by the celebrated German organ builder Rudolf von Beckerath, the 1970 tracker organ takes its primary inspiration from the golden age of 17th and 18th century North German organ building during the time of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Its full mechanical (tracker) key action is faithful to the earlier organs. Electricity is used only to supply the wind pressure to sound the pipes and to change the combinations of stops.
The St. Stephen’s Beckerath organ has proven a delight to play and a revelation to hear with its wonderful clarity of tone. Designed to be heard in this outstanding example of 19th century Gothic revival church architecture, it has become a major cultural resource, drawing an audience from throughout the tri-state area and concert organists from across America and Europe.
“The classic organ or the baroque organ is no longer possible except through an imitative resturn to the past. But our time is neither classic nor baroque. The vitality of a ndern instrument demands instead the translation of the spirit of past greatness into contemporary forms.” – Rudolf von Beckerath