SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- Wittenberg University music professor Trudy Faber will soon begin a tour to perform at some of the most historic churches in Europe, beginning with an appearance at famed St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England to play on one of the greatest organs in the world, on May 30.
In all she will perform seven recitals in England, The Netherlands and Germany and play on some of the oldest church organs in the world, including those which baroque greats J.S. Bach and Handel used. This is her third performance tour of Europe, following trips in 1985 and 1992.
Faber is an accomplished and well-travelled organist, having performed across the United States and in Europe. Recipient of Wittenberg's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1998, Faber is chair of the music department and is the organist at Springfield's Covenant Presbyterian Church. She took a sabbatical leave for the Spring semester to prepare for the tour.
Faber said the organ in St. Paul's has five keyboards and was one of the first organs in England to have a full pedal board with 16 foot stops.
After London, Faber will move on to Paris, France where she will play at the American Church on its von Beckerath tracker organ on June 6. Following that she will be in Kampen, Holland to perform on an historic tracker instrument at Burgwal Kerk on June 12.
Faber will then present four concerts in Germany. On June 20, she will play at Evangelical Lutheran Church in Stormthal, near Leipzig. The organ is a small Hildebrandt which J. S. Bach tested and approved, calling it "a fine and substantial instrument."
On June 23 she will perform at the Nicolaikirche in Leipzig, which was one of the two main Leipzig churches where Bach worked during his 27 years as cantor for the city.
On June 26 she will play an historic instrument at the St. Kilianskirche in Bad Lausick, which was originally built in 1722 by one of the greatest Baroque organ builders Silbermann (whom Bach knew) and was expanded and reworked in 1791 by Trampeli. On the morning of June 27 she will perform at the hallowed Thomaskirche in Leipzig.
"This is Bach church, the main one he worked with, and he also taught at the St. Thomas Boys' School connected to the church, which is now torn down," Faber said.
She is not structuring her repertoire in the two "Bach churches" around the Baroque period, because, she said, those organs are far better suited to works from the nineteenth century.
After graduation from Calvin College, she received a Fulbright scholarship to study both organ and harpsichord for a year at the Amsterdam Conservatory, the Netherlands. She joined Wittenberg's faculty in 1966 as a part-time instructor and became a full-time member in 1970. Her husband, Arthur, is a professor of English.
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