by Joe Bollig
joe.bollig@theleaven.org
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Good news for lovers of great, classical, organ music. “Third Sunday at Three,” the monthly organ recital series many have come to love, will continue into a second year.
The first performance of 2024 will be offered by Stuart Taylor, director of sacred music at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Kansas City, Kansas, at 3 p.m. on Jan. 21 at Holy Angels Parish, 15440 Leavenworth Rd., Basehor.
The recital is free but a freewill offering will be gratefully accepted.
This recital marks the completion of the first year of monthly organ recitals featuring organists of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, including Taylor, Aidan Hill, Douglas O’Neill, Father Brent Stull, Kevin Vogt, Lara West and Thomas Zachacz.
“We’ve been trying over the past year to feature some of the great musical talent we have serving our archdiocesan parishes,” said Vogt, director of worship and sacred arts at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Leawood. “Since Holy Angels has this wonderful new organ, they’ve been very hospitable helping us to do that.”
The public response to the series last year was remarkable, with as many as 80 people showing up to enjoy beautiful religious and classical music, said Vogt. One recital featured an organ and accompanying trumpet.
The December recital was particularly good, he said, and featured a collaboration between the children’s schola from Christ the King Parish in Kansas City, Kansas, and the Holy Angels, Basehor, choir.
The Basehor church’s world-class organ has a dramatic history. It was in a disused church in Cleveland that was going to be demolished. Instead of ending up in a landfill, Holy Angels rescued the organ and makes it available to other musicians and musical organizations.
But elsewhere, too, the archdiocese is undergoing a bit of an organ renaissance as new organs are being built and via “organ transplant” older ones are being rescued and placed in archdiocesan churches. Holy Angels was the first and will be soon followed by Good Shepherd Parish in Shawnee and St. Michael the Archangel.
