Organist Brett Maguire to Perform at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Brett Maguire, concert organist and Holy Cross alumnus, will perform Sunday, Oct. 24 at 3 p.m. in St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross, as part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artists’ Series.  The concert, which is handicap accessible, is free and open to the public.

Maguire’s performance will feature a variety of notable pieces, including works from Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Jehan Alain.

Maguire graduated from Holy Cross in 2002, where he held the prestigious position of Organ Scholar.  He received his master of music in historical performance from Oberlin Conservatory, where he was awarded the Earl Russell Prize in Early Music, the department’s highest distinction.  Maguire has performed throughout the United States and in Europe, where he spent a year in Paris on a Watson Fellowship and appeared in concert at Notre Dame Cathedral and The Basilica of Saint Clotilde.  He won first prize and the Prize of the Audience in the 2005 André Marchal International Organ Competition in Biarritz, France.  In the U.S., Maguire was the First Prize winner of the 2001 American Guild of Organists/Quimby Region I Competition for Young Organists.

Maguire has performed with the Boston Symphony Pops Orchestra under John Williams, and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Hans Graf in Symphony Hall, Boston, and at Tanglewood under Bernard Haitink. With violinist Aaron Packard, he is presently performing a complete cycle of Beethoven’s sonatas for piano and violin during the 2010-2011 season.  Currently he serves as the director of music at Wesley United Methodist Church in Worcester and he is the artistic director of the Music Alive! concert series.

The 2010-11 season of the Chapel Artists’ Series will also include the following performances:

* Sunday, November 14, 3 p.m. – Jeffrey Wood, organist/Michael Calmès, tenor * Sunday, March 20, 3 p.m. – Renée Anne Louprette, organist * Sunday, April 3, 3 p.m. – Balint Karosi, organist * Sunday, May 1, 3 p.m. – Jesuit Heritage Concert of Baroque Music

For more information about any of the performances in the Chapel Artists’ Series, please call the music department at (508) 793-2296, or visit the department’s website at: http://academics.holycross.edu/music.