Organ performance at Berlin church

BERLIN — Co-sponsored by the N.H. Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and Music in the Great North Woods, a journey of musical discovery entitled "Clavichord and Organ - Companions for Centuries" will be presented by Kevin Birch of Bangor, Maine, on Saturday, Oct. 12, at 2 p.m. at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Berlin, where an unusual foot-pumped Renaissance organ and a rare clavichord copied from a 1621 instrument will be featured. 

Birch will perform music of Francisco Correa de Arauxo (1584-1654), William Byrd (1543-1623), Johann Caspar von Kerll (1627-1693), Peter Philips (1560-1628), The Susana van Soldt Manuscript (1599) and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621). He will introduce the program with a historical overview of the clavichord as a companion to the organ throughout the centuries and discuss and demonstrate Martin Kather’s exquisite realization (2020) of a clavichord depicted in Michael Praetorius’ Syntagma Musicum (1619). The organ, built by Gene Bedient, Opus 37, is designed after Renaissance organs from Germany and Spain, with paintings by local Berlin artist, Andre Belanger, and will be pumped by foot.