Grammy Award-winning Organist Paul Jacobs to Perform at Methuen Memorial Music Hall

GRAMMY Award-winning American organist Paul Jacobs will launch his 2024-25 season with a solo organ recital at the prestigious Methuen Memorial Music Hall on Sunday afternoon September 15, 2024, at 3 pm EDT. Mr. Jacobs will present a program featuring classic organ repertoire by composers from various generations. The full program follows:

Felix Mendelssohn Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 65

Cesar Franck Prelude, Fugue, Variation, Op. 18

Charles Ives Variation on "America"

Franz Liszt Fantasia and Fugue on ‘Ad Nos’

Home to the United States' first concert organ - "The Great Organ" - Methuen Memorial Music Hall aims to preserve and share the history, grandeur, and experience of this unique musical instrument and the Hall through musical performances and outreach to the community. "The Great Organ," an 1863 Walcker model, was originally built for the 1852 Boston Music Hall, the original home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; it was later removed and storage in 1884 to make more room for the growing young Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1897, Methuen millionaire Edward F. Searles, who had an interest in pipe organs from an early age, purchased the Great Organ at auction and commissioned the Methuen Memorial Music Hall to house this majestic instrument.

General admission can be obtained for $25 to $35 on the event website. For more information please visit organist Paul Jacobs' website and Methuen Memorial Music Hall's website. This concert is sponsored by Leon-Diego Fernández for the benefit of the Music Hall's Scholarship Program.

The internationally celebrated organist Paul Jacobs combines a probing intellect and extraordinary technical mastery with an unusually large repertoire, both old and new. Mr. Jacobs has been heralded as "one of the finest organists and teachers of our day," by Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times, "one of the major musicians of our time" by Alex Ross of The New Yorker and as "America's leading organ performer" by The Economist. No other organist is so frequently re-invited as soloist to perform with prestigious orchestras, thus making him a leading pioneer in the movement for the revival of symphonic music featuring the organ.