Great Music at St. Bart's to Welcome William K. Trafka for New Year's Concert

For the 18th straight year, Great Music at St. Bart's will present organist William K. Trafka in an organ recital to usher in the New Year. The concert will take place on Tuesday, December 31 at 11 pm. Trafka, St. Bart's Organist and Director of Music since 1995, has performed this concert since New Year's Eve, 1996.

The concert will include works of Bach, Elgar Langlais and a transcription of Debussy's Premiére Arabesque, as well as Trafka's own transcription of Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," which will be played at midnight. The concert will be performed on St. Bart's magnificent Aeolian/Skinner pipe organ. The Brimberg Memorial Organ Console, which controls the instrument, will be in full view of the audience.

The concert will be free and open to the public. A champagne reception and toast, compliments of Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation will follow the concert.

The Great Music Series, presented by the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation, Inc., (MMPAF) offers a diverse variety of concerts from large scale choral works and organ concerts in the church to chamber music and jazz in the acoustically remarkable chapel. Crucial to the musical programming of the series is St. Bartholomew's Choir, a fully professional choir, and the Boy and Girl Choristers, renowned as one of the finest children's choir in the metropolitan area. The church also possesses an Aeolian/Skinner pipe organ of 168 stops, the largest in New York City and considered to be one of the greatest examples of the American Classic Organ of the 20th century.