Alcee Chriss, III, Organ

Continuing our Free Concert Series, we are thrilled to welcome featured star in the PBS documentary "Pipe Dreams" (2019), Alcee Chriss III, an award-winning organist. Dr. Chriss will perform works from Bach, Rameau, Cage, Price, among others, as well as a work by Chriss himself.

Program: From Past to Future

Toccata in D Minor, BWV 913                          Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

I. Presto                                               arr. Alceé Chriss III (b. 1992)

II. Thema

Entrée de Polymnie From Les Boréades           Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)

12 Pièces pour orgue, Op.18                                Alexandre Pierre François Boëly (1789-1858)

Fantasy and Fugue in Bb Major 

Retrospection                                                  Florence Price (1887-1953)

Souvenirs (1983)                                            John Cage (1912-1992)

Improvisation on American Folk Tunes          Alcee Chriss (b. 1992)

Mazeppa, Symphonic Poem No. 6, S. 100        Franz Liszt (1811–1886)

III. Allegro                                          arr. Alcée Chriss III / Rashaan Allwood

Pelleas et Melisande, Op. 80: I. Prelude            Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
                                                                              Transcribed for organ, Louis Robilliard (b. 1939)

Suite op. 5                                                       Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

Sicilienne 

 Toccata

About Alcee Chriss III, Organ 

Dr. Chriss is the winner of the 2017 Canadian International Organ Competition and the Firmin Swinnen Silver Medal at the 2016 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition. He has been celebrated for his “grace, skill and abundant proficiency” by the Journal Assist News, Albuquerque. And of his most recent solo recording at Montreal Symphony Hall, Art et Rhapsodie (2019), the American Record Guide wrote that “he plays with clarity, imagination, musicality, virtuosity, and yes, personality.”

Dr. Chriss has performed throughout North America and Europe. Recent and upcoming performances include the International Orgelsommer (Stuttgart, Germany), Stockholm City Hall (Sweden), the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, and as soloist with the Montreal Symphony in a performance of Copland’s Symphony for Organ and Orchestra. Other engagements include the Princeton University Chapel, Longwood Gardens, Spreckels Organ Pavilion and International Organ Summer Karlsruhe, Germany. In July 2022 he was a featured performer at the national convention of the American Guild of Organists, held in Seattle WA.

In July 2019, Dr. Chriss was appointed as University Organist and Artist-in-Residence at Wesleyan University, where he teaches courses in organ and keyboard skills. In October 2019, he was awarded his Doctor of Music degree from McGill University, where he studied with Hans-Ola Ericsson.

He previously studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he received his Master’s degree in historical keyboard and a Bachelor’s degree in Organ Performance, studying with Olivier Latry, Marie- Louise Langlais, and James David Christie.