Charles Tompkins, Gary Malvern present organ and trumpet recital Oct. 30

The Furman Department of Music will present a recital featuring faculty members Charles Tompkins (organ) and Gary Malvern (trumpet) Monday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. in Daniel Memorial Chapel on campus.

The recital is free and open to the public.

The program begins with works by J.S. Bach and Felix Mendelssohn performed in honor of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Chagall window

The centerpiece of the program is a work for trumpet and organ by the Czechoslovakian composer Petr Eben (1929-2007) entitled “Windows.” The piece is performed in four movements, each depicting a musical representation of a stained-glass window by artist Marc Chagall (1887-1985) whose windows are found in the synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem. Images of the uniquely colorful and beautiful windows will be projected during the performance, with program notes relating the visual aspects of the windows to Eben’s music.

The recital closes with Robert Schumann’s brief “Sketch in D-flat,” and Louis Vierne’s grandiose “Carillon de Westminster,” one of the most enduringly popular Romantic works for the organ.

The recital is performed on the Hartness Organ, Opus 121 of the C.B. Fisk organ building firm of Gloucester, Mass., a gift to Furman from the late Tom and the late Edna Hartness, long-time benefactors and supporters of the University. The instrument was given in honor of Bobby and Becky Berry Hartness.

Professor of music, organ and music theory, Tompkins is recognized as one of America’s most outstanding organ teachers and concert organists. A member of the Furman faculty since 1986, his students have gained admission to major graduate schools in organ performance including Yale University, Indiana University, and Florida State University.

A graduate of the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan, Tompkins performs each year at universities and major churches throughout the United States. He has played recitals at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Piccolo Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston.

Gary Malvern, Professor of Trumpet and Music History

Malvern, who will be assisted in the recital by Furman trumpet performance graduate Craig King (Class of 2001), is professor of trumpet and music history at Furman. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Malvern received his bachelor’s degree in performance and music history from Oberlin College Conservatory, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University where he studied with Robert Nagel.

Malvern has served as principal trumpet of the National Repertory Orchestra, the Colorado Philharmonic, the American Wind Symphony, and has served as principal and co-principal trumpet of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra since 1983.

For more information, contact the Furman Music office at 864-294-2086, or email the department at FurmanMusic@furman.edu.