TAMIU Sharkey-Corrigan Organ Recital Series Returns Sept. 21

One of America’s most highly acclaimed concert organists and choral directors will play at the first performance of the 2008/2009 Texas A&M International University Sharkey-Corrigan Organ Recital Series.

Dr. Gerre Hancock, professor of organ and sacred music at the University of Texas at Austin, will perform at TAMIU Sunday, Sept. 21 at 4 p.m. in the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Recital Hall.

This event is free and open to the public.

The program includes music by César Franck, Nikolaus Bruhns, Johann Sebastian Bach and Max Reger.

Dr. Hancock’s consummate skill is clearly apparent in his concert appearances. He is considered the finest organ improviser in America and possesses a masterly interpretive ability and is an artist of taste, warmth perception and style. His compositions for organ and chorus are widely performed and he has recorded for Gothic Records, Decca/Argo, Koch International and Priory Records as a conductor and soloist.

For more than 30 years, Hancock held the position of organist and master of choristers at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City. He has served on the faculty of The Julliard School in New York City and taught improvisation on a visiting basis at the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

He received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas and his Master of Sacred Music from Union Theological Seminary in New York. Hancock received honorary Doctor of Music degrees from the Nashotah House Seminary and The University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. In May 2004 he was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree (Honoris causa) from The General Theological Seminary in New York.

The Sharkey-Corrigan Organ was a gift of the E. H. Corrigan Foundation, lead by longtime Laredo businessman E. H. Corrigan, passionate supporter of the arts. Corrigan has said his gift is a statement of an affection for his hometown and intended to provide this area with one of the finest pipe organs, making real its musical riches for generations to come.

For a list of upcoming fine arts events, visit tamiu.edu/coas/fpa/coe

For more information, please contact Bede Leyendecker, chair, Department of Fine and Performing Arts, at 326.2654, e-mail bleyendecker@tamiu.edu or visit offices in CFPA 217C.

University office hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Friday.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu