SNC:AGO RECITALISTS

Duo Majoya: February 20, 2009

Marnie Giesbrecht and Joachim Segger are Duo Majoya. Their duo repertoire includes piano duets, organ duets and duets for organ and piano. Concert programs are eclectic and innovative, spanning original and commissioned works to transcriptions and jazz; they have performed extensively in North America, Europe and South Africa. Regular performers in the Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton and Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, recent performances also include Los Angeles, California (American Guild of Organists national convention); Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris and St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. Giesbrecht and Segger direct the music at First Presbyterian Church in Edmonton, AB, Canada and were co-chairs for Windspiration Organ Festival, July 29-Aug. 2, 2007 in Edmonton. Duo Majoya's organ and piano recital at the American Guild of Organists' Convention in Los Angeles, July 2004, received an immediate standing ovation and was hailed as "Sensational!!" by Guild President and Program Committee Chair, Fred Swann. Together they have released six CDs.

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Mamie Giesbrecht has performed in major cities and universities throughout Canada, the United States, South Africa and Europe. A versatile keyboard artist, she performs regularly as an organ soloist in recitals and with orchestra, as a choral accompanist and chamber musician. Educated at the University of Alberta, the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N. Y. and the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria, Dr. Giesbrecht is Professor of Music at the University of Alberta where she teaches organ performance and related subjects, piano and chamber music; she is Adjunct Professor of Music at The King's University College. She was national president of the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO) from 2000 to 2002 and Co-Chair with her husband Joachim Segger of Windspiration: Edmonton Organ Festival and the RCCO national convention in 2007.

Joachim Segger is a versatile musician who regularly performs piano solo and various duo and chamber recitals as well as concertos. Educated at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, the University of Alberta, Canada and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, he has performed in various venues throughout North America, Europe and South Africa including Carnegie Recital Hall, NY. Dr. Segger is Professor of Music at The King's University College, Edmonton, Alberta and Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Alberta. An exceptionally talented improviser, Joachim has given workshops on improvisation at national conventions in the US and Canada.

PROGRAM

Skyscape ( 1997): Joe Utterback (b. 1944)

Destinations (2008) US. Premiere: Cheryl Cooney (b. 1953)

I Dramatically; Street Scenes; Structures
II Carnival; Tides; Tempo primo [Carnival]
III Memorials: Adagio; Peaks
IV Events: Vividly

The opening theme, annotated as Street Scenes in the score, is based on a plaintive motive chanted by a street vendor on a winter afternoon in the south of France. This sets the scene for a series of 'destinations,' beginning with Structures, signifying architecture, monuments, or perhaps even fortresses. The second movement opens and closes with frivolous Carnival reminiscences and includes some reflective time at the seashore, Tides. Memorials are visited in the third movement, then Peaks, which transform directly into some rather complicated contrapuntal Events, the fourth movement. Notes by Cheryl Cooney

Peer Gynt Suite: Edvard Grieg ( 1843-1907) Arranged for organ and piano by Duo Majoya

Morning Mood
Ase's Death
Anitra's Dance
In the Hall of the Mountain King

Adagio: Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751) Arranged for organ and piano by Duo Majoya

Air in D Major from Suite No. 3: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Arranged for organ and piano by Duo Majoya

Surprise

Duet Suite for Organ and Piano (1999): Denis Bedard (b. 1950)

I Introduction
II Fughetta
III Minuetto
IV Romance
V Final