John Tarver to Present Organ Music Sept. 9

by Richard Veit

John Tarver, organist of First United Methodist Church in Wichita Falls, will perform an "audience friendly" organ recital at 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9, in Jones Concert Hall on the Baylor University campus.
To dispel the notion that the organ is a stuffy, unapproachable instrument, Tarver has selected a program of lighter music, as well as transcriptions for organ of familiar orchestral classics.
A native of Port Arthur, Tarver holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of North Texas. He has studied with Donald Willing and Baylor's Organist-in-Residence, Joyce Jones. He also studied in France with Gaby Casadesus.
His program on Baylor's McLane Organ will feature transcriptions of Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March," the popular "Meditation" from Jules Massenet's opera "Thaïs," Edvard Grieg's song "I Love Thee," and Stephen Foster's "Suwanee River."
Tarver also will play "Now Thank We All Our God" by Johann Sebastian Bach, "Variations on an American Hymn Tune" by Gordon Young, and Dale Wood's arrangement of "Wondrous Love."
Among the sure crowd-pleasers are Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer," organist E. Power Biggs's arrangement of the stirring Sousa march "The Stars and Stripes Forever," and John Tarver's own arrangement of film music by Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams-the themes from "Star Trek: The Movie" and "Star Wars."
This recital is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 755-3991.