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 Piper Kevin Weed (left) and Organist Lawrence Kolakowski (below) presented this unusual concert at Trinity on May 4, 2008.
Kevin, who is also an organist, is the winner of the Southern California Amateur Piping Championship. He recorded "Rhythm of My Heart" for Rod Stewart and "Tubular Bells2" with Mike Oldfield. He has toured and competed with Cabar Feidh, the Gordon Grays, the LAPD, Beach Cities Pipe Bands, and has piped for many performances of "Brigadoon". He has performed in Italy, New York, Japan, Okinawa, Australia, Canada and Scotland.
Lawrence is organist at several churches in Orange county and has a Master's degree from Cal State, Fullerton. He toured for many years accompanying coloratura soprano Anna Werner Bachman. He has played many concerts featuring the music of J.S. Bach. He has performed the entire Well-Tempered Clavier and 48 preludes and fugues, all from memory. He has also performed the difficult Art of Fugue, Goldberg Variations and many other works of Bach.
The concert at Trinity included arrangements by Mr. Weed of traditional music such as Amazing Grace, the Celtic Alleluia and Brother James Air. There were also several "classical" selections composed especially for the unusual combination of Bagpipes and Organ. Mr Weed demonstrated the workings of bagpipes and talked about their history.
The American Guild of Organists sponsored the concert. The AGO is doing all it can to interest people, especially younger audiences, in organ music and church music in general. They have an up-hill battle in today's culture. Concerts such as this help make the adventure more exciting.
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