Larry Taylor to present organ recital at Bridgewater College

Dr. Larry Taylor, associate professor of music at Bridgewater College, will present an organ recital, “Bells, Bizet and Buster!,” at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31, in Cole Hall on the college campus.

For the recital, Taylor will perform “The Bells of Hinckley” by Louis Vierne, “Prelude and Fugue in G Major” by Johann Sebastian Bach and a transcription of Georges Bizet’s “L’Arlésienne Suite No. 1” by Jörg Abbing.

Taylor will play two jazz-inspired pieces, Swing Prelude on “Praise him, praise him” and Blues Prelude on “Precious Lord,” by Dr. John Barr, professor of organ and piano, emeritus, at Bridgewater College.

The program will conclude with a screening of the silent film, The Balloonatic, written and directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton. The film, starring Keaton and Phyllis Haver, follows Buster’s misadventures as he attempts to fish, hunt, balloon and fall in love. Taylor will provide organ accompaniment to the film using his own arrangements of popular and classical tunes.

Taylor has provided musical accompaniment for three other Keaton films, One Week, Seven Chances and Go West!

Taylor teaches piano, organ, music theory and history and serves as department chair. He holds a doctor of musical arts degree in organ from the University of Cincinnati (where he won the Strader Organ Competition), master of music degrees from Emory University and Notre Dame, and a bachelor of music degree from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa. As a composer, Taylor has collaborated frequently with poet Tom Noe to produce anthems, cantatas, the song cycle Marie Curieand the opera Eros and Psyche. Eros and Psyche had its premiere performance at Bridgewater College in 2011. In addition to solo recitals on piano and organ, Taylor has arranged and performed accompaniments on organ for classic silent films.

The recital is free and open to the public.

Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1880, it was the state’s first private, coeducational college. Today, Bridgewater College is home to approximately 1,800 undergraduate students.