- [Announcer] In partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music, WHYY presents the following program.

(dramatic organ music) - My father is a church organist, and so I've been surrounded by the organ ever since I was born, really.

And when I was about two or three, I had the opportunity to watch him play at church.

And immediately I was drawn to the mechanics of the organ, and the love of the sound of the organ followed soon after that.

(bright organ music) I'm Aaron Patterson.

I am at Curtis where I am majoring in organ performance.

(audience applauding) Bach's "Prelude and Fugue in F Minor," it's a very interesting piece, very dramatic, very expressive.

(bright, emotional organ music) (audience applauds) George Shearing was not primarily known as a composer of organ music.

He was really known for being one of the brighter stars on the 20th century jazz scene.

This has made all the more impressive by the fact that he was blind.

Abington Presbyterian Church, they offer multiple concerts each year.

And one of, I guess you could say, the center pieces of their music program is a memorial concert offered every year.

What I love about these pieces is that you can tell Shearing is very much exploring the organ and figuring out what it is able to do.

And so I think it's a wonderful tour of the organ.

I hope you enjoy.

I started taking piano lessons regularly when I was four years old.

When I was eight, I was tall enough to reach the organ pedals and was somewhat inseparable from the organ ever since.

I think the organ is unique because under one player it can simulate so much of what the orchestra is about.

It can imitate so many of the different colors.

It can imitate the dynamic range.

Many people know or have an idea that the organ is the loudest of the common instruments.

And this is true.

The organ, I also would argue, is the softest.

Organists are very similar to pianists in that we use our hands to play, almost identical keyboards to the piano, but we also have the added component of using our feet on what is essentially another keyboard.

And this allows us to play large scale orchestra transcriptions.

And so it's a matter of coordinating not just your hands together, but also your feet, and having the stamina to do that through the course of an hour to four-hour concert.

I came to the point when I was maybe 10 years old, that I became conscious of the fact that I would have to do something for a living.

And I figured I was already spending time with the organ and I already had an affinity for it.

So I decided essentially, I'll just go with this 'cause I like it.

And it was only about maybe five years later that I realized I really was lucky that I made the right choice.

(light uplifting organ music) (light rapid organ music) (ceremonial organ music) (bright organ music) (audience applauds) (dramatic organ music) My parents have been bringing me down to see concerts at Wanamaker's since I was a baby.

I was very lucky to be part of the Philadelphia Young Artists Camp.

And we were allowed to have daily or, I guess, every other day lessons with Peter Richard Conte at the Wanamaker organ.

(cheerful organ music) Well, I've been very lucky to be able to play both of the largest organs in the world, which are tied for that title, one being the Wanamaker organ and the other being Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Sometimes when playing I'm thinking about the rich history and some of the really influential figures of the organ world that have played it, and just how long the tradition goes back.

Curtis, the composition department, decided this year to have a collaboration between the composition students and the solo instrumentalists.

I was paired with Alistair Coleman.

"Snow's Alley" is named after a neighborhood in the Washington DC area where Alistair lived, and is kind of a description of his memories, including which were his first memories of the organ, and kind of exploring the organ through that name.

(pensive airy organ music)