(Classical music) - Hello, I'm Daniel Meyer, Music Director of the Erie Philharmonic.

Welcome to our new series, Fascinating Spaces with the Erie Philharmonic.

With this new series, we plan to create musical programs inspired by fascinating spaces right here in Erie and across Northwest Pennsylvania.

We are visiting one of the most beautiful and iconic churches in our community, at St. Patrick's, in downtown Erie on East 4th Street.

With records that date back to 1837, St. Patrick's is the oldest Roman Catholic parish in Erie.

The Romanesque church that houses the parish today, was built in 1903.

Monsignor Henry Kriegel is the pastor and enthusiastic historian of this amazing architectural gem.

The history of St. Patrick's and the Irish in Erie, is one that is largely a result of the Great Migration of the 1800s.

Many of the men who came here worked on the docks of Lake Erie, and the women took jobs as domestic servants in the homes of wealthier Erieites.

These hardy immigrants surely had to bear the brunt of some rough weather here, on the south shore of Lake Erie.

And we start our concert with music by German composer Felix Mendelssohn, that features a famous musical sea storm.

Mendelssohn was one of the most widely-traveled artists of his day, and his "Hebrides Overture," also known as "Fingal's Cave," was inspired by an 1829 trip to Scotland.

He actually first drew a picture in ink of the Hebrides islands and Morwern.

And it was this memento that spurred the richly-colored musical composition that he was to publish in 1835.

With its placid waters at the beginning, the brewing of a furious musical storm in the middle, and the calm seas that prevail at the finish.

This overture has become one of the most enduring documents of the Romantic era.

Mendelssohn was still using classical sonata form, like his predecessors Beethoven and Haydn.

But there is an inner turbulence that makes its way into this music, and I think these storm surges sound so dramatic, even to our modern ears.

(Classical music) (Classical music continues) (Classical music continues) (Classical music continues) In honor of the early Irish immigrants to Erie, we thought it would be fitting to perform a piece for you now by an Irish composer.

We are excited to present now the U.S. premiere of a work for cello and orchestra written all the way back in 1913.

It's called "Elegy" by Irish composer Ina Boyle.

And her musical style might remind you of the great English composers Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

Vaughan Williams, in fact, was one of Boyle's teachers, and he was a vocal supporter of her work and assisted her in building her reputation as a composer.

We're also pleased to introduce American cellist Gabriel Cabezas, who is making his Erie Philharmonic debut in this performance.

Here is Gabriel to tell us a bit about himself and this special piece.

- I'm a cellist and played all kinds of different things.

I play as a soloist and a chamber musician.

I work with singer songwriters and bands.

I play a lot of new music and I occasionally write and arrange.

So I really try to do whatever moves me in the moment.

This is a cello made by Carl Becker in Chicago, where I grew up from 1934, a wonderful instrument and an interesting sort of regional connection.

And a lot of his cellos are sort of cult favorites among cellists.

And I've been lucky to have this for 15-ish years.

I really love playing new works and I love creating interpretations sort of from scratch and bringing something of myself to everything that I do.

So this was a really great opportunity to do that with something that's written in an older style than what I'm used to sort of engaging in that process with.

So it's really interesting to spotlight a composer that's not that well known in the U.S. She's written a really beautiful piece, really interesting and thoughtfully constructed, really beautiful melodies, lots of things to sink your teeth into.

And it's great to sort of bring it to life.

I think it was the accidental American premiere.

I'm really excited to play this next piece for you.

Ina Boyle's "Elegy For Cello and Orchestra."

(Classical music) (Classical music continues) (Classical music) - So many of our traditions related to Irish culture are, well, uniquely American.

Just think of St. Patrick's Day, with our green beer, lavish parades, and wild green costumes.

We've taken an Irish holy day and turned it into one of the biggest excuses to party, here in the U.S. Australian-born composer Percy Grainger was certainly not shy about taking traditions and making them his own.

A bit of a wild card in an otherwise buttoned-up Victorian world.

Grainger traveled across the globe as a maverick piano soloist, who truly mastered the art of self-promotion.

Part of that success came through his imaginative reinventions and adaptations of folk music.

We will hear one of the most beautiful examples of that restyling.

In this case, an Irish Tune from County Derry.

We know it here as "Danny Boy."

Grainger knew it as a perfect vehicle for the sumptuous string section of the orchestra.

(Classical music) (Classical music continues) St. Patrick's Church has a thriving musical life of its own.

With Organist and Music Director Mark Alloway at the helm, an Adult Choir, and a team of cantors.

St. Patrick's also houses one of the most impressive pipe organs in our region, recently restored to the cost of over $700,000, with a generous donation from Morgan and Cathy Jacox.

Originally built by A.B.

Felgemaker, this instrument features 3,300 pipes, ranging in size from only two inches tall, to pipes over 18 feet tall.

Here is Mark Alloway, performing on this historic pipe organ.

(Classical music) - Here's the pastor of St. Patrick's, Monsignor Henry Kriegel, to talk a bit about this fascinating space.

- St. Patrick's is the oldest parish in the city.

It was founded in 1837.

There were four brothers who were priests here from 1892 to 1954, the Cawley brothers, and the oldest of them, Father Peter Cawley, saw the stations of the cross at the World's fair in Chicago in 1890, and tried to buy them, but they had already been sold.

And so he commissioned a set to be made in Munich, Germany, and these were made in 1892.

They were life-size, each one's made out of two pieces of hemlock, and then he had them stored until he could raise the money to build the church.

And he hired the architect to design the church around the stations.

There were nine Italian craftsman who I'm told, didn't speak a word of English and spent two and a half years doing all of the carving in here.

Music is such an important part of our worship.

And we're so fortunate with Mark Alloway as our organist.

He just makes that thing come alive.

We have a choir and they add to the environment and all of that, when you put together, the beautiful building, the incredible pipe organ, the music, and I think it helps people relax in the tension of today's modern world.

I was thrilled when we were approached about having the concert for the Erie Philharmonic.

As you know, the chamber orchestra used to have concerts in here regularly.

But it was a thrill to have them back in here because it's such an integral part of who we are.

And I think the setting of having the Philharmonic in this setting even enrich their music.

- There are plenty of examples of composers who have benefit from a connection to a faith community like the one here at St. Patrick's.

Indeed, many have had their first musical experiences in a church.

Whether performing in a choir, playing the organ, writing music for the resident orchestra, or attending a choir school, a musician can get a quality musical training in a church setting.

Our final composer of this concert is Viennese-born Franz Schubert.

Born in 1797, Schubert received his first ensemble experience as a choir boy in Austria's Imperial Chapel, and he studied at Vienna's Stadtkonvikt school from 1808 to 1813.

This crucial early opportunity, gave him first-hand experience performing the concert and sacred music of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and others.

We will perform Schubert's spirited, "Third Symphony," in D Major for you now.

It was written in 1815, when he was only 18 years old.

This symphony is cast in four movements.

And the musical argument is compact, filled with youthful energy, and it features a gloriously quicksilver finale.

Here is the music of a very talented 18-year old, Franz Schubert.

(Classical music) (Classical music continues) (Classical music) (Classical music continues) (Classical music) (Classical music) (Classical music continues) If you are interested in the history of St. Patrick's or the Irish community who settled here, please follow the links posted on our website, eriephil.org.

Thanks to Monsignor Henry Kriegel and organist Mark Alloway.

And the parishioners here at St. Patrick's for their generosity and hospitality.

Thanks also to our partners at WQLN and Mega Media Factory.

We hope you've enjoyed exploring this fascinating space through music.

If you haven't already, make sure you visit this amazing architectural wonder, right here in the heart of downtown Erie.

Thank you for watching.

We can't wait to see you again at another performance of the Erie Philharmonic.