Nationally renowned organist and conductor Garrett F. Martin of Buffalo, N.Y., will play a recital of “Music for the Advent and Christmas Season” at noon Friday, Dec. 6, at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
The recital will take place on the Sarah B. Dorn Organ at the Harriett B. Wick Chapel. It is free and open to the public.
Selections include a variety of pieces appropriate for the season.
Since 2013, Martin has served as organist and director of music at downtown Buffalo’s historic Westminster Presbyterian Church on Delaware Avenue, where he also directs and oversees the church’s five choirs and sees to the maintenance of the church’s two Aeolian Skinner pipe organs.
Prior to that, he held organist positions at churches in Tennessee and Florida, including the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church where he was the youngest person to ever hold the post, and the youngest successor to organist Diane Bish.
For five years, he served as the artistic director of the Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus, and since 2016 as an artist for the Rodgers Organ Company of Hillsboro, Ore., with more than 40 video recordings available online. Most recently, he performed as guest organist in recital at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta.
A native of Tennessee, Martin holds a Master of Music in sacred music and organ performance from the University of Texas at Austin, a performer’s certificate in organ and accompanying from Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music, and a church music and organ performance degree from Carson-Newman University.
The American Organist, the official magazine of the American Guild of Organists, has written of him, “impressively played . . . masterfully improvised . . .”
The Dorn Organ was constructed by the Schantz Organ Company in Orrville, Ohio. It consists of 17 ranks with 1,020 pipes and was built specifically for the Wick Chapel.
For disability-related needs, contact the Office of Disability Resources and Services at (814)362-7609 or clh71@pitt.edu.