About The Series
One of Cincinnati’s best kept secrets, the 1929 Grand E.M. Skinner Concert Organ, is the centerpiece for Music in the Museum, a concert series hosted three times a year at Cincinnati Museum Center. We are excited to announce the 2025-2026 Music in the Museum series, where we look forward to sharing the glorious sounds of the organ with you.
From Janelle Gelfand’s Janelle Notes:
Demers provided her own wow factor in her transcription of Stravinsky’s “The Firebird Suite.” She reproduced every orchestral sound of the difficult score on the organ. It was a magical and thrilling performance. In the audience was Michael Barone, host of “Pipedreams” on American Public Media, who told the large crowd assembled, “There is no other organ like this in this kind of setting, anywhere. You have a treasure.”
About The Instrument
From 1987–2010, the 1929 Grand E. M. Skinner Concert Organ was restored and installed in specially designed organ chambers. The main chambers are located on either side of the Rotunda where it meets the rear concourse. The antiphonal division is over the entrance to the Cincinnati History Museum. The organ has nearly 5,000 pipes played from a console with four manual keyboards.
October 29
Vincent Dubois is a titular organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, and a professor of organ interpretation and improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik, Saarbrücken, Germany. He is a graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris where he earned First Prizes in Organ, Harmony, Counterpoint, Fugue and 20th-century composition. He took the world’s stage in 2002 by winning two major organ competitions: the Recital Gold Medal at the Calgary International Organ Competition, and the Grand Prize at the International Competition of Toulouse, France. He has performed in major concert venues throughout Europe, North America, Asia and the Pacific.
Program: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582, J. S. Bach; Choral No. 1 in E major, C. Franck; Prelude in C sharp minor Op.3, S. Rachmaninoff; Menuet and Rigaudon from Le Tombeau de Couperin, M. Ravel; Sonata on the 94th Psalm in C minor, J. Reubke; Carillon de Westminster, Op. 54, No. 6, L. Vierne
With University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Professor of Percussion, Russell Burge: Boléro sur un thème de Charles Raquet, P. Cochereau; Fanfare for the Common Man, A. Copland; Les sauvages from Les Indes galantes, J. P. Rameau
February 25
Johannes Skoog is winner of the First Prize and the Bach Prize at the 2024 Canadian International Organ Competition and he is one of Sweden’s brightest young organists. He was also recently appointed to be the new Swedish Royal Court Organist. He holds degrees from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris and the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Stuttgart. His teachers included Olivier Latry, Nathan Laube, Louis Robilliard, Michel Bouvard, Thierry Escaich and Mathias Kjellgren. He has performed at venues throughout Europe including the Bozar concert house in Brussels, Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, and Stockholm Town Hall.
Program: Clair de lune, C. Debussy; Fantaisie, Op. 16, C. Franck; Les Préludes, F. Liszt; Toccata, Op. 11, Sergei Prokofiev; Scarbo, from Gaspard de la nuit, No. 3, M. Ravel; Ondine, from Gaspard de la nuit, No. 1, M. Ravel; Inventio Processionis, C. Unander-Scharin
With combined Choirs of Christ Church Cathedral, Stephan Casurella, Director and St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Carlton Monroe, Director: And I Saw a New Heaven, E. Bainton; God Is Gone Up, G. Finzi; Greater Love Hath No Man, J. Ireland; A New Song, J. MacMillan
April 22
Isabelle Demers is Associate Professor of Organ at McGill University. Her playing is described as having “bracing virtuosity” and “fearless and extraordinary.” She has appeared throughout Europe, Oman, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada, including performances for regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the American Institute of Organ Builders, the International Society of Organbuilders, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Organ Historical Society. She is a doctoral graduate of the Juilliard School.
Program: Come Sweet Death, BWV 478, J. S. Bach; Imperial March, Op. 32, E. Elgar; Venus & Jupiter, from The Planets, G. Holst; Rosace, from Esquisses Byzantines, H. Mulet; The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29, S. Rachmaninoff; Victimae Paschali, C. Tournemire
With University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Professor of Voice, Tenor, Daniel Weeks: Amarilli, mia bella, G. Caccini; Oh! Quand je dors, S 282, F. Liszt; Nessun dorma, from Turandot, G. Puccini; Pietà, Signore, A. Stradella; Ingemisco from Messa da Requiem, G. Verdi
