At 7 p.m. on Sunday, August 21, the Tyrone Regional Arts Council will offer the community an end of summer organ/voice/flute recital/and hymn festival in Tyrone Lutheran Church on the corner of Logan Avenue and 13th Street.
Richard Merryman, organist of Tyrone Presbyterian Church and recital organist for the Allen Organ Company in central Pennsylvania, will present “A Recital of Five Musical Miniatures” on the 40-year-old Moller Pipe Organ in Tyrone Lutheran Church. Merryman’s recital will showcase the principal, string, flute and trumpet stops of the 13-rank Moller Pipe organ, built for the Lutheran Church in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1966, at a cost of $30,000.
The musical menu for the evening will include “A Dance Variation on Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow” for principal stops, “Sweet Hour of Prayer” for string stops, “A Colonial Puppet Parade” for flute stops, “A Masterpiece Theatre Tune” for trumpet stops and “A Showpiece by a Startled Church Organist” for full organ.
Newly appointed director of Tyrone’s Allegheny Chorale and teacher of elementary music in Williamsburg Schools, Debra Huff Estright will follow the organ solos with “A Bouquet of Broadway Musical Melodies.” The daughter of Norman and Anna May Huff and a 1987 graduate of Indiana University, Debra Huff Estright will open by singing a love song from the musical “The Music Man” entitled “Till There Was You.” Estright will expand her Broadway Bouquet with a love song from the musical “Brigadoon” entitled “Almost Like Being In Love.”
Estright will remember Broadway composer Richard Rodgers with the delightful Julie Andrews solo “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music”. At the close, Estright will depart from her mini tour of Broadway with the beloved Irish song “Danny Boy”.
In addition to the organ and vocal miniatures offered by Richard Merryman and Debra Huff Estright, Morgann Elise Davis will present several selections on flute. A 2003 graduate of Tyrone Area High School, where she earned recognition both as a dedicated student and talented flutist, Davis is the only daughter of John and Paulette Davis of Gardner Road, near Camp Anderson. Shortly, Morgann will return to Ohio State University, where she will continue studies as a junior music major.
Following the flute solos, Merryman will invite the audience to participate in “A Festival of Three German Lutheran Hymns”. Designed to provide music lovers with an opportunity to sing, Merryman also will dedicate the “German Lutheran Hymn Festival” to the members of Tyrone’s Lutheran Church. Tyrone Lutherans deserve public recognition for providing their church and their community with a marvelous Moller Pipe Organ for worship services and for community concerts.
“The Festival of Three German Lutheran Hymns” will include “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”. Nearly 40 years ago in 1966, Lutheran organist Jack Rodland introduced the then new Moller Pipe Organ in the Tyrone Lutheran Church with that great German Lutheran Hymn. Four decades later, those same words will provide a fitting close to the August 21 recital – Praise to the Lord/O let all that is in me adore Him/All that hath life and breath/come now with praises before Him.
