Friday Music at Midday
Come and join us on most Fridays of the year at 12:15 p.m. for beautiful music in the magnificent setting of National City Christian Church.
Schedule of Performances: Fridays at 12:15 p.m.
February - June 2020
There are no midday concerts during January. The spring series of Friday Music at Midday will begin on February 7.
February 7 – James D. Hicks, Organist (Califon, New Jersey)
Concert, Op. 15 (Allegro moderato; Andantino-Andante; Final fugato) – Gottfred Matthison-Hansen; Fantasia on a Bridal Dance from Sønderho – Christian Præstholm; Cantilena – Benna Moe; Koncert-Suite (Maestoso-Allegro; Andante; Finale pompous festive) – Benna Moe
February 14 – Chuyoung Suter and Erik Wm. Suter, Piano and Organ (Gaithersburg, Maryland)
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 – Sergei Rachmaninoff
February 21 – Natalia Kazaryan, Pianist (Washington, DC)
Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (XV. Le baiser de l’Enfant-Jésus) – Olivier Messiaen; 32 Variations in C minor, WoO 80 – Ludwig van Beethoven; Gaspard de la nuit (I. Ondine; III. Scarbo) – Maurice Ravel
February 28 – Samantha Scheff, Organist (Asbury Park, New Jersey)
Carillon, Op. 27, No. 4 – Marcel Dupré; Cantabile – César Franck; Symphonie No. 3, Op. 28 (III. Intermezzo; IV. Adagio; V. Final) – Louis Vierne
March 6 – Timothy Duhr, Organist (Washington, DC)
March 13 – Hans Uwe Hielscherr, Organist (Wiesbaden, Germany)
Eight Invocations – Denis Bédard; Great Is Thy Faithfulness – arr. Dan Miller; Fantasia on “A Mighty Fortress” – Jan Zwart; Highland Cathedral – Charles Callahan
March 20 – Sara Su Jones, Violin, with Tatiana Stepanova, Piano (Chicago, Illinois)
March 27 – Carson Cooman, Organist (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Magna Carta (2015) – Bernard Heyes; Variations on an Aeolian Melody (2019) – Brenda Portman; Sinfonietta (Allegro; Cantilena; Intermezzo; Adagio; Finale) (1994) – Thomas Åberg
April 3 – Nathan Lively, Organist (Stamford, Connecticut) and Peggy Brengle, Organist (Westminster, Maryland)
April 10 – NO RECITAL (Good Friday)
April 17 – Mark Thewes and Chad Pittman, Organists (Canton, Ohio)
April 24 – Alexander Frey, Organist (Berlin, Germany)
May 1 – Colin MacKnight, Organist (New York City)
May 8 – Michael Stefanek, Organist (Salisbury, Maryland)
May 15 – Christopher Schmitt, Pianist (Washington, DC)
May 22 – Michael Britt, Organist (Baltimore, Maryland)
May 29 – Carol Feather Martin, Organist (Arlington, Virginia)
June 5 – Zacchaeus Lock, Organist (Brookfield, Connecticut)
June 12 – Christopher Reynolds (Richmond, Virginia)
June 19 – Alain Truche (Silver Spring, Maryland)
June 26 – Aaron Comins (New York City)
There are no midday recitals during July and August. Music at Midday will resume on Friday, September 4, 2020.
September - December 2020
There are no midday concerts during July or August. The fall series of Friday Music at Midday will begin on September 4, 2020.
September 4 – Solomon Eichner, pianist (Raleigh, North Carolina)
September 11 – Michal Szostak, organist (Warsaw, Poland)
September 18 – Tyler Canonico, organist (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)
September 25 – David K. Houston (College Park, Maryland)
October 2 – Theodore S. Davis, Organist (Baltimore, Maryland)
October 9 – Justin Brueggeman, Organist (Johnson City, Tennessee)
October 16 – Mark Valenti, pianist (Chicago, Illinois)
October 23 – Russell Weismann, organist (Washington, DC)
October 30 – David Brock (Zephyr Springs, Nevada)
November 6 – Mi Zhou, organist (Baltimore, Maryland)
November 13 – Carol Feather Martin (Arlington, Virginia)
November 20 – Derrick Ian Meador (Laurel, Mississippi)
November 27 – NO RECITAL (Thanksgiving holiday)
December 4 – Kimberly Ann Hess, organist (Arlington, Virginia)
December 11 – Eric Bowman (Charles Town, West Virginia)
December 18 – Jackson Borges (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware)
December 25 – NO RECITAL (Christmas)
There are no midday recitals during January. The spring series of Music at Midday will resume on Friday, February 5, 2021.
Most of the Friday concerts at National City feature the church’s pipe organ, its MAGICAL, MYSTICAL, MUSICAL MACHINE!
Performers in our concert series make the pipe organ come alive and opens your eyes to the amazing world of the King of Instruments. Come surround yourself with the instrument’s 7,000 pipes and hear the ROAR that Washington D.C.’s third-largest pipe organ makes in this reverberant space. You’ll experience the organ’s MAGIC, power, and versatility, the MYSTERY of the organ’s unique sounds, the exciting MUSIC of the great composers for the pipe organ, and a fascinating fully hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind musical MACHINE that incorporates wood working, metal-smithing, electricity and electronics, computer technology, physics, acoustics, and a lot of other scientific and musical know-how.
You are invited to come hear the majesty of the five-keyboard Möller pipe organ in 30-minute FREE recitals of some of the most thrilling and sublime music written by the great musical geniuses of the pipe organ. Hands-on displays of organ pipes, colorful photographs of the inner workings of the NCCC organ, interesting information on pipe organ history, and a post-recital demonstration of how the organist operates the keyboards, pedal board, and over 300 controls provides an up-close-and-personal look at this complex and intriguing musical machine.
Be sure to join us on FRIDAYS from 12:15-1:00pm (September through December & February through June) and start your weekend with the exciting and floor-shaking sounds generated by National City Christian Church’s “Magical, Mystical, Musical Machine” and other concert offerings.
National City Christian Church is enormously grateful to all those who have supported and continue to support this recital series through their weekly presence and generous financial contributions.
Rev. Dr. J. Michael McMahon
Artistic Director, Music at Midday
National City Christian Church
5 Thomas Circle, NW
Washington D.C. 20005
