Organist Rev. Dr. Jay Regennitter to Give Recital at Wesley UMC
On Friday, September 5, Rev. Dr. Jay Regennitter will present an organ recital at Wesley United Methodist Church in Urbana as part of a series of concerts commemorating the 100th birthday of the church’s organ. Read on to learn more about Regennitter and the program he intends to play.
Rev. Dr. Jay Regennitter has had a multifaceted career as both a musician and pastor. He holds a BA in choral music education and an MA in organ performance from Western Illinois University. After working for a few years as a music teacher and organist, he was called to a life of ministry. He went on to earn his MDiv from Duke University Divinity School and DMin from Christian Theological Seminary. Now, alongisde his full-time job as Directing Pastor at Coal City United Methodist Church in Coal City, Illinois, he keeps up his musical chops by giving organ recitals, playing for occasional church services, serving as a collaborative pianist in schools across the Chicago suburbs, and adjudicating Illinois Solo and Ensemble and other music competitions.
Regennitter was introduced to the organ by his mother. A music minor in college, she played the organ at their local church when he was growing up. “My first experience playing the organ was actually with my sister,” he said. “[My mother] got us started with one of us playing the left hand and the pedal and the other person playing the right hand.” By the age of 16, he was playing at his home church, and he continued to work as a church musician to support himself throughout his degrees.
This recital at Wesley United Methodist Church is part of a year-long celebration of the organ’s 100th birthday. The organ was built in 1925 by Ernest M. Skinner & Company (Opus 521), a firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. E. M. Skinner is considered one of the most influential figures in American organ building, responsible for significant sonic and technological advancements in the early 20th century. With 33 stops and 36/37 ranks, Opus 521 was originally installed in the Recital Hall of Smith Memorial Hall at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The instrument was dedicated on October 6, 1925, by Pietro Yon, an Italian-born composer and organist in New York City. It was then relocated to Wesley United Methodist Church in 1966 to make way for a new organ built by the Canadian firm, Casavant Frères.
Regennitter is no stranger to the Wesley organ. He has served as chairperson of the Wesley Foundation Board of Trustees and has both preached at and played for their Corporation Sunday worship services at Wesley. Regennitter is not the only organist to later pursue a career in ministry. There is plenty of precedent, particularly within the United Methodist Church, Regennnitter said. In fact, two of Wesley’s former pastors, Revs. Dan King Crede and Karen Westerfield Tucker, hold degrees in organ. (In a nice coincidence, Westerfield Tucker was one of Regennitter’s professors at Duke and was his substitute organist at the church he played at while in seminary.)
In a nod to the Wesley organ’s origins as a teaching instrument, the recital will open with Dietrich Buxtehude’s Prelude, Fugue, and Chaconne in C Major, BuxWV 137. Buxtehude, one of history’s greatest organ teachers, schooled many organists and composers in the north German organ tradition, including Bach and Handel. “It’s a piece that I love because it starts out with a pedal solo, and the entire piece is built upon that pedal solo,” Regennitter explained. The next piece on the program will be Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Major by 19th-century English composer Elizabeth Stirling, an organist renowned for her pedal playing. J.S. Bach’s Pièce d’Orgue, BWV 572, will follow, which Regennitter considers his favorite work by the prolific baroque composer.
Highlighting the organ’s current liturgical function, Regenitter’s program will continue with Felix Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 6 in D Minor, which features a set of variations on the German chorale “Vater unser im Himmelreich.” Next, Regennitter will play a second set of variations on a hymn tune with John Eggert’s Variations on “Slane.” The work was commissioned in 2005 to celebrate the 80th birthday of another E. M. Skinner organ built in 1925, Opus 416 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Durham, North Carolina. Regennitter will then close out the program with Toccata in B Minor by Eugène Gigout.
Don’t miss Rev. Dr. Jay Regennitter’s organ recital at Wesley United Methodist Church in Urbana, Friday, September 5 at 7:30 pm. https://www.wesleyui.org/post/organ-concert
