Each year, in collaboration with the Grand Rapids American Guild of Organists, we host a free organ concert to ring in the New Year. This is a special tradition that highlights the importance of the arts at Central Reformed Church.
Ringing in the New Year
with the Organ.
Upcoming New Year’s Eve 2025 Concert
Central Reformed Church warmly invites all organ music lovers to its annual organ solo recital. The guest organist for this year’s New Year’s Eve Concert is Mr. Todd Wilson.
Regarded across America and around the world as one of today’s finest concert organists, Todd Wilson serves as head of the Organ Department at The Cleveland Institute of Music, and Curator of the E.M. Skinner pipe organ at Severance Music Center (home of The Cleveland Orchestra).
Todd Wilson has been heard in recital at many major venues throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, including Symphony Hall (Birmingham, UK), Westminster Abbey (London, UK), St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (Ireland), Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Dallas’ Meyerson Symphony Center, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Milwaukee’s Uihlein Hall, Washington National Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City, and the 21,000-seat Mormon Conference Center in Salt Lake City. He also was a recitalist for Austrian Radio in Vienna, and in 2005 presented his first solo recital in Tokyo, Japan.
Mr. Wilson has appeared with many orchestras around the world including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic for whom in 2004 he was featured organ soloist on the first orchestra subscription series concerts featuring the new Walt Disney Concert Hall organ, the Nashville Symphony, the Slovakian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Naples (Florida) Philharmonic, and The City of London Sinfonia.
Todd Wilson has many recordings to his credit on the Raven, Naxos, JAV, Delos, Gothic, Disques du Solstice and other private labels, including his most recent two-disc release “The Murray Hill Organ at St. James in-the-City, Los Angeles”, his landmark recording of the Duruflé organ works, the organ works of Gerre Hancock, Terry Riley’s “At the Grand Majestic” recorded with the Nashville Symphony, discs featuring the organ works of George Thalben-Ball and Frank Bridge, a solo recital of American music recorded at Washington National Cathedral, a two-disc collection entitled “In a Quiet Cathedral” featuring meditative organ music recorded at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, a recording of Great French Virtuosic Organ Music recorded at the University of Alabama, a recording of music for cello and organ recorded with his daughter, Rachel, a recording of duo organ works with David Higgs entitled “Double Forte”, and a recording of Tournemire organ works played on the organ at Chartres Cathedral in France.
Mr. Wilson received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where he studied organ with Wayne Fisher and piano with John Quincy Bass. Further coaching in organ repertoire was with Russell Saunders at The Eastman School of Music. He won numerous competitions, including the prestigious French Grand Prix de Chartres, the Fort Wayne Competition, the Strader National Scholarship Competition and the national competition sponsored by the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.
An active member of the American Guild of Organists, Mr. Wilson holds the Fellow and Choirmaster certificates, receiving the S. Lewis Elmer Prize for the highest national exam score in 1982. He has been a featured recitalist at many Guild conventions including national conventions in 1992 (Atlanta), 1996 (New York City), 2008 (Minneapolis), 2012 (Nashville) and 2018 (Kansas City).
A sought-after adjudicator, Mr. Wilson has been a jury member for many of the world’s most prestigious competitions, most recently at the 2023 St. Albans International Organ Competition. He has also served on juries for the Longwood Gardens International Competition (USA), the Pipeworks International Organ Competition (Ireland), the Nürnberg Competition (Germany), the Dallas Competition (USA), the Royal College of Organists’ Performer of the Year Competition (UK), the Calgary International Organ Festival and Competition (Canada), the Grand Prix de Chartres and the Toulouse Festival Competitions (France), the American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition, and the Ft. Wayne Competition (USA).
Previous positions held include Visiting Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan, Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (Cleveland Ohio), Director of Music and Organist at The Church of the Covenant (Cleveland Ohio), Head of the Organ Department at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music (Berea Ohio), and Organist and Master of the Choristers at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, New York.
Mr. Wilson frequently presents repertoire master classes as well as workshops focused on specific aspects of service playing and accompanying. An active interest in improvisation has led to his popular improvised accompaniments to classic silent films.
The organist Christopher Houlihan has established an international reputation as an "intelligently virtuoso musician” (Gramophone), hailed for his "glowing, miraculously life-affirming performances" (Los Angeles Times). Houlihan has concertized at major venues throughout the United States, including the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco), and Walt Disney Concert Hall, where he performed with the principal Brass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Los Angeles Times raved about his Disney Hall debut, proclaiming, "Houlihan is the next big organ talent."
Houlihan’s performances in 2024 include a return invitation to the Aspen Music Festival (Colorado) and orchestral performances with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra (Carolyn Kuan, conductor). Performances in recent seasons included solo recitals presented by the Madison Symphony Orchestra (Wisconsin), the Pacific Symphony (Costa Mesa, CA), and the Celebrity Recital Series at St. Paul’s Cathedral (London). Christopher Houlihan is the John Rose Distinguished College Organist and Director of Chapel Music, and Artist-in-Residence at Trinity College, Hartford, where he succeeds his former teacher, John Rose. Since 2022, he also serves as Artistic Director of the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival Hartford which presents one of the premier North American organ performance competitions for young organists.
Noted for his compelling performances of Louis Vierne’s organ works, Houlihan's “Vierne 2012” tour attracted international attention and critical acclaim for marathon recitals of Vierne’s six organ symphonies in six major North American cities. The Los Angeles Times called his performance there “a major surprise of the summer, a true revelation.” Building on this excitement and acclaim, Houlihan’s latest recording on Azica Records (released in 2023) features Vierne’s Symphony No. 6 and César Franck’s Grande Piece Symphonique. The recording was praised by The American Organist, which remarked, “as for Houlihan himself, he just keeps getting better.”
In addition to his studies at Trinity College, Houlihan studied with Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs at The Juilliard School and with Jean-Baptiste Robin at the French National Regional Conservatory in Versailles. In 2015 he was selected for The Diapason's “20 Under 30,” a distinguished list of young leaders in the organ world. More information is at ChristopherHoulihan.com.
New Year’s Eve 2024 Concert
With playing described as having “bracing virtuosity” (Chicago Classical Review) and being “fearless and extraordinary” (Amarillo-Globe News), Isabelle Demers has enraptured critics, presenters, and audience members around the globe. Her 2010 recital for the International Society of Organbuilders-American Institute of Organbuilders convention “left the entire congress in an atmosphere of ‘Demers fever’.” That same year, her performance at the Washington D.C. national convention of the American Guild of Organists caused the standing-room-only audience to call her back to the stage five times.
She has appeared in recital throughout Europe, Oman, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada. Highlights include performances at the Maison Symphonique (Montreal, Québec), the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg, Germany), City Hall (Stockholm, Sweden), the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing, China), and St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey (London, UK).
Dr. Demers is in continual high demand by her colleagues as witnessed by performances for numerous regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Institute of Organ Builders and International Society of Organbuilders, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Organ Historical Society. She has released three CD recordings on the Acis and Pro Organo labels. In 2018, she appeared as solo organ accompanist in an Acis recording of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem with the Baylor University Choir, recorded at Duruflé’s church in Paris. A native of Québec and a doctoral graduate of the Juilliard School, Dr. Demers is Associate Professor of Organ at McGill University (Montréal, Québec). She was formerly the Joyce Bowden Chair in Organ and Head of the Organ Program at Baylor University (Waco, Texas)
New Year’s Eve 2023 Concert
Hailed as “an absolute organ prodigy” by National Public Radio and “one of the most talented organists in the world” by the Chicago Tribune, concert organist Adam J. Brakel is a preeminent artist “with the technique and virtuosity that most concert pianists could only dream of.” (NPR) Adam’s celebrated performances span the globe—from coast to coast in the United States to across Europe and Asia. Brakel has one of the largest and most diverse performing repertoires in the world. His expansive list includes the entire spectrum of styles featuring the complete organ works of Bach, Bruhns, Buxtehude, Couperin, Liszt, de Grigny, Franck, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Duruflé.
Brakel’s performance highlights include the complete works of César Franck, and, most notably, the fiendishly difficult Six Etudes of Jeanne Demessieux, of which Adam is one of the few organists in the world to have performed and recorded in its entirety. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory and Duquesne University, Adam has a rich and decorated musical pedigree, having studied with Donald Sutherland and Dame Gillian Weir. He has taken top prizes in the Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition, the Gruenstein Memorial Organ Competition, the John Rodland Memorial Scholarship Competition, the French Organ Music Seminar Competition, and the Carlene Neihart International Organ Competition. He has also earned the André Marchal Award for Excellence in Performance as well as the Oundle Award, among other honors. In addition to his concert career, Adam was most recently appointed Director of Music for St. James Cathedral and the Diocese of Orlando, Florida.
New Year’s Eve 2022 Concert
Gregory Hand is associate professor of organ at the University of Iowa. Prior to this appointment he held the position of University Chapel Organist at Northwestern University, where he also taught in the Music Theory department. He was awarded the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied organ with James Kibbie and harpsichord with Edward Parmentier. Dr. Hand is in high demand as a performer and pedagogue. He was recently appointed to a five-year term on the jury of the Internationale Orgelwoche Nürnberg (ION), and has given recitals and master-classes in the United States, France, Spain, Germany and Brazil.
His debut CD, “The Complete Gospel Preludes of William Bolcom” on the Naxos label marked the world premiere recording of all twelve of these landmark pieces. Critics praised the recording as “stunning” (American Record Guide) and noted the “sonorous and probing performances” (Gramophone), and the “brilliance of his technique” (allmusic.com).
He also was the first organist to play all twelve Gospel Preludes in one concert: first at the University of Michigan with the composer in attendance, and later at Princeton University, University of Glasgow, St Giles Cathedral (Edinburgh), and the Twin Cities (MN) chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
Dr. Hand has often collaborated with other instrumentalists to perform new music. With bassoonist Benjamin Coelho he premiered Adrian Vernon Fish’s Kassoq at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Redlands, CA. With Amy Schendel he premiered Patrick Schulz’s Fanfare for Trumpet and Organ, which appears on a recently released CD.
He is also very active as a harpsichordist and continuo player. Recent engagements include The Four Seasons with the Des Moines Symphony and Anne Akiko Meyers; Giulio Cesare with the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Ritorno d’Ulisse with Chicago Opera Theater; and several concerts with Ars Antigua, a Chicago-based period ensemble. He also conducted from the harpsichord a concert performance of Jacopo Peri’s Euridice at the University of Iowa in 2011.
Dr. Hand has participated in several international organ competitions, including the Grand Prix deChartres (France), St. Albans (England), Prix Andre Marchal (France), and the Dublin International Organ Competition.