October 21, 2024
SIU’s Shryock Auditorium hosts Halloween Extravaganza of music on Oct. 27
The works of composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Andrew Lloyd Webber will be among the highlights when organists fill SIU Carbondale’s Shryock Auditorium on Sunday, Oct. 27, with a Halloween Extravaganza of music.
Presented by the Southern Illinois Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, the free, public concert, which begins at 6:30 p.m., is part of the SIU School of Music’s 2024-2025 performance series. The show will also feature performances on the Marianne Webb Pipe Organ.
The haunting classics will be presented by organists from throughout the region, including Anthony De La Paz, Henry Evans, Jane Otte, James Reifinger, Corryne Shaw and Martha Stiehl. Hyink Strings, a quartet featuring two violins, a cello and viola, and April Camden Mitter and Kim McDannel will play dueling grand pianos on the stage. Reifinger is an associate professor and music education coordinator in the SIU School of Music.
Audience participation is encouraged, though not required, by wearing Halloween costumes.
The organ was named in honor of Marianne Webb in 2001 after she retired from SIU Carbondale after 36 years of service. Under her direction, the School of Music had initiated an annual organ festival, the first of its kind in the country. She led an effort to renovate Shryock Auditorium, including installing a new 3,312-pipe, 3-manual, 58-rank Reuter pipe organ that she designed.
The Southern Illinois chapter of the American Guild of Organists covers Southern Illinois, southeast Missouri and western Kentucky.