All boys. All boarding. Grades 9-12.
Organ Concert by Kit Jacobson ’99 Honors Hill Brown ’55
Christopher Jacobson ’99 performed four pieces on Woodberry Forest School's Kenan Fisk Organ Opus 88 on May 1, 2016, in St. Andrew's Chapel, as part of the Hill Brown ’55 Chapel Concert Series. He introduced the pieces in his program, Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Great Keyboard Duels, by reminding the congregation of the tradition of settling disputes through duels. He described two famous rivalries between organists that produced the evening's four compositions. The first pairing pitted Marcel Dupre's Prelude and Fugue in B major, Op. 7, a piece that Christopher said "stretches the bounds of the human body at the organ," against Louis Vierne 's Scherzetto, Op. 31. The second pair of pieces recreated the eighteenth-century improvisational duel between Louis Marchand's Grand Dialogue in C major and Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D major, BMW 532.
Christopher Jacobson serves as the Duke University Chapel Organist and organist at the Duke Divinity School. He has previously served as Associate Organist at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, South Carolina, and Assistant Organist at the Washington National Cathedral. In March, Christopher was conferred a Fellowship in the Royal College of Organists in London, a prestigious honor earned by only a few Americans. Christopher has presented organ recitals across North American, Europe, and Australia and has won top prizes in numerous organ competitions. He holds the Master of Music degree in Organ Performance and the Sacred Music Diploma from the Eastman School of Music as well as a Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from St. Olaf College. Prior to attending Woodberry, he attended the American Boychoir School.
The Hill Brown ’55 Chapel Concert Series was established in 2011 by Thomas S. Kenan III ’55 in honor of his Woodberry Forest roommate and longtime friend, Rev. Wm. Hill Brown III ’55. Hill and his wife, Peggy, were on campus for the concert. The Kenan Fisk Organ Opus 88, designed and built by Charles Fisk, was added to St. Andrew's Chapel in 1986, commissioned by Thomas S. Kenan III ’55 in honor of his father Frank Hawkins Kenan ’31.
The Hill Brown ’55 Chapel Concert Series was established in 2011 by Thomas S. Kenan III ’55 in honor of his Woodberry Forest roommate and longtime friend, Rev. Wm. Hill Brown III ’55. Hill and his wife, Peggy, were on campus for the concert. The Kenan Fisk Organ Opus 88, designed and built by Charles Fisk, was added to St. Andrew's Chapel in 1986, commissioned by Thomas S. Kenan III ’55 in honor of his father Frank Hawkins Kenan ’31.
Woodberry Forest School is an exceptional private school community for high school boys in grades nine through twelve. It is one of the top boarding schools in the United States and one of the only all-boys, all-boarding schools in the country.
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