DEERFIELD — The First Church of Deerfield at 71 Old Main St. will kick off 20 years of “The Brick Church” Music Series with a performance by organist Christa Rakich on Sunday, Sept. 14, at 3 p.m.
“It gives me great pleasure to find wonderful talent here in the Pioneer Valley and abroad,” said Jean Pitman Turner, coordinator of “The Brick Church” Music Series.
Turner said the chamber music series was created after the installation of the church’s Tennessee-produced Richards, Fowkes & Co. organ in 2002, which attracted musicians from across the country. As musicians flocked to the organ to try it for themselves, the church started the chamber music series to showcase the visitors’ sounds.
“They were stunned by the beauty of the organ,” Turner explained.
An organist since she was 12 years old, Rakich has played organs in Germany, France and Japan, but she insists First Church of Deerfield’s organ is “a very special instrument.” According to Rakich, 72, there is a “direct mechanical connection” between the keys and pipes of Richards, Fowkes & Co. organs that give them “an incredible expressive range.”
“Organs that are mass-produced tend to sound rather bland and all the same,” Rakich said. “Whereas, Richards, Fowkes instruments, each one is unique and each one is gorgeous in its own way.”
Rakich said the organ and her friendship with Turner pulled her back to the First Church of Deerfield after performing in past years. A recording artist and visiting professor at Oberlin College and Conservatory, she travels either from Oberlin, Ohio, or Madison, Connecticut, to Deerfield for the music series.
“Every time I play, I discover something new about the instrument,” Rakich said.
Rakich’s fingers were first introduced to the keys when she crawled onto the bench of her grandmother’s piano.
“As soon as I could reach it, I was all over it,” she said. By 5 years old, Rakich was practicing for piano lessons. By 12, she tried her church’s organ, and it clicked.
“On the piano, as soon as you play a note, it begins to die away. On the organ, if you play a note and hold it down, it’s going to stay there until you let it go,” Rakich said. “You can have these long notes that are held while action is happening in other places.”
On Sunday, she plans to play an “improvisation uniquely suited to the organ,” an original piece, and works by J.S. Bach, Louise Talma and Heinrich Scheidemann, a 17th-century German organist and composer with a funny bone, in Rakich’s words. His work often booms with a grand statement sound before “something very tiny” echoes after, Rakich explained in a mousy squeal.
“I always consider a concert a success when the audience laughs,” she said.
As a fundraiser for the church, a $20 donation is suggested at the door. After Rakich’s performance, a reception will follow in the Caswell Library at Deerfield Academy.
The series will continue on Sunday, Oct. 19, with a performance by cellist and pianist Tanya Anisimova and pianist Pi-Hsun Shih at 3 p.m. Pianist Jiayan Sun will finish the series with a performance on Sunday, Feb. 22, at 3 p.m.