Arts Spotlight: Performing Arts Series

Nathan Laube is the New Meghan Trainor.

Are you all about that bass? Do you think bigger is better? This Sunday, Nov. 2 at 3 p.m., Mead Chapel will be taken by storm by one of the largest and most majestic instruments in the state. Twenty-five year old musical phenomenon Nathan Laube is returning to the College to rattle the campus with our very own organ once more.

Applauded for redefining traditional organ music with a brilliance rarely seen in an artist twice his age, Laube is an outlier you can’t afford to miss. Prodigious playing, fantastical arrangement and gracious demeanor have thrilled audiences and stunned critics since he joined the ranks of the world’s most elite performers at an age comparable to our own. Tickets are available at go/boxoffice for $6 to enjoy the tremendous depth and grandeur of a beautiful instrument in the hands of a true artist.

Not only will the audience experience the talent of one the country’s most preeminent musicians, Laube will be playing an instrument as unique as he is. The magnificent Gress-Miles organ, built more than forty years ago for Mead Chapel, has been refurbished to perfection. After playing a concert here, the organ chair at Julliard College admitted with envy, “I wish Julliard had an instrument like this!”

As Laube has said, an organ is so much more than shiny cylinders seen rising from lacquered wood.

“It’s the earliest form of a computer system in a way,” he said. “You set up combinations of stops that you call upon as you play by using these preset buttons!”

Organists play keyboards with both hands and feet to coordinate hundreds of tones and create the passionate melodies that will fill the chapel this weekend. Our own organ has over 3,000 pipes, and others have tens of thousands.

Complexity on such a massive scale results in something uniquely organic, an instrument with a life of its own that represents an incredible swathe of history and styles. Few appreciate or are even cognizant of the nuance and life that comprise such an entity. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear the history and intricacy behind this beautiful instrument as explained by Laube during his pre-concert lecture at 2:15 p.m. in Mead Chapel.

Laube’s incredible trajectory into the uppermost echelons of performers began with piano at age five. After first attending the Chicago Academy for the Arts, Nathan graduated from the renowned Curtis Institute of Music and was recognized with the institution’s two most prestigious awards, the Landis Award for Excellence in Academics and the Aldwell Award for Excellence in Musical Studies. Since then, he has performed at some of the most distinguished venues in United States and Europe, such as Carnegie Hall, Washington D.C’s National Cathedral, Verizon Hall, Walt Disney Hall, Trinity Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral and Canterbury Cathedral.  He has completed five European tours and is the artist-in-residence at the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, France.

In our own no-less-significant Mead Chapel, Laube will be playing a delightful compilation of Bach, Windor and others. Although his vast repertoire spans from pre-Baroque to living composers, he is most praised for his vibrant and virtuosic transcriptions of Bach, Strauss, Mahler and Rossini’s orchestral works.

Claiming he was first interested in architecture but quickly became transfixed by the “majesty” and “mystery” of the pipe organ, Laube’s humble bearing allows the magnificence and power of the instrument to resonate deep within his audience. This unassuming bearing also serves to highlight the eloquence and poetry he uses to express his love for the organ and all its facets.

Recently he has turned this ability toward teaching at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York as Assistant Professor of Organ. Although fortunate for the next generation of organists, teaching could delay future visits until the majority of us have graduated, so don’t miss your chance to see his performance!

Tickets are $6 for students, $15 for faculty, staff, alumni, and other ID card holders, $20 for general public. Visit go/boxoffice or stop by our office in McCullough Student Center or the Mahaney Center for the Arts!