Join us as Grace Church welcomes organist
John A. Wolfe as guest artist for Bach at Noon on Tuesday 23 February at 12:20 p.m.
PROGRAM
Jesu, Meine Freude, BWV 610
Kyrie, Gott, Vater in Ewigkeit, BWV 669
Christe, aller Welt Trost, BWV 670
Kyrie, Gott, Heiliger Geist, BWV 671
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor “Dorian,” BWV 538
John A. Wolfe is a New York City-based organist, choral conductor, concert producer
and music educator. Mr. Wolfe’s performance credits span all five boroughs of New York
City and average over one hundred performances per year. As a concert artist he most
recently created and performed in a series of solo recitals showcasing three centuries of
French organ music. He has also created and performed in a series of recitals bringing
Baroque chamber music to churches spanning the New York City metropolitan area, as
well as recitals featuring organists from around the world celebrating the music of
Johann Sebastian Bach. As a choral accompanist he has recently performed Mozart’s Requiem and Schubert’s Mass in G in the SummerSings series at the First Congregational Church of Norwich, Connecticut, and in a concert showcasing the music of Cole Porter at the Congregational Church of Manhasset, New York. He has been a featured performer in the Prism Concert Series at Central Synagogue in Manhattan, the short film Fugue by Boxed Wine Productions, and in T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral at St. Joseph’s Church of Our Lord in Brooklyn, earning favorable reviews in the New York Times and Time Out New York.
In Fall 2014 Mr. Wolfe began the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Organ Performance
at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, under Dr. Renee Anne
Louprette. While at working towards his doctorate he has performed with the Rutgers
University Baroque Players and Rutgers University Wind Ensemble, and participated in
master classes with Michel Bouvard, Kimberly Marshall, Alan Morrison and Gordon
Turk. In May 2014 Mr. Wolfe earned the Master’s Degree in Organ Performance at the
Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, under the direction of Dr. Walter
Klauss. Mr. Wolfe performed in the Queens College Baroque Opera Workshop’s
productions of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Cavalli’s La Calisto, as a
member of the Queens College Baroque Ensemble and as an accompanist for the
Queens College Vocal Ensemble. In Fall 2012 he appeared with Congressman Joseph
Crowley, Anjelica Huston and Carole King in the Queens College ceremony honoring
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. He is also an Honors graduate of Vassar
College, where he earned the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Organ Performance under Dr.
Gail Archer and studied abroad at New York University in Prague, Czech Republic. Mr.
Wolfe is a winner of the Drinkwater and Shaw music awards from Rutgers University, a
winner of the Maynard Walker Organ Award from the Aaron Copland School of Music, ,
and a winner of scholarship competitions hosted by the Queens, Nassau and York
chapters of the American Guild of Organists.
An experienced church musician, Mr. Wolfe served from 2013 to 2015 as the Interim
Music Director at the First Baptist Church of White Plains, New York, and from 2010 to
2013 as the Organist and Minister of Music at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Christ in Rosedale, New York. He is on call for performances across New York City at
weddings, funerals and worship services of all kinds, and he has performed for every
mainstream Christian denomination and for Jewish worship. His training as a sacred
musician has given him confidence and sensitivity in musical traditions of all kind,
from contemporary to ancient. He is an active member of the American Guild of
Organists, serving as the Sub-Dean of the Brooklyn Chapter and as a voting member of
the New York City Chapter. A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he resides in
Manhattan.
