The Community Music School Faculty Recital Series 2015 presents a recital by Dr. James Leland, faculty organ professor at Southwestern College. Dr. Leland’s program will include music of Louis-Nicolas Clérambault,  J. S. Bach, César Franck, Olivier Messiaen, and Camille Saint-Saëns. The major works will be Franck’s Chorale in E major and Bach’s Passacaglia in C minor.

The pipe organ at Southwestern College has three manuals, thirty-four ranks, and 2045 pipes. In 2011, it received a major restoration by its original builder, the Reuter Organ Company. Its pipes, wind chests, and mechanism were refurbished and it was given a handsome new console. The two organ chambers now have façades comprised of speaking pipes. The live acoustics in Richardson Performing Arts Center are ideal for organ music.

Dr. James Leland teaches organ and harpsichord at Southwestern and is organist at Grace United Methodist Church in Winfield, KS. A graduate of Oberlin College, he received master’s and doctoral degrees at Northwestern University. He also studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and was a Fulbright Fellow at the State Academy of Music in Berlin.

For thirty-four years, Leland was professor of music and chapel organist and choirmaster at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. In addition to his solo recitals he has appeared as organist and harpsichordist with the Detroit Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Roanoke Symphony, and the Robert Shaw Chorale.