{"id":237443,"date":"2015-01-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/celebrating-the-king-of-instruments\/"},"modified":"2015-01-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T08:00:00","slug":"celebrating-the-king-of-instruments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/celebrating-the-king-of-instruments\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the \u2018King of Instruments\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Carol Williams |\u00a0Civic Organist News<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: This is an introductory piece from Dr. Williams who, based on her advocacy as our Civic Organist, will be contributing a column on a rotational basis to San Diego Downtown News throughout 2015.<\/i><\/p>\n

As my dad drove me home one rainy night from one of my hundreds of organ performances in the U.K., I looked out the car window at Stonehenge and wondered where I\u2019d be in 20 years with my chosen career path. At the time, I was a teenage organ scholar who first began performing concerts at eight years old.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Dra. carol williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many years later, I was again gazing out through a rainy window thinking of that night. I was on an aircraft preparing to land in San Diego. I could see the Spreckels Organ Pavilion all lit up. I was an international concert organist with a doctorate in music wondering how my audition for the San Diego\u2019s Civic Organist job would go.<\/p>\n

It went well. The plaque in the pavilion now reads, Carol Williams, Civic Organist, 2001 \u2013 present.<\/p>\n

San Diego has had a Civic Organist perform organ concerts once a week for the past 100 years. A city organist is a comparatively rare breed in the world today, probably even an endangered species.<\/p>\n

I am often busily engaged composing, transcribing and arranging music to play on the organ. Very little repertoire that can be tolerated by the masses is composed for the \u201cKing of Instruments.\u201d These tasks, along with programming and planning, can be challenging on a weekly basis, but I\u2019ve got it down to an art. The repertoire needs to be varied, yet enticing, sophisticated and popular. Otherwise you may end up with only 10 people left in the audience and they\u2019ll all be texting.<\/p>\n

I love to collaborate with other musicians of all genres and ages to provide our audience with a well-rounded musical experience. The pipe organ has had a kind of stigma attached to it and part of my passion is to educate and broaden people\u2019s awareness. I love and play all kinds of music and even though I was classically trained, as a youngster I would be scolded for playing jazz on the church organ.<\/p>\n

This job is, of course, far more than just programming and playing. It is essential to establish a fun relationship and connect with the audience. This is a major part of a successful performer and something I really enjoy. I want the audience to have a new respect for the pipe organ and be glad they attended the open-air concert in Balboa Park.<\/p>\n

\"Carol<\/a>
Carol Williams, shown with the Spreckels Organ, hosts performances every Sunday at 2 p.m. at Balboa Park\u2019s Organ Pavilion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am also artistic director of the Spreckels Organ Society, and in that role, I work hard with volunteers from the Spreckels Organ Society, musicians, composers, park institutions and others in producing all the ongoing efforts to bring a special festive atmosphere to our organ and Balboa Park, including the Centennial Celebration Concert this past Dec. 31.<\/p>\n

My ambassadorship also extends internationally, as I always introduce or remind my audiences of San Diego\u2019s great Spreckels Organ. I was recently selected as one of eight artists to perform at the 10th anniversary concert for the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ, and as is usually done at my \u201caway concerts,\u201d I was introduced as San Diego\u2019s Civic Organist.<\/p>\n

Our great instrument was talked about to that audience; Russian, European and the Far East audiences all have been informed of our majestic beast. This very large box of whistles is a part of me now and I am honored and blessed to be a part of San Diego\u2019s history \u2014 both its past and future. Those of us privileged to serve in this civic position today, around the world, are the heirs of a rich inheritance.<\/p>\n

I am always open to cultural and musical explorations that involve the pipe organ and look forward to opportunities to bring it to new audiences. I hope to see some new faces at our Sunday concerts at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

Please stop by the Organ Pavilion and say hello to me after a concert if you have a chance.<\/p>\n

\u2014La organista c\u00edvica Carol Williams se enorgullece de servir como embajadora del campo de las artes y la cultura de San Diego. A trav\u00e9s de sus conciertos en el pa\u00eds y en el extranjero, Carol ofrece una nueva versi\u00f3n del concierto de \u00f3rgano cl\u00e1sico. Est\u00e1 comprometida a iluminar el colorido romance de San Diego con el \u201cRey de los Instrumentos\u201d, siempre buscando llevar el \u00f3rgano a nuevas audiencias. Para m\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n visite sosorgan.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Carol Williams |\u00a0Civic Organist News Editor\u2019s Note: This is an introductory piece from Dr. Williams who, based on her advocacy as our Civic Organist, will be contributing a column on a rotational basis to San Diego Downtown News throughout 2015. As my dad drove me home one rainy night from one of my hundreds […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":237444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Celebrating the \u2018King of Instruments\u2019","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}