Choral Society to present organ musical event

Published 10:00 am Tuesday, October 19, 2021

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The Choral Society of West Georgia will once again fill the late October air with live music as it presents the Great October Organ Extravaganza.

The event offers the performers an opportunity to showcase their remarkable talents outside of their regular church music responsibilities in a fun-filled family setting for all ages and musical tastes, said Bettie Biggs, artistic director of the Choral Society of West Georgia.

Originally known as the Great Spooktacular Organ Concert, the title has been renamed to include a wider array of festive musical offerings.

This will be the Choral Society’s sixth event of this nature to date, Briggs said.

“We actually had a highly successful virtual concert with seven area organists [last year],” she said. “Concerts like this are held all over the country at this time of year. I went to one of the Columbus concert, fell in love with the concept and we were able to make it happen here.”

The event will take place on Saturday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. in the First Baptist Church on the Square Sanctuary.  

Six area organists will be performing a variety of selections from Bach to John Phillip Sousa.

This year’s performers will include:

Ken Bailey with St. Luke Methodist Church Columbus, Anthony Criswell with First Baptist Church on the Square  LaGrange, Tyra Crowe with First Presbyterian Church  LaGrange, Robin Ericksen with St. Mark’s Episcopal Church  LaGrange

Eve McKibben with Ebenezer Presbyterian Church Hogansville and Don Pappenbrock with First United Methodist Church LaGrange

A new addition to the concert program this year will be the presentation of a short Harold Lloyd silent movie film shown with original musical accompaniment provided by First Baptist Church organist and director of music, Anthony Criswell.

The concert is sponsored by the Choral Society of West Georgia as part of its community outreach commitment. The concert is free and open to the public for all to enjoy.

The event offers the performers an opportunity to showcase their remarkable talents outside of their regular church music responsibilities in a fun-filled family setting for all ages and musical tastes.

The concert is in conjunction with the Downtown LaGrange Development Authority’s annual Fall Festival, which will be held on Oct. 30 earlier in the afternoon.