18th Annual Organ Concert Series

Fall 2024 Concerts

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IN PERSON & VIA LIVESTREAM

Join us in person at Westwood UMC or via YouTube livestream for four 60-minute concerts performed on the landmark Shaffer Memorial Organ. FREE ADMISSION.
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Sunday, October 13th (3pm)
MAURICE CLERC
Emeritus Organist of Dijon Cathedral (France)
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Sunday, November 10th (3pm)
MARK HERMAN
American Theatre Organist
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LOCATION

Westwood Church – map
10497 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310.474.4511

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FREE ADMISSION & FREE PARKING: Abundant secure parking is available for all events at the church below Belmont Village, the building east of the sanctuary. From Wilshire Blvd., use the driveway by the main steps in front of the sanctuary and proceed under the overhang to the underground parking lot. Please observe the signs that identify which spaces are for church use. After parking, proceed to the stairwell and elevator located at the church end (west end) of the parking structure.

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PREVIOUS CONCERT SERIES

14th Annual – 15th Annual – 16th Annual – 17th Annual

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MAURICE CLERC

October 13, 2024
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BIO: Maurice Clerc joins in the continuity of the big French tradition while drawing his energy from the dynamism of our time. His numerous concerts, approximately 1300 recitals in some twenty countries among which 28 tours in North America (U.S.A and Canada) were worth to him an international reputation. Traveling four continents for forty years, from Europe to Australia, he played to the prestigious places as Notre-Dame de Paris, the cathedral Saint Patrick of New York, the Dom de Lübeck, the basilica Saint Marco in Venise, an Oratory Saint Joseph of Montreal, the cathedral Saint-Paul of Melbourne, the auditorium of the N.H.K. of Tokyo or Culturel Center of Hong-Kong. In I987, it is invited to give two of the concerts of inauguration of the big organ Flentrop of the new auditorium of Taipeï. In 1999, he goes to Seoul for the convention of the organists. In 2003, he was again in Hong-Kong, from China and in Mexico, then from South Africa. In 2019, Maurice Clerc come back to Australia and New Zealand and in 2020 he will be to Japan and Hong Kong for concert and master-class. This international career leads him to occur in leading festivals such Bruges, Ravenna, Madrid, Morelia, Saint Eustache in Paris, Milstatt, Frankfurt, Budapest, Warsaw, Buenos-Aires and Montevideo.
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Born in Lyon in I946, Maurice Clerc is awarded a diploma at the Ecole Normale of Music in Paris where he receives the teaching of Suzanne Chaisemartin, At the Higher National Conservatory for Music of Paris, he obtains, in 1975, a First prize of organ in the class of Rolande Falcinelli. With Gaston Litaize, he pursues this course during several years with whom he deepens the interpretation of the repertory of the 18th century in our days. Finally, from 1972, he is has the opportunity to frequent the famous courses of improvisation which gave Pierre Cochereau to the International Academy of Nice. He wins the Prize of Improvisation in the international competition of Lyon in I977.
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Maurice Clerc is now Emeritus Organist of the Cathedral of Dijon after being the titular organist of this great organ for 46 years from 1972 to 2018. He was also a professor to the Conservatory of Dijon and lecturer at the University. Maurice Clerc recorded a dozen CD among which Bach and German baroque masters. But having built up itself a reputation in the romantic and modern repertory and considered one of the specialists of the French music, he became attached to the promotion of the major works of Franck, Vierne, Dupré, Fleury, Langlais. His most recent recordings led him to present Cochereau and French transcriptions. Maurice Clerc is Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

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MARK HERMAN

November 10, 2024
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BIO: Mark Herman is a distinguished American theatre organist who has performed hundreds of solo concerts and silent film presentations across the United States and internationally. In 2012, he received the prestigious American Theatre Organ Society’s Organist of the Year award, becoming the youngest recipient in the society’s history. He previously won the overall prize in the Society’s Young Theatre Organist Competition in 2004.
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Mark has been prominently featured on American Public Media’s Pipedreams program and has performed at numerous conventions for the American Theatre Organ Society, the American Guild of Organists, and the Organ Historical Society. His international tours have taken him to Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. His compositions, arrangements, and performances have also been featured on television and in films. Notably, in 2019, he performed a rare organ cameo alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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Renowned as a film accompanist and scorer, Mark is known for his period-authentic film scores and historically informed presentations that captivate contemporary audiences. In 2019, he was commissioned to compose and record two new scores for The Criterion Collection’s latest Harold Lloyd Blu-ray release. Mark studied theatre organ with the late John Ferguson of Indianapolis, an internationally recognized expert in the field, and classical piano with Christine Freeman of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Arts/Management from DePaul University in Chicago.
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Residing in Los Angeles, Mark is the President of Herman Organ Company, a firm specializing in the museum-quality restoration and care of pipe organs, where he leads a talented team of skilled craftsmen.

Spring 2024 Concerts

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JOSH ROEBUCK

March 24, 2024 – Watch on YouTube
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BIO: North Yorkshire (UK) born and a graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Josh began his studies in the Organ aged 14 with Richard Darke (formerly of Bradford Cathedral), Keith Wright (formerly of Durham Cathedral) and later Simon Lindley (formerly of Leeds Minster). At the conservatoire, Josh studied the organ under professors Henry Fairs and Daniel Moult alongside visiting professors Martin Schmeding and Nathan Laube, the harpsichord with Martin Perkins, and choral conducting with Paul Spicer. Josh is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists, and was a Northern Ireland International Organ Competition highly commended finalist. Previous recital venues have included St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, and St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham. Prior to moving to the US, Josh held positions in the music departments of Worcester Cathedral, St. Davids Cathedral, and Tewkesbury Abbey. He now lives full-time in Los Angeles with his Louisiana-native husband and fellow devoted cat-dad, Carter.

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LUKAS HASLER

April 21, 2024 – Watch on YouTube
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BIO: Lukas Hasler (born 1996) currently lives and works as a doctoral student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He studied organ at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, Austria with Ulrich Walther, where he graduated with distinction. In 2020 he spent a year abroad at the Académie Supérieure de Musique de Strasbourg in France under the tutelage of Johann Vexo. Further stays abroad also took him to New York City. Lukas completed his studies in cultural and media management at the University of Hamburg, Germany, where he finished in 2019 with a Master’s degree. In addition to his participation in the opening ceremony of the Salzburg Festival, he has for instance also performed at the Tyrolean Festival Erl, organ summer at the Saint Florian Bruckner Organ, at the International Organ Festival in Düsseldorf (IDO) as well as at the Russian music festival of the Volgograd Philharmonic. He has a thriving international concert career, which has already taken him to Europe and Asia as well as to some of the largest cathedrals in the United States. In 2022, he was the first classical musician to perform in Ukraine after the start of the war and played two benefit concerts in the Lviv Concert Hall for the victims of the war. Lukas won the “Prima la Musica” music competition for organ twice and in 2019 the “Grand Prix” at the International Organ Competition in Malta. In 2014 he also won the “Bärenreiter-Special” prize for his interpretation of a work by J.S. Bach. A year later, “Jugend komponiert”, a competition for young composers, named Lukas as a finalist for his piano and violin suites. The young organist and composer has attended master classes with Jean Guillou, Ton Koopman, Ludger Lohmann and Skip Sempé. Lukas is gaining recognition for his colourful and passionate musicality. In addition to his concert tours, Lukas has appeared as choirmaster and arranger of transcriptions for organ. A Portrait, which was released in the summer of 2019, is the title of his first solo CD with organ music by Bach, Liszt, Dupré and his own improvisations. In the following year he was named “rising star” by the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung. With more than 80,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, he is one of the world’s most successful organists on social media.

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