18th Annual Organ Concert Series

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.
.

As the spring approaches, so does the first half of this year’s organ concerts in their brand new format – two concerts in the spring, and two concerts in the fall. It is our hope that this will avoid the summer heat in our non air-conditioned sanctuary, and allow for more people to attend that may normally be absent during the summer holidays. The spring concerts, performed on the landmark Shaffer Memorial Organ and each lasting about 60 minutes, will be presented on March the 24th by Josh Roebuck, Westwood’s organist in residence, and on April 21st by Lukas Hasler.  Lukas is an Austrian concert organist who currently combines his doctoral study at USC with a busy and successful international performing and teaching schedule.
.

Sunday, March 24th (3pm)
JOSH ROEBUCK
Westwood UMC
.
Sunday, April 21st (3pm)
LUKAS HASLER
Concert Organist
.

LOCATION

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

.

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.

.

PREVIOUS CONCERT SERIES

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

.

JOSH ROEBUCK

.

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.

.

LUKAS HASLER

.

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.

.