Santa Barbara Music Club

Tom Mueller Organ Recital

Saturday, Oct 22, 2022 3:00 pm

First United Methodist Church

305 E Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Image: Tom Mueller, organist

The Santa Barbara Music Club opens its 2022-2023 season of beautiful classical music on Saturday, October 22, 3 PM, at First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu. Award-winning organist and composer Tom Mueller will perform a concert including beloved masterworks as well as captivating newer works: Johann Sebastian Bach’s splendid Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532, David Conte’s imaginative Pastorale, Percy Whitlock’s radiant Scherzetto, and Cesar Franck’s magnificent Chorale No. 1 in E major. Also featured will be Mueller’s own Sonata (2020), comprising a Chorale, 5 Variations, Song, and Toccata. Admission is free.

Program Details

TOM MUELLER, ORGAN
Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
Pastorale
David Conte
(b. 1955)
Sonata (2020)
Tom Mueller
(b. 1985)
  • Chorale: Grave
  • Variation I. Andante
  • Variation II. Allegro scherzoso
  • Variation III. Allegretto
  • Variation IV. Canon in retrograde and augmentation: Lento
  • Variation V. Canon in inversion: Allegro
  • Chorale: Tempo primo
  • Song
  • Toccata
Scherzetto
Percy Whitlock
(1903-1946)
Chorale No. 1 in E major
Cesar Franck
(1822-1890)

The Performer

Tom Mueller serves as Professor of Music and University Organist at Concordia University in Irvine, California, where he directs academic programs in keyboard, composition, and church music. He is an active recitalist, composer, and educator.

Mueller won first place in the 2014 Schoenstein Competition in Hymn-Playing, held in conjunction with the national convention of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) in Boston, Massachusetts, and was honored by The Diapason as a member of the inaugural “20 Under 30” list of influential figures in the world of organ and church music in 2015.
He maintains an active concert schedule, and frequently performs across the United States and Europe. In 2010, he performed the complete organ works of J. S. Bach in a series of seventeen concerts in his native state of Maine. He has received numerous commissions for new choral and liturgical works, and performances of his compositions have been broadcast on national radio and television. As an organist, his recording credits include Scott Perkin’s A New England Requiem and O Beauty Ever Ancient Ever New by the Choir of St. James’, both of which were released on the Gothic label. His organ music is published by ECS.

Research interests include the early organ and keyboard works of J. S. Bach, the performance practice of organ continuo playing in the classical-era concerted sacred music of Germany and Austria, and the American reception of the nineteenth-century opera star Jenny Lind. He has presented workshops, masterclasses, and lectures for numerous organizations, including numerous AGO chapters, and has served as a faculty member for the AGO’s Pipe Organ Encounter (POE) program for young organists. He has held professional leadership and committee positions at regional and national levels of the AGO and the Association of Lutheran Musicians.

Mueller earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music. He also holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame (M.S.M. in organ), and the University of Maine at Augusta (B.M. in jazz composition and piano), where he graduated summa cum laude. He resides in Orange County with his wife and daughters.