Organist Ian Watson will perform a solo organ concert at 3 P.M. on Sunday, September 9, 2007, at South Congregational Church, 45 Maple Street, Springfield.  The concert is presented by the American Guild of Organists, Springfield Chapter, and the Arcadia Players Baroque Music Ensemble, and all proceeds will benefit Arcadia Players.

Mr. Watson will perform works by J.S. Bach, including the Prelude and “Fiddle” Fugue in D minor and two chorale preludes.  He will also play Bach’s organ version of Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor, Flor Peeters’ Suite Modale, and Edward Elgar’s Sonata in G, Op. 28, as well as music by Joseph Bonnet and Louis Vierne.  He will perform on a three-manual instrument built in 1978 by Austin Organs of Hartford, one of the oldest organ companies in the United States

A donation of $10 at the door is suggested.  The American Guild of Organists’ Springfield chapter will host a reception immediately following the performance.  Off street parking will be available in the church’s parking lot.

Organist Ian Watson, Artistic Director of Arcadia Players Baroque Ensemble, is a world renowned performer and conductor.  A native of England, and classically trained at the Royal Academy of Music, Mr. Watson leads an active concert touring and recording life in which he frequently travels to Europe to perform as organist, harpsichordist, and solo pianist and to conduct in some of the leading opera houses of Germany.  He was the featured keyboard player for the soundtracks of the films Amadeus and Mr. Holland’s Opus.  In addition to shaping the artistic vision of Arcadia Players, Mr. Watson is music director of St Paul’s Cathedral in Worcester and founder and director of the St. Paul's Music Festival.  He also directs the Worcester Collegium and Karlstad Baroque in Sweden.  Mr. Watson resides in Worcester with his American-born wife and four sons.

Arcadia Players will present a subscription series of seven concerts in 2007–2008 in several communities in western Massachusetts, performing chamber music and orchestral and choral repertoire of the Baroque and Classical eras, including annual highly acclaimed performances of Handel's Messiah.  Arcadia Players begins its 19th season on September 16, 2007, at 3 P.M. at Sweeney Concert Hall, Smith College, Northampton, with the music of Bach and Vivaldi, including the Vivaldi Gloria and Bach’s Concerto for four harpsichords.

Some of the proceeds from the September 9 benefit concert will be used in a pilot education program that Arcadia Players will launch this fall in the Springfield Public Schools.  As part of this program, more than 1,100 fifth-grade students from 16 Springfield schools will listen to Baroque music as part of Colonial history in their social studies curriculum.  The students will attend an open rehearsal of Handel’s Messiah at Old First Church, Springfield, and then the children and their teachers will be invited to a formal performance as guests of Arcadia Players, at which time the children may be accompanied by their families or by surrogate grandparents provided through the Urban League of Springfield.  Mass Mutual is a major sponsor of this program, which is also made possible by the Springfield Cultural Council, the Springfield Public Schools, the Urban League of Springfield, the Old First Church, the Melanie Kasparian Professional Development Center, and the American Guild of Organists.