One of the Tabernacle organists, Brian Mathias, will play at this year’s fourth and final Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series concert Friday, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
How to watch in-person or online
The concerts are free, open to everyone and no tickets are required, according to The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s announcement. Entry to the Tabernacle is accessed through the gates on West Temple Street. Due to construction on Temple Square, please review access on the map.
This concert will also be streamed live on the choir’s YouTube channel at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 13. After the performance ends, the video will be available on-demand.
The Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series
This is the finale of the four virtuoso concerts scheduled for this year. Daniel Kerr, the chair of the Music Department at Brigham Young University–Idaho, performed in August. James O’Donnell, professor in the practice of organ at Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven, Connecticut, and has had tenures at the Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, both in London, England, performed in May. Viktor Billa, Ukrainian organist and soloist who is an organist at Trinity United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, performed in February.
The Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series started in 2022 and was created to showcase the Tabernacle organ and world-renowned organists.
The series began with concerts by James Higdon, an organist from the University of Kansas; Gabriele Terrone, the Cathedral of the Madeline’s organist and assistant director of music; and Andrew Unsworth, who has been a Tabernacle organist since 2007.
The concerts with Kerr, O’Donnell, Billa, Terrone and Unsworth are available for on-demand viewing on the choir’s YouTube channel. (See the videos below.)
About the Tabernacle organ
The Tabernacle pipe organ has five manuals or keyboards, and 206 ranks of organ pipes and is among the world’s largest instruments. Its golden pipes are made from wood staves fashioned from Utah timber and still add to the sound of the famous instrument today.
There are also free daily organ concerts at noon in the Tabernacle. Also, the Tabernacle organists have a weekly “Piping Up! Organ Concerts at Temple Square” series that is streamed on Wednesday on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel and website at thetabernaclechoir.org and also on Broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
About Brian Mathias
Before Mathias was appointed as a Tabernacle organist in 2018, he was an adjunct faculty member at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Previously, he taught at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and also served as associate organist at Country Club Christian Church in Kansas City, Missouri, according to The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s announcement.
His solo performances include recitals at the Salt Lake Tabernacle and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Conference Center in Salt Lake City; the Cathedral of the Madeleine, in Salt Lake City; Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.; BYU–Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho; and Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. He has competed on the international stage in several international organ competitions, including the 2011 and 2014 Canadian International Organ Competitions and the 2010 Grand Prix de Chartres international organ competition, according to the announcement.
Mathias earned a doctor of musical arts degree at the University of Kansas, where he studied organ with James Higdon and carillon with Elizabeth Berghout. He received bachelor of music and master of music degrees from Brigham Young University, studying organ with Don Cook and Douglas Bush and carillon with Cook.
Past concerts in the Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series
The concerts with Kerr, O’Donnell, Billa, Terrone and Unsworth are available for on-demand viewing on the choir’s YouTube channel.
