Submitted by ED DULING
Ed Duling will be the featured performer at the last concert of the Fine Arts Season on Sunday, March 18, at 3 p.m. at the Fayette Opera House in downtown Fayette, Ohio. The event will center upon hymns (music and words) and other concert and church music of four generations of the Wesleys, starting with the father of John and Charles, founders of Methodism, and extending to Samuel Sebastian Wesley.
Coshocton native, Ed Duling, a semi-retired music education professor, is the organist at First Presbyterian Church of Bowling Green and is nearing 50 years as an organist or choir director in churches in several Ohio areas. He continues to teach part-time for Kent State University’s online MMME program and holds interests in church history, rural life, and sheet music, and local history. This program will marry two of Dr. Duling’s interests in history and music as he is currently serving as president of the United Methodist Historical Society of Ohio.
This special concert will focus upon the reed organs that have been restored by Don Glasgow, a talented restorer of reed organs, including a seldom-seen three-manual (and pedal) Mason and Hamlin (ca. 1890), salvaged in pieces from a Toledo carriage house, and now powered by an electric blower. Duling will also play upon the 19th-century Alexandre and Sons harmonium, probably built in Paris.
This pre-Easter concert will also showcase the histories of the Fayette and the West Franklin United Methodist Churches and will include the pianists and organists for these two area churches. The audience will be invited to sing some of the well-known Wesleyan hymns with organ and piano accompaniment. Refreshments will be served in the lower level pavilion of the Opera House after the concert.
Tickets may be purchased at the door and will cost between $10 and $12.
