My Visit at Luther College
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
written by Dr. Ilona Kubiaczyk-Adler
I was thrilled when I received an email in August of last year with an invitation to deliver the Annual Benefactor’s Recital which takes place in the Center for Faith and Life at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. I knew I would be following the footsteps of many acclaimed national and international musicians who played at this venue before me. You can read more and see the concert program here.
Decorah has been the home of Luther College since 1861, when it was first established as a Lutheran seminary by Norwegian immigrants. It is a strong liberal arts institution affiliated with the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). Due to a high number of Norwegian settlements it has become a center for Norwegian-American culture (thus the name of the famous Nordic Choir which performed at Pinnacle just a couple years ago!). Music has always been in the center of the mission of this organization, and about 40% of all the students participate in musical ensembles.
I started my first day at Luther by participating in the morning Chapel led by Pastor Melissa Bills. Students and faculty gathered to pray and sing together. The first year student choir delivered a beautiful anthem, and one of the international students shared a powerful story of love and belonging. An organ student played the organ prelude, and Dr. Alexander Meszler, who is the Assistant Professor of Organ and the College Organist, played the postlude. It was just the perfect start to a day full of work preparing the organ for my recital.
On Saturday I worked with 10 bright and talented students from Dr. Meszler’s organ studio during a masterclass. I couldn’t be happier to see the future of organ playing in the hands of such passionate young musicians. They presented new American music and pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach. We talked about many technical details of playing the organ, as well as how to make their pieces sound exhilarating. The workshop followed by another few-hour long session of my preparations for the recital.
Why are so many hours needed to prepare for a recital? There is not one identical pipe organ in the whole world. Every organ is built in a particular style (and there are numerous styles in organ building) and it is custom made to the space it is built for. It takes time to explore an instrument, find its best sound combinations for the music we want to present. My personal goal is to incorporate every stop and display as many unique sound combinations as possible in every instrument I play a full length recital on. It takes time to discover these sound combinations, to preset them in the organ memory system, double check them in the room (by making a recording), and then re-listen and adjust them if needed. After that process is done, I spend time making sure my body placement is right in all the key moments. Since every instrument has a slightly different setup of the keys and knobs I need to press during the performance, I practice my body movements throughout all the sound and keyboard changes which happen during the pieces. The concert was live-streamed and recorded, so you can watch the effect of my work here.
It was a lovely and quite unforgettable time in Decorah! Here are a few photos from my trip.
