Adam Pajan of the University of Oklahoma will present the second in a series of Friday organ concerts at noon on Friday, April 11 at the Parish Church of St. Helena, 505 Church St. in downtown Beaufort.
Pajan is beginning his doctoral work at the University of Oklahoma’s American Organ Institute as a graduate assistant and Fellow of the Graduate College. He recently completed his Master of Music in Organ Performance and Certificate in Church Music Studies at the Yale University School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music.
While at Yale he received the Robert Baker Scholarship, the Julia R. Sherman Prize for “excellence in organ playing,” the Richard Paul DeLong Prize as “the student whose work best exemplifies the dedication and the use of those special gifts required of practicing church musicians,” and was awarded the 2009-2010 Ruth and Paul Manz Scholarship, granted through the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
He graduated magna cum laude from Furman University in Greenville in 2008 with a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance.
Pajan has played extensively in the Southeast, including the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, a previous appearance at the Parish Church of St. Helena and across the Upstate.
Pajan will perform on the church’s historic Taylor & Boody organ as the second guest organist in this year’s series. The two-manual organ has 19 stops and more than 1,150 pipes housed in a beautifully crafted oak case.
Concerts are free and open to the public. The remainder of the 2014 concert series includes:
• April 25: Dr. Scott Bennett, Charleston, S.C.
• May 2: Dr. Stephen Hamilton, New York, N.Y.
• May 9: Kevin Edens, student of Dr. Charles Tompkins, Furman University.
The concert series is funded by private donations from parishioners and music lovers all over the Lowcountry. To become a Friend of Music at St. Helena’s, send your tax-deductible gift to: Music at St. Helena’s, The Parish Church of St. Helena, P.O. Box 1043, Beaufort, SC 29901.
For more information, visit www.sthelenas1712.org.
