Upbeat Live - April 28, 2017: Thomas Neenan re: The Best of Wagner’s Ring

Concert: The Best of Wagner’s Ring Upbeat Live provides historical and cultural context for many concerts, featuring engaging speakers, audio examples, and special guests. These events are free to ticket holders and are held in BP Hall, on the second floor, accessible after your ticket is scanned. For more information: laphil.com/upbeatlive About the Speaker: Thomas Neenan is Lecturer in Music History and Music Theory at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena where he teaches a full range of courses devoted to history, theory, music appreciation, jazz history, opera, and special topics. Neenan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Organ Performance from Cal-State Northridge and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Organ Performance Practices and Conducting from UCLA where he was named an Outstanding Graduate Student. He studied organ with David Britton and Thomas Harmon in the U.S. and Ernst-Ulrich von Kameke and Jean Langlais in Europe. As a recital organist, he has performed in the United States, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Japan and Switzerland. In 2004 he performed a solo recital on the newly restored 1746 Hilldebrandt “Bach Organ” in Naumburg, Germany. As a conductor, he has led a variety of instrumental and choral ensembles throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He was a conducting fellow under Helmut Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival where he conducted baritone Thomas Quasthoff and the Festival Chorus in portions of Haydn’s “Creation” and he has led performances by the Choir of St. Matthew’s Parish (Pacific Palisades) in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany and throughout the British Isles. Neenan has contributed scholarly essays to a variety of professional journals on topics ranging from Gregorian chant to the organ music of Gyorgy Ligeti. He has received research grants to study and write on performance practices in the organ music of Dietrich Buxtehude, music and culture in the Dutch communities of colonial New York, and music in the monastic community of Taizé, France. In 2017 he retired after 36 years as Music Director at The Parish of St. Matthew (Episcopal), Pacific Palisades, and 33 years as Music Director and Conductor of The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s. He currently serves as President of St. Matthew’s Music Guild which presents a concert series by the chamber orchestra and guest artists and ensembles (MusicGuildOnline.org) and offers multi-faceted music outreach activities in area schools and retirement communities.