RB News & Notes

June 8, 2012

Roberta Bitgood Organ Scholar Anna Pan

Filed under: Bitgood Collections News,New Reminiscences — Grace @ 8:34 am

Members and friends of the New London County chapter of the American Guild of Organists heard Bitgood scholarship winner Anna Pan give a very respectable account of a Bach fugue and a challenging movement from a suite of pieces by Louis Vierne at this year’s members’ recital on June 3, held at Calvary Episcopal Church, Stonington CT. Ms. Pan, who has won the scholarship for the second year running, provided a progress report on her organ study over the past year, which is available on the Bitgood Scholarship “winners” page.

August 16, 2010

Claimed! Organ & choral LP giveaways from the Roberta Bitgood professional collections

Filed under: Bitgood Collections News — Grace @ 11:58 am

Two groups of (mostly) 33¹/³ LP recordings from Roberta Bitgood’s professional collections were offered for adoption at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Americal Guild of Organists, New London County Chapter, held on 6 June 2010.

The first group was comprised of recordings from the organ literature (and one organ workshop) as performed by organ luminaries of the 20th century, including a few of the less well-known, many of whom Roberta counted as personal friends.

Performers included: Mildred Andrews, E. Power Biggs, David Craighead, Catherine Crozier, Marcel Dupré, Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, Lynwood Farnam, Virgil Fox, Howard Kelsey, Max Miller, Thomas Murray, Robert Noehren, Calvert Shenk, Albert Schweitzer, Carl Staplin, Carl Weinrich, William Whitehead, and Alec Wyton.

A few items from this group were claimed by AGO members in attendance on June 6: “Virgil Fox at Symphony Hall,” E. Power Biggs’ album entitled “Stars and Stripes Forever,” an organ workshop by Alec Wyton, and the two recordings made by William Whitehead (including one featuring the organ of the Philadelphia Academy of Music).

The rest of the above group (41 items) remained available for adoption: the updated list is available here. If you are interested in any of these, please give me a call. [Update 25 Jan 2014–The rest of Roberta Bitgood’s organ LPs were subsequently claimed by a single New London County AGO chapter member. The choral collection was donated to the New London Public Library book sale.]

The second group of recordings features choral works, both important and little-known, as performed and conducted by groups and conductors that were of interest to Roberta. A list is not available at this time, again give me a call if you’re interested.

June 8, 2009

Bitgood souvenirs donated at AGO New London 2009 Annual Meeting

Filed under: Bitgood Collections News — Grace @ 10:29 am

It was our pleasure to attend the June 7 AGO New London County Chapter interfaith program on diverse liturgical traditions, followed by a sumptuous Middle Eastern meal and the chapter’s annual meeting. The following souvenirs from the former office of Roberta Bitgood were donated to the new music school currently undergoing incorporation at Christ Episcopal Church, Norwich.

(1) Plaster of Paris bas-relief of St. Cecilia at the organ (round, white, about 5″ in diameter, with an embedded hook at the back for hanging on the wall).

(2) Framed print of the 17th-century painting St. Cecilia and an Angel, by the Italian Orazio Gentileschi, held at the National Gallery of Art (a small framed poster, about 11″ x 14″ including the frame). For interesting information about this painter and his daughter, see: http://www.cosmos-club.org/web/journals/2004/schiff.html

(3) Leaded stained-glass votive light container (about 7″ high, and about 3″ x 3″ square).

(4) Plaster of Paris bust of JS Bach (about 10″ high, pretty substantial).

(5) Plaster of Paris bust of Beethoven (about 7″ high).

Additionally, the former national AGO president’s gavel was turned over to current AGO New London County Chapter Dean, Jesse Glaude, for use by himself and future New London County Chapter deans in carrying out their parliamentary responsibilities.

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