Eastman Hall to host Halloween concert

If you’re looking for a terrifying treat on Halloween, try the frighteningly apropos organ concert by professor John Chappell Stowe in Eastman Hall.

Actually Stowe promises a light-hearted, fun evening — with just some scary tunes. But he hints: “We might have a surprise Halloween guest or two…”

Part of the Faculty Concert Series, this will be Stowe’s first Halloween organ performance since 1995, when the organ went down for repairs.

“I see Halloween as kind of a fun time, and of course, the organ has some associations with ghoulish things from movies,” Stowe says.

The stage will be decorated for the mysterious occasion. Stowe will dress in a “low-key” costume because he doesn’t want to upstage audience members in more serious Halloween attire. He encourages costumes to “add to the flavor of the evening.”

The concert will include exotic, sometimes scary and definitely fun tunes that he might not otherwise include in a more serious program. The Halloween program will feature: “Salamanca,” a riotous piece based on a Spanish folk song; “Elfs,” a slightly spooky French piece by Joseph Bonnet; “Mirrored Moon,” an impressionistic, scary piece by a German composer; “Fast and Sinister,” by Leo Sowerby of Chicago; and “Wauwatosa Polka,” a fun romp by Wisconsin’s own Darren Hagen, who composed an opera based on Frank Lloyd Wright several years ago.

“A Halloween Happening” will be 8 p.m. Oct. 31 in Eastman Hall of the Humanities Building. Tickets are $5 for students and senior citizens, $7 for all others.

A stand-out winner of the National Open Organ Playing Competition of the American Guild of Organists in 1978, Stowe will offer a decidedly serious program of organ music Jan. 23, also as part of the Faculty Concert Series.