50th Anniversary Celebration Concert of the Kney Organ – Ames UCC

The Ames United Church of Christ is pleased to announce on Sunday, November 20th, 2022, a 3:00 p.m. CT celebration concert to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the installation of Gabriel Kney organ. Performers will include Dr. Miriam Zach, organ instructor at Iowa State University, and one or two of her current students. Their presence pays homage to how this Kney organ was used by the university for students to take lessons and for practice use under the tutelage of organ faculty Dr. Martha Folts and later by Dr. Lynn Ziegler. A light refreshment will follow this concert in the church’s social hall.

Dr. Miriam Zach is honored to be the inaugural Charles and Mary Sukup Endowed Artist in Organ at ISU. She teaches organ, harpsichord, music history, and interdisciplinary honors courses. After completing degrees from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and the University of Chicago, Miriam lived in Europe for five years studying organ with Jobst Hermann Koch in Lemgo, Germany, and in Paris, France, and teaching music at the Universitat Bielefeld in Germany and in Rome, Italy. Currently she is serving as Dean of the Central Iowa American Guild of Organists, Director of Music/Organist at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ames, the Founding Director of 25 international festivals of women composers, and enjoys teaching, researching, and playing Baroque chamber music as a member of the Alachua Consort. Miriam is a published author and appears on the CD “Hidden Treasures: 300 Years of Organ Music by Women Composers” recorded with the Mander Organ in the Princeton University Chapel. She can be heard on “Piped reams National Public Radio ( 2007,2010,2013, 2020) AND THE Organ Historical Society’s “Kaleidoscope of Colors: A festival of Pipes” ( 2021) recorded with the Brombaugh organ at ISU.

Our guest organ performer will be Michael Surratt of Oak Park, Illinois. Michael began his career as a church organist at the age of twelve in his native state of North Carolina. He graduated from High School at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, where his organ teacher was Margaret Vardell Sandresky. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance from Oberlin College, where he studied organ with Fenner Douglass and Arthur Poister, and harpsichord with David Boe. He moved to Evanston, Illinois, in 1971 and has remained in the Chicago area ever since then. He holds a Master of Music degree in organ performance from Northwestern University, where he studied organ with Grigg Fountain and improvisation with Karel Paukert. He has served as Director of Music and Organist at several churches in the metropolitan Chicago area, recently retiring after ten years as organist at First United Church of Christ of Oak Park, Illinois. He will be playing “Prelude and Fugue in E Minor” by Nicholas Bruhns (1665-1697) and “Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major-St. Anne” (BWV 522) by J.S.Bach (1685-1750). Michael has been organ soloist with the Elmhurst, Evanston, DuPage, and West Suburban Symphonies and with the Hinsdale Chamber Orchestra. He has taught at Elmhurst University and has played organ recitals in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States and in Europe. He has been active in many musical organizations including the American Guild of Organists, United Church of Christ Musicians Association and Handbell Musicians of America.