Welcome to another terrific season of L’Organo!

May 25 th to June 5 th, 2026

What an amazing lineup our new Committee Chair, Nick Quardokus, and his helpers have assembled for L’Organo 2026: performers, instruments, and repertoire!

Our committee once again sifted through many applications and proposed programs, always aiming to match programs to instruments and to present another compelling series of daily organ recitals to attract our ever-growing crowds to this unique feature of a great American music festival.

We are beyond delighted to have a diverse roster of international artists hailing from Poland, China, Canada, Korea, and Germany, as well as a strong contingent from the US.

As always, the organs of Charleston are themselves stars of the show! This year, we’re glad to be able to use once again the fine American classic instrument at First Scots for two programs, one being by Charleston’s own Matthew Wilkinson, music director at neighboring St. Michael’s Church.

On weekends, we invite our audience to visit Daniel Island and James Island in the afternoons. For the daily 10 am weekday recitals, you’ll find that St. Michael’s, Mother Emanuel AME, St. John’s Lutheran, St. Matthew’s and the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul are all in easy walking distance (though for the closing recital at the Citadel, you might prefer a ride-share!)

And we’re delighted once again to offer the authentic French ambience and sounds at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, in a recital by Dr. Jacob Taylor; maybe you’ll even want to wander afterwards down Broad Street for a café au lait at the bistro known locally as “Fast and French”.

Our first recitalist, on the ever-popular American Classic instrument at St. Matthew’s, is the phenomenally gifted Canadian-American Alexander Straus-Fausto, recentlyappointed Principal Organist at the Church of the Epiphany in Miami, where he also oversees the Miami International Organ Competition.

He will be performing two of his monumental organ transcriptions of Bernstein and Wagner, as well as the great Sonata of a nineteenth-century prodigy, Julius Reubke, a virtuoso showpiece if ever there was one.

Other international players we will welcome are the remarkably virtuosic Ilona Kubiaczyk-Adler, born and educated in Poland, but also trained and now resident in Arizona, playing music of her native country, along with Bach and music of the Americas, on the English-style instrument in the lovely Christopher Wren-style interior of St. Michael’s at the Four Corners.

Also, Christoph Hintermüller, originally from the Ruhr region in Germany, trained both there and in the US now the Music Director at St. Ignatius in Austin, Texas, who plays Yon’s “American Rhapsody”, Howard Shore’s score for “Lord of the Rings”, music by Bach and Maz Birn and a work by the mid-twentieth century Munich organist Franz Lehrndorfer.

And from Asia, Korea’s Dalaie Choi, who performs with soprano In Young Lee Cranmer in the warm acoustic of the Chapel of the Bishop Gadsden Retirement Community on James Island, as well as China’s Jessie Deng, whose program includes a “Symphony in the Teapot”!

We’re particularly excited to welcome from Memphis Dr Leo Davis, whose technical brilliance in varied styles will be on full display on the versatile Zimmer organ at Mother Emanuel Church onCalhoun Street., the “Mother Church” of Charleston’s Black community, This is the organ that was praised last year in the Post and Courier by Spoleto Festival USA director Mena Mark Hanna for its “blow-your-socks-off power”: it even boasts a unique Gospel division for that repertoire.

A particularly lovely feature of this year’s programming is the mother-and-son duo of Virginia and Jonathan Bolena. Virginia Bolena is Director of Music at Trinity Church in Staunton, VA, having previously served congregations in New Bern, NC, and St. Helena’s in Beaufort, SC. At Trinity, she presides over one of the earliest instruments from the highly regarded American builder Taylor and Boody; she is currently developing a specialty in presenting the underrepresented music of female composers.

Her son, Jonathan, currently studies at Oberlin; he was previously the Organ Scholar at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City. He is particularly drawn to English organ music, early and contemporary.

We are very delighted to be able to present this family team to play the annual Ben Hutto Memorial Concert at the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul; Ben, one of the founders of L’Organo back in the 1970’s, was Organist and Choirmaster there for many years, while also teaching music at Porter-Gaud School (where a certain Stephen Colbert graced the bass line in his chorus for a while...) He was responsible for installing the fine Gabriel Kney tracker organ at the Cathedral, a monument to his musical leadership in the Holy City.

Many Charleston music-lovers remember fondly Jack Cleghorn, who returns from Arkansas to play a concert at St. John’s Lutheran Church on Archdale Street. In Charleston, he led the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra for several years and served as music director at Stella Maris Catholic Church on Sullivan’s Island. He has worked extensively with high school and children’s choirs, and has studied conducting extensively in Europe and the US. His L’Organo recital, including Bach’s great G minor Fantasia and Fugue, along with “The Squirrel” by Powell Weaver and the “Tuba Tune” of Norman Cocker, will delight his many admirers.

Monty Bennett is well known in the church music circles of Charlotte, where he was, for many years, organist at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, and has been a leader in many musical organisations, particularly the American Guild of Organists. His Sunday afternoon program at the beautiful St. Clare of Assisi Church on Daniel Island, including music by Franck, Saint-Saëns, and Pierné, closes with a work he premiered: the “Franco-African Triptych” by Nigerian composer Godwin Sadoh.

And the 2026 season of L’Organo will close with the mighty sounds of the Zimmer organ at the Citadel; to tame this giant, Sarah Palmer of Philadelphia is clearly just the right person. Having studied at the Curtis Institute, she presented daily recitals on the six-manual organ at Macy’s this past year, one of the world's largest concert organs.

Beginning with the exuberant Toccata of Anne Wilson, she will also play Bach’s great “Wedge” Prelude and Fugue, along with works by Whitlock and Durufle; she closes the series with the uproarious “Variations on ‘America’” by the iconoclastic genius Charles Ives.

A special evening bonus will take place on Thursday, May 28 th, at 7:30, with a Silent Movie presentation at the Citadel, featuring improvised accompaniment by the brilliant and effervescent Dorothy Papadokus, for many years Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Her skills in improvising just the right musical underpinning of the classic gems of the Silent Silver Screen are legendary, and not to be missed!

So do start planning now to join us, either once again or for the very first time, for one or all of these brilliant FREE programs by an outstanding team of artists. Charleston, with all its attractions – visual, gustatory, and musical -- awaits you!

And by the way: this year’s Spoleto Festival USA is likewise spectacular, from Renee Fleming to Ken Burns to Mahler and Mozart – also not to be missed!