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Lenten organ recital continues Feb. 21 with Steve Wente

Wonderful music, Lenten reflection, and interfaith fellowship are all hallmarks of the Phyllis A. Lange-Connelly Memorial Lenten Recital series. This inspirational series was founded by Phyllis Lange-Connelly, who sadly died in July. Her dream, however, lives on with capable leadership and talented musicians. Eleven area churches sponsor these recitals.

Everyone is invited to listen, reflect, and enjoy music presented by outstanding musicians.

This is the nineteenth year for the series which has been attended by over 1,500 people annually.

Thursday lunch hour concerts begin at 12:10 p.m. and Sunday programs begin at 3 p.m.

All the concerts are followed by a time of fellowship and a chance to meet the musicians. Admission is free – donations are accepted to help defray costs.

The next organ recital, featuring organist Steve Wente, will be held from 12:10 to 12:50 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21 at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 310 E. Main St. in East Dundee.

Steven Wente

Steven Wente is professor of music and organist to the Chapel of Our Lord at Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois, where he teaches organ, music history and related courses. He serves as chair of the music department and coordinates the Master of Church Music and the Master of Arts in Music programs. He also is cantor at First Saint Paul's Lutheran Church in Chicago, where he shares music leadership with his daughter, Margaret Danilovich.

Graduating from Concordia, River Forest, with an undergraduate degree in education, he received the Master of Church Music degree from his alma mater and the Doctor of Music degree in organ performance from Northwestern University. His organ teachers have included David J. Wilson, Herbert Gotsch, Robert Lodine, Richard Enright, and Wolfgang Rübsam.

Steven keeps an active schedule as a teacher, workshop leader and organ recitalist. He has taught in the Leadership Program for Musicians (LPM) and the Fox Valley AGO Pipe Organ Encounter (POE). He has served on committees for the local American Guild of Organists chapters and was on the national board of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM). He has presented at the Institutes on Liturgy, Preaching, and Church Music (LCMS) and at conferences of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. As a recitalist, he has played in numerous locations throughout the United States, including national conferences of the ALCM.

Because of his interest in organ music and organ literature, he has attended summer seminars in France and Switzerland, and was a participant at the McGill Summer Organ Academy in 2009, where he studied the music of Mendelssohn with Carole Terry and organ improvisation with Jan Overduin.

He has written settings of hymns and organ preludes for Hymnal Supplement 98 (CPH), Lutheran Service Book, the Concordia Hymn Prelude Series, and the forthcoming Concordia Organ Library. He has contributed to Grace Notes (ALCM) and was a contributor to the recently published revision of Key Words in Church Music and the Festschrift Thine the Praise: Essays on Lutheran Church Music in honor of Carl Schalk. His wife Susan is also a graduate of Concordia, River Forest, with the BA and the MCM degrees. They have two adult children, both of whom have been active as organists for local congregations.

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