Randy Elkins, chapel organist for the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and Director of Music for Virginia-Highland Church in Atlanta will present the Edith Elliotte Recital at the Farmville Presbyterian Church Sunday, April 22, at 3 p.m. celebrating the 50th anniversary of the installation of the church’s Beckerath organ.

The recital is free and open to the public. The audience is invited to a reception honoring Elkins after the performance.

The program offers a variety of genre and will include selections by Max Reger, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Eric H. Thiman, Harold Darke, Scott Joplin, Richard Elliott, Wilbur Held and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Elkins holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in organ performance and church music from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He has more than 30 years of experience in music ministry having served churches and cathedrals in Georgia, Indiana, Texas, and Arkansas.

He has performed organ recitals and choral concerts throughout the Southeastern and Midwestern United States, England and Spain. In 2018 he will perform for the first time in Japan and New Zealand. Elkins also works as a freelance musician, and teaches piano, guitar, organ, woodwinds and voice. Performing both classical and theatre/jazz organ, Elkins is on the steering committee for the 2020 national conventions of both the American Guild of Organists and the American Theatre Organ Society.

The Farmville Presbyterian Church organ is a tracker organ. It was handcrafted for the church in 1968 by the firm of Rudolph von Beckerath of Hamburg, Germany. The organ consists of 16 stops, and 1,080 pipes arranged in 21 ranks. The Virginia firm of Taylor and Boody refurbished the organ in 2006.

To introduce area piano students to organ performance, Elkins and Elizabeth McCutchen, director of music of the church, are presenting a morning workshop Saturday, April 21. McCuthen explained that “Mr. Elkins will talk briefly about the organ and then allow any interested student to play one of his prepared pieces on the instrument. This is not a performance setting, so no student should feel anxious about skill level.” Interested students may contact McCutchen at emccutchen@kinex.net

The Edith Elliotte Organ Recital Series began in 1985 as a way of honoring the memory of a longtime organist of the Farmville Presbyterian Church and as a means of sharing the church’s Beckerath organ with the community. The series is underwritten by an endowment fund and by generous contributions of those who support the recitals in the series.

The Farmville Presbyterian Church is located at 200 W. Third St. For more information, call the Farmville Presbyterian Church office at (434)392-4243.