As snow began to fall over Hendricks Chapel on Sunday afternoon, audience members settled into their pews. The opening notes of Calvin Hampton’s “Prayer and Alleluias” rang from the organ pipes. 

In partnership with the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, the Setnor School of  Music wrapped up its Syracuse Legacies Organ Conference on Sunday. The conference served as a tribute to the legacies of Hampton, Walter Holtkamp and Arthur Poister — three individuals who left their mark on Syracuse’s music program.  

Anne Lavor, an assistant professor of applied music and performance (organ) at Syracuse University and the university organist, said this conference took more than two years to plan. She added that the theme came to fruition after she discovered Poister’s biography, “Arthur Poister: Master Teacher and Poet of the Organ.” Afterward, she connected Hampton through his musical composition and Holtkamp through the organ constructions he made at SU during the 1950s.  

Syracuse University’s Hendricks Chapel Choir and Festival Choir performed several hymns including “All People That On Earth Do Dwell” Sunday afternoon. Dan Lyon | Asst. Photo Editor

To kick off the hymn festival, former SU university organist Kola Owolabi played Hampton’s “Prayer and Alleluias.” Soon after, the Hendricks Chapel Choir and Festival Choir performed to hymn pieces like, “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing” and “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing.”  

After each organ solo, Owolabi rose from his seat and took a bow. Each time, the applause grew louder.   

Owolabi said Hampton’s constant fusion with other music genres like rock and film music is why he connects to Hampton — since it reflects his own exposure to different music coming from a Trinidadian-Nigerian household.  

For Owolabi, Hampton was a pioneer in the industry by trying things not many people had before, like starting a Christian rock group in the 1960s. 

“He just did things that never were really done before. He would write pieces for church that would combine strobe light effects,” Owolabi said. “It’s given me the kind of versatility and interest in a lot of things this music represents.”  

Now an associate professor of organ at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Owolabi continues to champion for Hampton as he continues teaching organ in Michigan.  

Anthonyne Metelus, a SUNY-ESF freshman who performed in the choir, had previous experience performing Hampton in Long Island during her senior year of high school. 

“I really fell in love with his music,” Metelus said. “To be able to come up here and be able to sing his music again — that’s just amazing to me.” 

Kola Owolabi performed in Hendricks Chapel Sunday afternoon. All of the compositions performed were by the late Calvin Hampton, a Syracuse University alumnus. Dan Lyon | Asst. Photo Editor

Another proponent of Hampton is Cherry Rhodes, an adjunct professor at the Thornton School of Music at University of Southern California and a guest at this weekend’s conference. Rhodes performed in Friday night’s organ recital and has played Hampton’s music in Europe and at Lincoln Center in 1977. After her premiere at Lincoln Center, she recalls Hampton and Larry King arranged a limousine for her and her family to the reception afterwards. 

“I couldn’t believe it, ‘Here’s this limousine in New York and Calvin Hampton is with us.’ It was unbelievable,” Rhodes said. “He was so happy I was playing his music.”  

As Hendricks Chapel Dean Brian Konkol’s weekly convocation began at 7 p.m., marking the last event of the conference, Konkol reflected on the power of music to a small group of attendees.  

“There’s power in music, there’s power in music, and I know — I’m preaching to the choir,” Konkol said, the crowd laughing at his pun. “Music encompasses the totality to be people of God. Music of the spirit.”  

Published on March 31, 2019 at 11:25 pm

Contact Diana: dianar@dailyorange.com