The 75-piece Grossmont Symphony Orchestra will join forces with the Paradise Valley Church pipe organ on Monday, March 21, at 7 pm featuring a newly discovered piece written for organ and orchestra.
This newly discovered Concerto in C Minor for Organ and Orchestra, composed by Robert Elmore in 1938, will be given its world premiere performance at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego on Friday, March 18, 2011, 7:30 pm at a paid-admission concert and repeated free at PV Church on March 21. Dr. Robert Plimpton, a former student of Dr. Elmore will perform the work with the Grossmont Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dr. Randall Tweed.
Robert Plimpton is currently Resident Organist of the First United Methodist Church of San Diego and San Diego Civic Organist Emeritus. The 75 member Grossmont Symphony Orchestra is comprised of music and non-music majors and talented musicians from the community. Randall Tweed is widely known for his creative programming and for making the Symphony a significant cultural presence in the greater San Diego area.
The present organ was installed at Paradise Valley Church in 1968 as a 3 manual, 28 rank instrument by Dowling-Blackinton Associates of Santa Monica. It contains material from two organs built by Murray M. Harris. The console was originally installed in Covenant Presbyterian Church in Long Beach, and many of the Swell and Choir pipes are from the original organ of First Baptist Church in Santa Ana. New pipes were installed in 1968 for the Great Division. The organ is in process of being rebuilt and enlarged to 52 ranks by Robert Knight. (Usually a rank consists of 61 pipes)
The concert will take place at Paradise Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church, 2701 East 8th St., National City, CA 91950. A freewill offering will be collected to help with the final restoration of the Haynes Memorial pipe organ.