Kent Tritle connects with his audience at the Smithfield Church

Kent Tritle connects with his audience at the Smithfield Church
Kent Tritle, an audience favorite at the Smithfield Church, performed in recital on Saturday, Sept. 9, on the historic Johnson and Son tracker organ. 
Photo by Leila Hawken

AMENIA — Bringing talent, natural musicality and engaging personality to perform in recital for the 11th time at the Smithfield Church on Saturday, Sept. 9, organist Kent Tritle captivated his audience and remained to spend time in conversation during the reception that followed.

The full proceeds of the recital would benefit the Oratorio Society of New York, which is celebrating 150 years of singing this year and is one of the performing organizations directed and conducted by Tritle. He also conducts the professional chorale Musica Sacra and serves as the organist for the New York Philharmonic and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He is also a faculty member in the graduate program at The Juilliard School.

 The Tritle annual recital was on hiatus during the pandemic, but it returned with gusto this month. This performance included works by Buxtehude, Bach and contemporary composer Charles Coleman, each carefully selected and explicated in turn. To accomplish that, Tritle bounded from the Johnson and Son tracker organ at the rear of the church to the 1866 Steinway grand at the front of the church to play key themes and patterns to listen for. Then, back to the organ, having prepared the audience for what was to come.

Smithfield’s pastor Douglas Grandgeorge had let the audience know in advance that the year 1866 was the first year that Steinways were built under that name, the company having just changed its name from Steinweg to Steinway, in a move to increase sales.

“It just goes and goes and goes,” said Tritle of one of the several Bach selections.

The 1893 organ also touts its own history as an Opus 796, two manual, seven-stop instrument, installed in the Smithfield Church in 2010, in a hand-crafted setting to match the historic architecture. The organ previously served the First Congregational Church in Kent, Connecticut.

As the reception wound down, Tritle paused for an interview to discuss the recital experience and the relationship between the performer and his audience, with many having praised the educational aspects built into the performance.

“I love the way you talk to the audience,” interjected Laura Evans, an audience member who drove up from New York City. “You talk to them,” she repeated.

“People had a sense of enjoyment, a connection with the music,” Tritle said, noting the recital’s intimacy where he and the audience members can talk. A live performance, he felt, encourages that dialogue, aligning with the familiar silent dialogue performers experience while performing. 

“Things happen with energies,” Tritle said of live performance. “Heartbeats become uniform.”

“I hope they will leave feeling they had heard something and that they connected,” Tritle said of his audience.

The subject turned seamlessly to artificial intelligence (AI) and music. “AI lacks spontaneity; the sense of the room,” said Tritle, acknowledging that there will be great applications and future benefits to society.

“But it won’t replace live performances or audiences,” he added with certainty.

Asked about his earliest years, Tritle said, “I come from a musical family,” recalling that he and his parents regularly sang around the piano. Both parents were accomplished musicians. One day, his father surprised his mother with the delivery of a home organ, when Tritle was about 9.

“I was so smitten with the organ,” Tritle said, suggesting that his mother got very little time with it.

“It started at home,” he said.

Latest News

Farewell to a visionary leader: Amy Wynn departs AMP after seven years

When longtime arts administrator Amy Wynn became the first executive director of the American Mural Project (AMP) in 2018, the nonprofit was part visionary art endeavor, part construction site and part experiment in collaboration.

Today, AMP stands as a fully realized arts destination, home to the world’s largest indoor collaborative artwork and a thriving hub for community engagement. Wynn’s departure, marked by her final day Oct. 31, closes a significant chapter in the organization’s evolution. Staff and supporters gathered the afternoon before to celebrate her tenure with stories, laughter and warm tributes.

Keep ReadingShow less
Let them eat cake: ‘Kings of Pastry’ screens at The Norfolk Library
A scene from “Kings of Pastry.”
Provided

The Norfolk Library will screen the acclaimed documentary “Kings of Pastry” on Friday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. The film will be introduced by its producer, Salisbury resident Flora Lazar, who will also take part in a Q&A following the screening.

Directed by legendary documentarians D.A. Pennebaker (“Don’t Look Back,” “Monterey Pop”) and Chris Hegedus (“The War Room”), “Kings of Pastry” offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (Best Craftsmen of France) competition, a prestigious national award recognizing mastery across dozens of trades, from pastry to high technology. Pennebaker, who attended The Salisbury School, was a pioneer of cinéma vérité and received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement.

Keep ReadingShow less
A night of film and music at The Stissing Center
Kevin May, left, and Mike Lynch of The Guggenheim Grotto.
Provided

On Saturday, Nov. 15, the Stissing Center in Pine Plains will be host to the Hudson Valley premiere of the award-winning music documentary “Coming Home: The Guggenheim Grotto Back in Ireland.” The screening will be followed by an intimate acoustic set from Mick Lynch, one half of the beloved Irish folk duo The Guggenheim Grotto.

The film’s director, Will Chase, is an accomplished and recognizable actor with leading and supporting roles in “Law & Order,” “The Good Wife,” “Rescue Me,” “Nashville,” “The Deuce,” “Stranger Things” and “Dopesick.” After decades of acting on television and on Broadway, Chase decided to take the plunge into directing his own short films and documentaries.

Keep ReadingShow less
Music Mountain and Wethersfield present Ulysses Quartet in concert

Ulysses Quartet

Lara St. John

Music Mountain is partnering with Wethersfield Estate & Garden in Amenia to present the acclaimed Ulysses Quartet, joined by clarinetist and Music Mountain artistic director Oskar Espina Ruiz. The performances, on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 15 and 16, will open Music Mountain’s Winter Concert Series — an extension of the beloved summer festival into the colder months and more intimate venues.

The program features Seth Grosshandler’s “Dances for String Quartet,” Thomas Adès’s “Alchymia for Clarinet Quintet,” and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 44, No. 2. Adès’s 2021 composition draws inspiration from Elizabethan London. Each movement is “woven from four threads,” writes the composer with titles that refer to Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” John Dowland’s lute-song “Lachrymae,” variations on the playwright Frank Wedekind’s “Lautenlied” and more.

Keep ReadingShow less