Organist to perform ‘life-changing,’ marathon work Friday at University of Iowa

IOWA CITY - It started with an offending remark in Iowa City's Sanctuary Pub more than four years ago.

World-renowned organist Kevin Bowyer had just finished performing a guest recital on the University of Iowa campus, and UI Associate Professor of Organ Gregory Hand was relishing the company of 'an absolute giant” in his field.

Over drinks, their conversation veered toward a recent historic undertaking Bowyer had tackled - becoming the first and only person to perform the entirety of Kaikhosru Sorabji's eight-plus-hour marathon piece, 'Organ Symphony No. 2.”

'I finally said, ‘Kevin, is this a stunt? What is the deal with the Sorabji?' ” Hand said. 'He took offense at that, actually, and just said, ‘It changed my life, and the people who came, it changed their lives forever.”

Those words, from someone as accomplished as Bowyer, was all Hand needed to hear.

'I was like, ‘Well, I want to do that,' ” Hand said. 'I want to bring that to Iowa, and change people's lives.”

On Friday, Hand is getting his wish.

Concert at noon Friday

Bowyer, 56, for the past seven months has committed most of his waking hours preparing to perform the marathon organ piece for the first time in North America at the new UI Voxman School of Music.

The performance begins at noon Friday in the concert hall at Voxman, 93 E. Burlington St. The event is free to the public.

It is the inaugural concert for the imposing Klais organ, which boasts 3,883 pipes ranging in length from 24 feet to less than half an inch. The organ is the showpiece of a 700-seat concert hall erected two floors up the 190,000-square-foot Voxman, a $189 million state-of-the-art replacement of the music building Iowa lost in the 2008 flood.

'I was without an organ for eight-and-a-half years, and it's eight-and-a-half hours long,” Hand said of the Sorabji work and the time he's spent in temporary spaces while Voxman was being erected. 'It just seemed like, I waited eight-and-a-half years, what's eight-and-a-half more hours?”

Because the piece has been performed just twice before - both by Bowyer in Europe in 2010 - and it's never been recorded, Hand said he's not actually heard the music.

'It's all based on Kevin's credibility,” he said.

‘Instances of impractical bits'

Bowyer himself described ways the piece has changed his life and - to some degree - shaped his career. Born in a seaside town in England in 1961, he started playing organ at age 15 as a choir boy. He excelled, winning top prizes in international competitions in his early career.

In 1987, he debuted Sorabji's two-hour solo 'Symphony for Organ,” which - according to Bowyer's biography - had previously been considered 'impossible.” That cemented his reputation as a musician capable of tackling work 'of extreme technical complexity.”

Bowyer first performed Sorabji's marathon piece in Glasgow and then Amsterdam, and also completed a critical edition of all Sorabji's organ work - a 1,000-page project that took him six years, according to his biography.

Bowyer said he fell in love with Sorabji's music in the late 1980s and - upon learning the composer had some never-performed compositions - decided he would be the first. But preparing Sorabji's marathon piece for performance took extensive work.

'I don't think he really gave an awful lot of thought to how the organist would get around it,” Bowyer said. 'There are many instances of impractical bits of writing that the organist has to sort out.”

He's made handwritten copies of the original, also creating a digital version, but said the piece has never been recorded - although the Voxman concert will be.

Still, Bowyer said, he eventually would like to record it for elite quality - possibly taping sections in 20-minute chunks, because the actual marathon performance is an arduous undertaking. And so has been the preparation, which has involved 'thousands of hours of relentless work, chained to the organ.”

'On one level, I love this music,” he said. 'On another level, I hate it, because I've done nothing else for so many months now. My wife hates it as well. She considers herself to be a Sorabji widow.”

‘The finish line'

Watching the performance can be a type of marathon as well, and Bowyer suggests novice viewers 'might like to dip in to see how much they can stand.” The concert hall's balcony will be for those planning to stay. The hall's lower level will welcome those coming and going.

The piece is split into three sections: the first lasting 85 to 90 minutes, followed by a 30-minute pause; the second lasting 4.5 hours, followed by a 45-minute break; and the final section lasting more than three hours.

Hand said he's planning to stay for the concert's entirety and knows of Sorabji-faithful flying in to see the performance. It will be streamed live online, and Hand said he'd love to see at least 20 people last the eight-plus hours in person.

'My dream is that we can get the hall packed when Kevin crosses the finish line,” Hand said. 'It's this incredible athletic, musical, intellectual achievement, and when he actually crosses the finish line and he turns around, there are 700 people just cheering for him.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com