First Lutheran offers free concert

Series brings free classical performances

FIRSTmusic, the free concert series of Lorain’s First Lutheran Church, will feature horn trio works in a free show at 3 p.m., Oct. 21.

The concert is part of the 10th anniversary season of FIRSTmusic.

It will feature the Horn Trio by Johannes Brahms, the only standard repertoire piece for horn, violin and piano.

Also on the program is a newly-commissioned work by J. Lee Graham, and pieces by Paul Dukas and Clara Rogers, said Brian Wentzel, the church’s director of music since 2006.

The concert will feature Wentzel on piano, James Hampson on horn and Alice Culin-Ellison on violin.

Hampson earned a doctorate from Boston University in historical performance on natural and historic horns.

He is the first person in the country with that degree and has performed around the United States with period orchestras.

Cullin-Ellison is artistic co-director of Bourbon Baroque, a Louisville, Ky.based ensemble specializing in 17th and 18th century music.

Her current research focuses on 19th-century American chamber music and she has lectured and given masterclasses on Historical Performance.

Graham, of Austin, Texas, is a known leader in the growing community of composers writing in historical styles and is one of only a handful in the United States specializing in late 18th-Century Classicism.

The concert is free and open to the public.

FIRSTmusic has a goal that comes from the church’s vision statement: to “use our musical resources to enhance our experience of God and as a gift to the community.”

The church is located at 1019 W. Fifth St. in Lorain.