Organist is back for more Bach

When organist Ken Cowan returns to the annual Bach Festival this year, he’ll have a few tricks up his sleeve. That’s because the musician, who played at the 2014 celebration of the great composer, remembers the instrument well.

“I’ll work it pretty well in terms of its resources,” says Cowan, who heads the organ program at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston.

The festival, presented annually by the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, runs through Feb. 28 and includes everything from concerts to a tea party to a craftbeer launch.

The last time Cowan visited, he stuck with a Bach program. But this time he is branching out with works by other notables: Mozart, Liszt, Mendelssohn and Wagner.

“It’s all great masterpieces,” he says. “It will certainly keep me busy.”

Cowan’s selections were influenced by the organ in Rollins College’s Knowles Memorial Chapel, where the performance takes place.

“I realized about the organ that there are mysterious stops that might be used in other repertoire,” he says. “There’s an element of otherworldliness to it.”

The stops on an organ determine the various sounds the organ can make by “stopping” air from flowing through different pipes. At Rollins, the organ was dedicated in 1932. It underwent a major refurbishment and enlargement in the early 2000s.

In addition to the composers so famous they need only one name, Rachel Laurin will also have a piece on the program, “Étude Héroïque (Heroic Study).”

She’s a countrywoman of Cowan’s; he was born in the Canadian province of Ontario, and she hails from St-Benoît in the province of Quebec.

Cowan thinks it’s important while honoring the masters to also introduce audiences to contemporary composers.

“If I can at any time champion the music of someone writing right now, that’s all for the good,” he says.

Cowan also will play with the orchestra on the festival’s popular Concertos by Candlelight program. It offers the chance to hear the organ in a new way.

“When you play the organ solo, you’re acting as your own orchestra. Often, you’re trying to mimic sounds that sound like an orchestra,” he says. “When there is an orchestra, you’re trying to contrast, not duplicate.”

There are different kinds of challenges in playing with an orchestra.

“You have to judge the dynamic level of the orchestra. Sometimes you’re accompanying them, sometimes it should be equal,” he says. “It’s just a little different method of approach. You definitely have to know what’s going on in all the other parts.”

With the orchestra, Cowan will play a 1938 composition by Francis Poulenc, Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani in G Minor.

“It begins with a super-dramatic outburst from the organ,” he says, before taking a playful turn in the middle of the work. “The kind of whimsy Poulenc is known for is in there.”

He thinks it will be a treat for both the audience and the musicians.

“It’s a really rewarding piece to listen to or play,” Cowan says. “It will sound lovely in the chapel.”