The Second Sunday Basilica Organ Series presents JEROME LENK, Director of Music, in concert, celebrating 30 years as Basilica Organist, Sunday, October 13th, 4 p.m. The program will consist of a selection of works by J.S. Bach, including the following:
Sinfonia from Cantata 29 (arr. Guilmont)
Concerto after Johann Ernst
Partita on "O Gott du frommer Gott"
9/8 Prelude and Fugue
Chorale Preludes:
O Mench bewein deine Sünde gross (Orgebüchlein)
Wacht auf (Schübler)
Sicilienne from Flute Sonata (arr. Widor)
"St. Anne" Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major
Gigue Fugue
The program is FREE and donations are accepted in support of the Basilica Music Ministries.
JEROME LENK currently serves as Director of Music and Liturgy, as well as Principal Organist for Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco. His duties include administration of a music program of two choirs, providing musical support for regular weekend liturgies and all major feasts, coordinating and developing cantors, and conducting the Basilica Choir in major concerts each year, as well as coordinating the Basilica organ recitals and guest concert series. Mr. Lenk conducts the Basilica Choir is their ever-popular annual Candlelight Christmas Concerts Mr. Lenk has also served on the San Francisco Archdiocesan Music Commission. He is active as a recitalist and accompanist and maintains a private coaching studio. He has performed recitals and conducted the outstanding Basilica Choir in California, Mexico, and Italy. His extensive experience as an accompanist includes appearances with CappellaSF, the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Western Opera Theatre, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Mateo Masterworks Chorale, San Jose Symphony, Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, San Francisco Concert Chorale, San Francisco Lyric Chorus, The Choral Project of San Jose, and the Valley Concert Chorale. He has also collaborated with Robert Shaw, Eugene Butler and Jörg Demus.
Mr. Lenk began his musical studies on piano at the age of seven and on the organ at age nine. He holds the Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance with an organ minor from Central Methodist University, Fayette, Missouri, and the Master of Fine Arts degree in performance from the University of Iowa. His principal teachers have included Groff Bittner, Thomas Yancey, John Ditto, John Simms and Delores Bruch.
Mr. Lenk is also experienced as a vocal coach and conductor. His credits include Opera on Tap, the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Opera San Jose, the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute, San Jose State University Opera Workshop, and The University of Iowa.
Mr. Lenk has performed solo recitals at the Oakland Cathedral as well as San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, and has been a recitalist at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. In 2017 he was the featured organist for the Lou Harrison centennial concerts with the Other Minds Festival of New Music, performing two of Harrison's solo organ works.
Mr. Lenk is a published composer with his arrangement of Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley released through GIA Publications in Chicago. He actively composes and arranges primarily liturgical music for the Basilica and has written several psalm and mass settings.
Mr. Lenk can be heard on recording with the Basilica Choir, the San Francisco Concert Chorale, the San Francisco Lyric Chorus, The Choral Project of San Jose, and on a solo recording of organ music recorded at Mission Dolores.
Mr. Lenk’s professional memberships include the American Guild of Organists, the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity.