Amy Parsons [00:01:09] Wow. Professor Bacon, that was incredible. Thanks for letting me sit here next to you today and listen to your play and to tape this very special episode of our podcast, the next 150. So, Rams, I’m here today with Professor Joel Bacon, who’s a professor of music here at CSU, and we get to do our podcast on location in front of this amazing organ that we have in the organ recital hall at the CSU University Center for the Arts, which is a really special room. For those of you who are only listening, I’ll describe the room a bit. This is actually a refurbished high school, high school auditorium that has now become our famous organ recital hall. But it doesn’t look like a high school auditorium. It’s very beautiful with a gorgeous balcony and these beautiful big windows up here. And it’s really just a privilege to be here today and to to sit with you to talk a little bit more about your work and to get a little bit of an insight into what we might hear at some of your upcoming performances.

 

Joel Bacon [00:02:07] Thank you so much for coming over.

 

Amy Parsons [00:02:08] So tell us a little bit about your role, first of all, with CSU, what you teach and and what you do here at CSU.

 

Joel Bacon [00:02:16] Sure. So I’ve I’ve been at CSU for 19 years now, and I’m a professor of music. The organ is my instrument, clearly. I also teach some harpsichord, little piano over the years. I teach music history courses with a specialty in church music, liturgical music. I also teach some courses in Catholic studies as part of the kind of religious studies course offerings that we have at CSU.

 

Amy Parsons [00:02:48] Yeah. So you’re actually you hold two endowed chairs.

 

Joel Bacon [00:02:52] That’s right.

 

Amy Parsons [00:02:53] In these areas, I believe, that you’re the first ever endowed chair in the College of Liberal Arts.

 

Joel Bacon [00:02:57] Yes. Yes, I am.

 

Amy Parsons [00:02:58] Congratulations.

 

Joel Bacon [00:02:58] Thank you. Thank you.

 

Amy Parsons [00:03:00] Let’s talk about the two chairs, because they’re they’re quite different. So it’s interesting to me that you hold both. One is the Stewart and Sheron Golden Chair in Organ and Liturgical studies. And the second one is Father Don Willette Chair of Catholic Studies.

 

Joel Bacon [00:03:14] Yes.

 

Amy Parsons [00:03:14] So explain to me a little bit how that works, wearing those two different hats and what you teach in both of those areas.

 

Joel Bacon [00:03:20] Right. So, you know, there there are obviously related subjects. Religion, religious music. The organ has a lot of religious music in its repertoire. As as the chair of organ in liturgical studies, I teach organ students individual lessons, and I also teach coursework on, you know, the areas of of the classical music repertoire that, that came out of the church or have to do with, with church music. So these are courses that might also appeal not only to organists, but, for example, choral music students who have a lot of choral pieces that, that clearly came out of religious tradition. In Catholic studies, this is new, this is actually the newest endowed chair in liberal arts. And I’ve been doing that for a year now. And in that position, I get to teach a course in Catholic studies. So this is something that that we’re still developing. I’m trying to figure out a bit, but I’ve loved it so far. I’ve been teaching interdisciplinary liberal arts seminars. For example, the course I’m teaching this semester is on Christian monasticism. So monks and nuns through the ages are.

 

Amy Parsons [00:04:54] I want to take that course.

 

Joel Bacon [00:04:56] So, yeah, in some ways the topics overlap a bit. You know, I play organs in Catholic churches and I play Catholic kind of music, but I’m really interested in Gregorian chant. But Catholic Studies is more than that. That’s that’s more it’s a broader a broader scope.

 

Amy Parsons [00:05:14] So you, you are the person who’s the intersection of really all of these different studies, which is fascinating that you’re able to weave that through both what you teach and what you practice. So we talked a bit about your performance. So you perform not just here at the UCA, but you perform around the region as well. What does that typically look like for you?

 

Joel Bacon [00:05:33] Well, you know, I, I have all kinds of wonderful opportunities to to play. Sometimes it means traveling, you know, to, you know, to a different part of the country or internationally to to play a specific organ. Recently, I played the first recital on a new organ in Timnath.

 

Amy Parsons [00:05:59] Really?

 

Joel Bacon [00:06:01] The the church was, was so excited. And it was, it was really lovely to, to get to show them their instrument from kind of a, you know, a more concert kind of perspective. You know, I’ve loved being a concert organist. It’s brought me to to some really unusual places and and historic instruments. You know, I also play piano. I love piano. But Steinway is are all kind of alike in a way. You know, they have 88 keys. They all kind of look the same. They’re black and the same. Organs are all totally different. And this organ is the only organ like it in the world. And and so to get to go someplace and and learn an instrument and meet an instrument and then make music with that instrument for people is really special.

 

Amy Parsons [00:06:55] Let’s talk about this instrument for just a minute, since you brought it up, this particular organ and its backstory and how it came to live in the organ recital hall at the UCA.

 

Joel Bacon [00:07:05] Well, it was originally built for what is now the TILT building on the Oval, that was the old music building, in 1968 and it lived there successfully for many years. It was a smaller auditorium, a really intimate hall to play and it was wonderful. But it was actually about 19 years ago. It was when I came, one of the first things I was told I was going to do was supervise the moving of this world famous historic instrument.

 

Amy Parsons [00:07:40] I Imagine you did not sign up for that.

 

Joel Bacon [00:07:42] Well. Well, I did have to get creative for a year trying to find other organs to to teach students on, but. And I also I learned so much about how this organ was originally built. You know, because there are there are over 2000 pipes in this instrument.

 

Amy Parsons [00:08:00] 2000.

 

Joel Bacon [00:08:01] When, when people come here, they see, they see the beautiful metal pipes in the facade. And sometimes if they get bored, they might count the number. I think somebody did once and told me at the end of a concert. But there are so many more pipes you can’t see ranging in height from 16ft to just, you know, a quarter of an inch. And so to take care of those, to pack those up, to clean them, so we refurbish the organ at the time. And then this room in the University Center for the Arts was was kind of redesigned knowing that this organ would end up being kind of the focal point of the room. And we also, of course, wanted to make sure that that the acoustics of the room made this instrument speak correctly as it was originally built. And it turned out far better than than I could have hoped for. It was really successful.

 

Amy Parsons [00:08:58] It is a spectacular space for the organ. Is that typical for organs, that number of pipes, this type of pipe we have here, or is this different?

 

Joel Bacon [00:09:07] This is a rather large organ. But, you know, as I said, organs are, are all so very different. There are probably a couple other organs in town about this size. It’s really the quality of this instrument and its place in the history of organ building that that mark it as special.

 

Amy Parsons [00:09:31] Well, I’ve had the great privilege of listening to your play many times and attending your performances here in the organ recital hall. It’s some of the most spectacular performances I’ve ever seen in my life, really, to to watch you play. I mean, we’re so grateful as a community that you’re here at CSU with with your talent and what you do. And the community in Fort Collins has really embraced you and this organ recital hall and the performances that you put on. I’ll come back to that in a minute. But I have to ask you, how did you get started in organ music as a young person?

 

Joel Bacon [00:10:06] Yeah. You know, I didn’t take my first organ lessons until I was a freshman in college. So I had played piano all my life and just never had thought of that as a as a profession. Like, I didn’t know any professional musicians. I didn’t know you could, you know, make a living doing music. And I went to college and studied math. And my freshman year, I was attending music concerts because I love music so much. And I heard the university organist play a concert and it I don’t know, something something in me just lit up, you know, and and I went and signed up for lessons and yeah, I ended up practicing more organ than I ended up studying math. But, you know, it’s hard, you know. Learning the organ is, it’s you know, if you play piano well, you can do a lot with the keys. But but you have to learn all the feet, right? Organists, play with both their feet.

 

Amy Parsons [00:11:16] Yeah. It’s astounding to watch, to be honest. And I’ve seen you play entire, complicated, beautiful pieces with nothing but your feet and I just, my jaw is on the floor when I see you do that. Maybe you can demonstrate a little bit of that today or tell us something that you’re working on right now.

 

Joel Bacon [00:11:35] Okay. Well, I can play a little of something I’m working on right now. This is. This is honestly just exactly what I was practicing this afternoon, so.

 

Amy Parsons [00:11:49] Okay.

 

Joel Bacon [00:11:49] So it’s not, you know, performance ready, but it’s, it’s it’s a song, a French art song from the early 20th century by Reynaldo Hahn called À Chloris. And classical singers know this song. It’s a very beautiful song. And I always thought for some reason it would make a wonderful organ piece. So I’ve been kind of experimenting with how to to maybe take this this very expressive lyric love song and turn it into into an organ piece.

 

Amy Parsons [00:12:30] So is this something that you do normally? You’d listen for songs, you listen for these and translate it into your mind and how it will come out as an organ piece?

 

Joel Bacon [00:12:40] You know, sometimes there are classic organ pieces. I just want to play pieces other organists know and play. But, but lately I, I like letting myself be inspired. So if there’s, if there’s a kind of music and, and it, you know, it’s a little outside of normal for organists, maybe that’s okay. You know, maybe that’s, that’s something that that I’m meant to explore.

 

Amy Parsons [00:13:05] Yeah. Beautiful.

 

Joel Bacon [00:13:08] So here’s, here’s just the opening of À Chloris.

 

Amy Parsons [00:14:37] Beautiful. You just started learning that today? This is what it sounds like. That’s amazing.

 

Joel Bacon [00:14:45] Yeah. Yeah. I’ve played this actually, as a pianist. I played this with, with one of our voice professors on a recital in Germany several years ago, so.

 

Amy Parsons [00:14:57] Maybe we’ll get to hear it at one of your concerts this year?

 

Joel Bacon [00:14:59] I hope so. No, not for Halloween. We have other things for Halloween.

 

Amy Parsons [00:15:03] Well, let’s talk about Halloween for a minute.

 

Joel Bacon [00:15:05] Okay. We must.

 

[00:15:07] I mentioned a minute ago how I really feel like not just the CSU community, but Fort Collins, maybe the northern Colorado community have learned to love the organ because of you and because of this beautiful instrument. University Center for the Arts and your talent. When you have concerts here, it’s full and it’s wonderful. But probably no more than on Halloween. And your Halloween extravaganza has really become an amazing tradition in Fort Collins. So let’s talk about that a little bit. Where did the inspiration for it come originally and for those who may not know, on Halloween, Joel and his students perform this amazing Halloween organ extravaganza that is, I think, the most wonderful thing you can do on Halloween. So how did it get started?

 

Joel Bacon [00:15:56] Well, you know, so obviously, the organ is associated with with Halloween, you know, big, spooky, scary gothic kind of sounds. And, you know, the idea is not original to me. Other places do Halloween concerts, but CSU was not doing one when I came and I said, “Oh, I think that would be that would be fun.”

 

Amy Parsons [00:16:19] You had no idea what you’re getting into.

 

Joel Bacon [00:16:21] And, you know, honestly, the students that first Halloween in the in the TILT building, you know, it was so special. Like I had a I had a student from from Hong Kong. I remember having to explain, you know, it’s Halloween, we’re all going to wear costumes. You’re going to play.

 

Amy Parsons [00:16:46] It’s going to be great.

 

Joel Bacon [00:16:47] I remember going to the grocery store and getting a witch’s hat for her and a broom so that she would have a costume. But, you know, these students played their hearts out. And, and so many people came we actually had to turn people away at the door because there wasn’t room in the building for all of the people that showed up. Yeah. And it’s it’s it’s just been wonderful. I mean, in some ways, I love that I get to show a different side of the organ. You know, I love playing in churches. I love playing, you know, serious moments, you know, weddings, funerals. You know, there’s a lot of important things I get to do as an organist. But, you know, letting our hair down a bit and and showing a different side of the instrument is really important to me, too.

 

Amy Parsons [00:17:35] Yeah. It’s almost like a like a gateway event into the rest of the UCA events because it’s just it’s so much fun. And I know that you live stream it as well. So people who are home giving away candy can be also paying attention to what’s happening and listening to the music. Anything you want to disclose about what’s coming up for this?

 

Joel Bacon [00:17:56] You know, we usually keep our our themes top secret.

 

Amy Parsons [00:18:01] Oh, okay. Alright. That’s fair enough. But a good tip for Rams listening. They need to get their tickets early because it sells out and there are multiple performances, but it sells out and I’m already committed, so I will be there. I can’t wait.

 

Joel Bacon [00:18:15] Well, one thing I want to add about it, you know, it’s over the years, it’s been really nice to to have the partnership with with theater as well. You know, we’re one department here at CSU — Music, Theater and Dance. And it’s not just the organ students that perform. We have a student doing lighting for the show. We have a student that does projection for the show. I had a production meeting with theater just the other day and and they were telling me about the costumes and props. And so it’s drawn a lot of other other students in and it’s it’s great collaboration here in our department.

 

Amy Parsons [00:18:54] That’s wonderful. I mean, we put on so many great productions here at the UCA, the theater productions and dance productions and all student run. The experience they get here is is just amazing. It’s a really special part of CSU. So all right. So no secrets, we’ll have to come.

 

Joel Bacon [00:19:08] I’ll tell you after the cameras are off.

 

Amy Parsons [00:19:11] See it in person. All right. That’s fair enough. I do want to get back to playing a little bit, but this this podcast is called “The Next 150” because it is looking at CSU’s history up to this point and looking ahead. And I ask every guest that I chat with what advice they might have for today’s CSU students. And you’ve taught a lot of students and a lot of classes over time, and just want to pick your brain a little bit about advice for today’s students, whether or not they’re coming into Music, Theater and Dance, but just arriving on our campus, it’s fall semester. We’ve got many thousands of new students here for the first time. Advice for them as they start their journey at CSU.

 

Joel Bacon [00:19:53] You know, actually, when when you asked me how I started organ, you know, I told you that I, I went to an organ concert, you know, and that wasn’t anything required for my degree. But that’s, that’s something I would encourage students to do is to, is to go to events, go to lectures, go to concerts, go to things that that you don’t have to go to that that you don’t even know that you might be interested in. Because I didn’t know I was going to be interested in it. And it totally transformed my life. And yeah, university is a special place to do that.

 

Amy Parsons [00:20:34] And we’re all grateful that the university that you attended had that great organ performance that inspired you to be here today.

 

Joel Bacon [00:20:40] And I know you believe in this, too, because I see you everywhere.

 

Amy Parsons [00:20:45] Well I. I do encourage the students to go to the things that not only do they maybe not know about, things that they think they won’t like or even speakers they think they’re going to disagree with, go to those. Don’t just go to the things that you know and that you think you’re going to agree with. And so I think that’s great advice. And especially at CSU, we have so many amazing performances that are so inspiring, not just to our students, but our whole Fort Collins community. Yeah. So thank you for that. All right. So I think we’re going to get another piece from you. Sure. So we’d love to listen to whatever you want to play for us today.

 

Joel Bacon [00:21:21] You want a little more Halloween music?

 

Amy Parsons [00:21:22] I’m in the Halloween mood and I’m excited for the extravaganza. So I say yes, but wait, before we do that, I just learned something very interesting about your organ shoes. I didn’t know that there were special organ shoes, but it makes complete sense because it is such a full body effort to play the organ. Tell me just a little bit about how you prepare and and do you train specially in addition to wearing those shoes to be able to do what you do?

 

Joel Bacon [00:21:48] So yeah, for those who may not be able to see us listening to this podcast, there are 32 keys on an organ pedal board and you you play them mostly with your toes, but you can also play with your heels. You can play whole chords. You can play. You can play music. They often play the lowest notes on the organ. This is, these are really the lowest pipes. I don’t even know if that’ll pick up on the microphone so well. But yeah, I wear special shoes with thin, thin soles so that I can feel the pipes a little better and the heels have suede leather on them instead of, you know, kind of rubber so that they don’t they don’t grip. They’re also lightweight. They’re just, you know, after four hours of practicing, you know, you don’t want to be playing in hiking boots. So, yeah, as far as training, I think you do a lot of the same things you do on piano. You learn scales, you play little exercises, you practice, practice, practice.

 

Amy Parsons [00:23:20] There’s so many pieces and parts to what you do to help educate is just a little bit before you play your next piece on what these different things are called.

 

Joel Bacon [00:23:28] Right. Okay. So there are knobs sticking out the side of the organ and and you have keys. This organ has three keyboards on top of each other, and nothing actually plays until you draw one of the knobs, one of the stops, and that engages one pipe per key. So there are 56 pipes that are controlled by this one. And these kind of sound like a flute, but some other pipes sound more like trumpets. Some pipes are pitched really low. And some are pitched really high. And and it’s this combination that’s part of the art of playing the organ is you’re selecting the different kinds of sounds and different combinations to, I don’t know, to to bring out different timbres and colors.

 

Amy Parsons [00:24:31] And on the feet down here, these pedals, these are two different types of pedals that you’re playing.

 

Joel Bacon [00:24:36] These buttons in general and. Change the stops quickly, you can program them so that I’m not trying to play the organ and also change the stops. And so there are buttons everywhere that let me but let me do that so that I don’t have to kind of stop in the moment of my playing and reach on the side and grab stops. When I was a student in Vienna, a lot of older European organs don’t have this. And so I’d have to enlist my fellow students to stand on either side of me while I played. And I’d write in my music where they were supposed to draw the the knobs and and I’d nod and yeah, yeah.

 

Amy Parsons [00:25:22] That’s, it’s quite intimidating of an instrument to approach from someone who might just who’s very interested in the organ. But how do you even start. So I’m just curious as a, as a professor, how do you take a student who’s maybe quite good at piano and start to translate that into all of this that goes into playing the organ?

 

Joel Bacon [00:25:43] It’s one of the things I enjoy doing most. You know, the, I think for me, the, this instrument is a lot about wonder, right? Like it’s the immensity of the sound or the, you know, just how it works because it’s so complicated. The history of it seems so, so complicated and so communicating that to students, getting them to wonder what all of these things do is, is something that that that just brings a lot of of of joy to to what I do. But it does make organ lessons long, I should say. You know, you have to take a couple of minutes to show them how to turn all these instruments on,  you know?

 

Amy Parsons [00:26:34] Like I said, it’s quite intimidating. There’s a lot to learn it. Well, as as magnificent as this instrument is and this room, I imagine that you’ve played in some truly spectacular cathedrals and other places around the world. Maybe tell us 1 or 2 places that are particularly magnificent to play.

 

Joel Bacon [00:26:55] I was remembering recently the The Hofkirche in Innsbruck, the Royal Church, and it’s an instrument from the 1500s. And I love really old organ music like that. And I had gone there to to play for the organist there and to work with him on some early music. And I told him, I said, I love this instrument so much, I just I just love to, you know, I could stay here all night. And he said, “Why don’t you?” And he gave me the key to to the church and, and this Gothic church. And what was really special, there are these statues in the church, these, that line the the center aisle. And the only lights that he left on, there weren’t any lights that he left on except at the organ, but there were these flickering votive candles, you know, in the side chapels and these, you know, casting shadows on these these statues and I just I love all of these old these old churches at night. I think that’s one of my favorite things about being an organist is, is being in a church alone at night, like playing a big instrument, like.

 

Amy Parsons [00:28:11] A very interesting audience listening to you play.

 

Joel Bacon [00:28:13] So.

 

[00:28:13] Amazing. Well, what are you going to play for us?

 

Joel Bacon [00:28:18] I think I might as well just play the the quintessential Halloween piece for you. This is Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata in D Minor.

 

Amy Parsons [00:28:28] Wonderful. Thank you.

 

Amy Parsons [00:28:29] Well, thank you so much, Joel, for spending time with us today and allowing us to broadcast “The Next 150” podcast here at the Organ Recital Hall. And just thank you for being part of our CSU community. What you bring to CSU is just truly exceptional, and we’re also grateful that you’re here and and that you teach what you teach at CSU and that you perform for all of us to enjoy. So thank you very much. Thank you for listening. I’m Amy Parsons, president of Colorado State University. And you are listening to CSU’s “The Next 150” where we explore what comes next for CSU by chatting with changemakers who are already leading the charge and shaping our next 150 years, I’m gathering their very best advice for today’s CSU students. Stay tuned to wherever you get podcasts for our next outstanding conversation. Go Rams.