St. John’s Concerts will present a Haunted Halloween Concert on Friday, October 24, at 7 pm by Peggy Haas Howell, organist, with Bill Bodine, narrator. Cantate Children’s and Youth Choir and St. John’s Choir will assist in the program. Attendees are welcome to wear costumes!

Canadian composer Rachel Laurin’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for Organ and Narrator” will be the featured work. Commissioned by the American Guild of Organists, and based on the famous Washington Irving story, the piece received its premier at Indiana University, Pennsylvania, in 2024. This concert marks the first performance in Virginia.

J. S. Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor”, a transcription of “Danse Macabre” by Saint-Saëns, and “Double Trouble” by John Williams are some of the other spooky pieces in the program.

Peggy Haas Howell is the Organist and Choirmaster at St. John’s as well as the Director of Cantate Children’s and Youth Choir. A well-known recital organist in the United States and Europe, she is National Vice-President and Councillor for Competitions and New Music for the American Guild of Organists. Ms. Howell received a BA in Church Music from Susquehanna University and a Master of Sacred Music from Union Theological Seminary, New York City. She also studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Hamburg, Germany. Her organ teachers included James Boeringer, Heinz Wunderlich, Charles Dodsley Walker, Cherry Rhodes, and Harald Vogel.

St. John’s Episcopal Church is located at 205 Elmwood Avenue, Lynchburg, VA, 24503. The concert is free and open to the public. An offering will be taken.

For more information, please visit Stjohnslynchburg.org or Cantatechoir.org.