Renée Anne Louprette, organ

The first recital of Furman University's 2025-26 Hartness Organ Series will take place on Thursday evening, October 16, at 7:30 in the Charles E. Daniel Memorial Chapel on campus. Our guest artist is Dr. Renée Anne Louprette, Professor of Organ at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Dr. Louprette is one of the leading American organ performers and teachers of our time, and she gives recitals each year throughout the United States as well as abroad. Her program at Daniel Chapel will include works by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre,  J.S. Bach, George Enescu, Leos Janacek, and contemporary composers Arvo Pärt, Petr Eben, Bailint Karosi, David Hurd, and George Baker. Dr. Louprette's recital will be performed on the 42-stop, 54-rank Hartness Organ, Opus 121 of C.B. Fisk organbuilders, Gloucester, MA. The recital is free of charge and open to the public.

The Hartness Organ Series was established in 2004, upon the installation of the Fisk organ. This magnificent instrument is the gift of the late Tom and the late Edna Hartness, and was given in honor of Bobby and Becky Berry Hartness. Each year leading organ virtuosi from the United States and abroad perform on the series.

Dr. Louprette's recital is also the 2025-26 Belcher Organ Concert, an annual organ recital named in honor of Furman graduates the late Posey and Jean Orr Belcher. The Belcher organ concerts are made possible by an endowment created by the Belcher children, all of whom are Furman graduates: the late David Belcher, Elizabeth Belcher Mixon, Phillip Belcher, and Miriam Belcher Ponder.

The 2025-26 Hartness Organ Series will also include recitals by Paul Thomas (FU '11), Organist and Director of Music at Trinity Cathedral (Episcopal) in Columbia, SC, on Tuesday evening, January 27 (presented in conjunction with Furman's 2026 Church Music Conference), and by Furman Distinguished University Organist and Professor of Music Emeritus Charles Tompkins on Tuesday evening, February 24th (a program of music for organ and saxophone with Furman colleague Dr. Matt Olson).

For more information on the Hartness Organ Series recitals, please contact the Furman University Department of Music at (864) 294-2086, or Distinguished University Organist and Professor of Music Emeritus Dr. Charles Tompkins at (864) 294-2969.