Austin organist visits campus

On Sunday, August 29, 2010 Eric Mellenbruch performed an organ recital at the Center for Fine and Performing Arts recital Hall at Texas A&M International University. The event started at 4 p.m., and featured music by Dieterich Buxtehude, J.S. Bach, Johann Gottfried Walther, Cesar Frank and Felix Mendelssohn.  

Mellenbruch is the director of music at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, Texas. He was admitted and received a Bachelor's degree of Music, for church music, and a Master's degree of Music, for organ performance, at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He was named an outstanding church music student, outstanding senior man in the School of Music by the music faculty and placed in various music competitions. In addition, Eric Mellenbruch is a recitalist and shared musician who appears as an organ soloist in venues across Texas.

The recital held a wide range of audience members, all of whom ranging from children to the elderly. Enrique Alvarez, a sophomore at TAMIU stated, "It was a great performance", he said. Alvarez went on to say, "The repertoire and order of the music was excellent". 

Alvarez also found it interesting that Eric Mellenbruch opened the recital with a piece that his professor had written, entitled Praeludium in D, BuxWV. The event marked the first organ recital of the semester and provided students with an afternoon of classical music. Mellenbruch was invited by the Department of Music of TAMIU.

(Evelyn Perez may be reached at june713@dusty.tamiu.edu)