2006's Organist to Accompany 1920's "Phantom of the Opera" Oct. 27

Date: 10/20/06
Contact: Marc Lebovitz

Organist Mark Gifford will not be alone when he is the next performer in the Illinois State University School of Music Guest Artist Series. He will be accompanied by Lon Chaney, at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall.

Gifford will provide live theatre organ accompaniment to a showing of the original 1920 silent film version of "Phantom of the Opera." Admission is $6 for the general public, $5 for faculty-staff and $4 for students and senior citizens.

Gifford, who will help re-create an atmosphere originally enjoyed by the grandparents and great-grandparents of those in the audience, is a Springfield musician who has performed on the Barton Theatre Pipe Organ in Springfield High School for 16 years. He also is one of the organist at the Lincoln Theatre in Belleville and the Fox Theatre lobby organ in St. Louis. In 1998 he recorded a Christmas album on the Lincoln Theatre pipe organ titled "Pipe in a Swingin' Christmas."

Gifford, who graduated from McKendree College and has a master's degree in religious education from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., currently, is the minister of music for the Parkway Christian Church in Springfield.