Flights of Fancy: Ballet for Organ: Ragtime Lullaby; Shimmy
William ALBRIGHT
About this Piece
William Albright (1944–1998) attended the Juilliard Preparatory School from the age of 14 and went on to earn degrees from Eastman and the University of Michigan. He studied in Paris with Olivier Messiaen on a Fulbright Scholarship and was a disciple of American composer and teacher Ross Lee Finney. He wrote a large body of music for organ and piano, spanning the stylistic spectrum from ragtime to the avant-garde. “Flights of Fancy: Ballet for Organ” is an often-tongue-in-cheek nod to popular music that, after a “Curtain Raiser,” includes a Tango, Ragtime, “Shimmy” and March, dubbed “The A.G.O. (American Guild of Organists) Fight Song.”