Local organist to lead Lenten recital at Pitt-Bradford

BRADFORD, PA – Local organist Jeanne Gross will lead a Lenten recital called “Journey from the Cross … to the Grave … to the Throne” at noon April 12 in the Harriett B. Wick Chapel at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

The recital is free and open to the public. Doors open at 11:30 a.m.

Harrijane Hannon Moore will be the narrator. Vocalists will be Andrew Dutko, the Parisella family and Rebecca Gleason Confer. Norine Bernheisel will play the flute.

Music will include “The Holy City,” “Via Dolorosa,” “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” “Adagio in G Minor” by Tomaso Albinoni, “Pie Jesu,” “Where You There?” and “Hallelujah, Amen!”

Gross has served as organist at Emanuel Lutheran Church, First United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church and, currently, Hill Memorial United Methodist Church. She has been playing for more than 50 years and took organ and piano lessons from William R. Davis, former organist and choirmaster for the Episcopal Church of the Ascension.

Bernheisel studied as a flute major at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, N.Y., where she received a degree in music education.

Confer, a lifelong singer and lover of the arts, lives in Bradford with her husband and their two boys. A soprano, she has been a member of the Pitt-Bradford Community Choir and the Praise Team and Friends.

Dutko is the vocal music educator at Floyd C. Fretz Middle School and choir director at Hill Memorial Methodist Church. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Mansfield University, where he double-majored in music education and vocal performance, and is pursuing a Master of Music degree in music education from Kent State University.

Moore has been an elected official for many years and currently serves as the McKean County Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans’ Court. She is active in many local organizations, including the YWCA of Bradford, the Bradford Area Public Library, the Bradford Landmark Society, the Friendship Table, Evergreen Elm and the First Presbyterian Church, where she is an Elder and a member of the choir.

Faye and Scott Parisella met in a select college singing group that toured to perform at Alfred University functions. They were part of a USO tour that performed at Army, Navy and Air Force bases all around the area and have performed with numerous local and regional choirs and choruses.

Their daughter, Jill Parisella Campbell is a speech language pathologist at Charles Cole Memorial Hospital. She has toured Europe with the Fredonia (N.Y.) Chamber Singers and the Monadnock Chorus.

A Pitt-Bradford alumnus, Jay Parisella received his Master of Business Administration from the American Intercontinental University. He has sung with his family in community musicals, Kiwanis Kapers, at the Italian Festival and in the choir at First Presbyterian Church in Bradford.

For disability-related needs, contact the Office of Disability Resources and Services at (814)362-7609 or clh71@pitt.edu.