Acclaimed organist Mark Laubach, who has served as organist and choirmaster at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre since 1986, where he administers an active liturgical and choral music program and concert series, will present an organ recital on Friday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m., at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill.

His program will include pieces by J.S. Bach, Franz Liszt, César Franck and others that will explore the many voices and moods of the church’s newly renovated and expanded pipe organ.

Laubach has an international reputation, having performed recitals and led church services all over the world. He was recently honored for his 40 years of service as organist and choir director at St. Stephen’s.

“I have really enjoyed the time I’ve spent with the wonderful organ at St. Paul’s,” Laubach told the Local in an interview last week. “I knew it before the rebuild by Stephen Russell, though not as intimately as I know it now. In the past, it was a rather disparate collection of ranks of pipes and the different divisions and styles of pipework and voicing did not always combine as successfully as one might want.

“But now, since the rebuild, I find that the sound of the instrument has a much greater degree of cohesiveness. The organ certainly has an amazing breadth of color and variety of sounds, which is perfect for the pieces I’m playing, especially the one by Liszt. … Organs like this did not really exist in Liszt’s time, but my guess is that Liszt would have loved the colors and diverse sounds on this instrument.”

During the Mass in January honoring Laubach, the Rev. Wesley Poole, who serves two Lutheran churches in the Wilkes-Barre area, said in an interview with the Times Leader, “I’d rather hear Mark play a few bars of anything than listen to many sermons.”

Laubach, who holds the leadership title “Canon” at the church, can be compared to “the glue that holds the place together,” added St. Stephen’s rector, the Rev. Timothy Alleman, in the Times Leader.

In an interview on YouTube, Laubach said, “An organ should have real character and qualities that make it sound beautiful. I consider myself something of a purist, but I am enough of a realist … to know that not every church can afford an organ they’d like. We can’t always have perfection, but we try as best we can. It is astonishing how technology is making it possible for digital instruments to recreate effectively the sounds of a pipe organ.”

Laubach received a bachelor’s degree in church music from Westminster Choir College in 1982 and a master’s degree in organ performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in 1984. He served for one year as Fellow in Church Music at Washington National Cathedral.

Since winning first prize in the 1984 American Guild of Organists National Young Artists’ Competition in Organ Performance, Laubach has performed in many of the most prominent churches and concert halls in the United States and Western Europe.

“Having grown up as the son and nephew of three brothers who all served as Lutheran pastors,” Laubach told the Local, “I was literally born into and grew up in churches, so singing and playing hymns has always been and still is one of my greatest joys as an organist. Nothing excites me quite as much as the thrill of accompanying singers who joyously and enthusiastically sing hymns.”

Laubach is also a frequent recitalist, clinician, presenter of hymn festivals and competition adjudicator for national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists, and national and regional conferences of the Association of Anglican Musicians. He has recorded three critically acclaimed compact discs on the Pro Organo label.

Interestingly, there is currently a shortage of church organists in the United States. The website of the American Guild of Organists indicates that its membership has dropped significantly from its peak of about 20,000 to just over 10,000 today.

According to Andrew Kotylo, music director at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the May 8 concert is free to the public “in loving memory of St. Paul’s parishioner Ann Stookey (1952-2012), a resident of Chestnut Hill in whose name a fund was established to provide for the maintenance and enhancement of the landmark instrument, which now counts as one of the finest pipe organs in the region.”

For more information, visit stpaulschestnuthill.org. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.