W&L Presents Faculty Recital with William McCorkle McCorkle will perform a selection of European works for the organ on Sept. 28 at Lexington Presbyterian Church.

By Lily Caldwell
September 17, 2025

The Department of Music at Washington and Lee University will present a faculty recital by organist and W&L lecturer William McCorkle on the organ on Sunday, Sept. 28, at 3 p.m. at the Lexington Presbyterian Church, located at 120 South Main Street.

The performance is free and open to the public and no tickets are required. The recital will also be livestreamed at https://www.lexpres.org/watch-live.

The program is titled “A Constellation of Pipes: Organ Masterpieces from the Star Cities of Europe” and will feature a selection of music by European organists and composers from the 16^th to 20^th centuries. The performance will take the audience on a ‘tour’ around Europe featuring cities like Paris, Rome, London and Venice.

A versatile keyboard artist, McCorkle has performed as organist, harpsichordist and pianist in solo and ensemble performances throughout the eastern United States and Europe. His research has centered on 17th- and 18th-century French and Italian vocal and keyboard styles, and he is well known for his expertise in keyboard realization.

“I’ll ask those in attendance to approach this program as a kind of taster’s choice, a miniature masterpiece giving us, in each case, a glimpse in sound of the genius of a particular musician whose creative genius and virtuosity brought him a well-deserved fame and respect,” said McCorkle. “The variety of these pieces, spanning several centuries and styles of organ building, and revealing certain stylistic trends and tendencies, will offer us the chance to consider varying groups of cities as, so to speak, ‘constellations.”

McCorkle is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Amherst College and holds graduate degrees from Yale University, where he worked with organist Charles Krigbaum, harpsichordist Albert Fuller and tenor Blake Stern. As an Edward Poole Lay Fellow, he studied in Paris with master musicians Nadia Boulanger, Annette Dieudonné and William Christie.

For a full list of this season’s events and performances, visit the Lenfest Center’s website.