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Richard Wayne Dirksen Centenary

Richard Wayne Dirksen Centenary

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Cathedral Impresario

Frank Sayre’s appreciation for Dirksen’s growing talents and his willingness to empower (and fund!) them made an impresario for the Cathedral.

He could be trusted with the church’s mission in its most public liturgies and national broadcasts. He would bring thousands to Mt. St. Alban in festivals and open houses. But most unusually he invited artists of every stripe to create and perform in an huge space of unparalleled beauty, a place that both awed creative people and inspired them to produce at their highest level.

Funeral of Gerald R. Ford

Reginald Pollack’s Jacob’s Ladder, created for the Installation of John Maury Allin, June 1974
The great ones came: Bernstein, Rostropovich, Brubeck, Limon, Menotti. But the thousands of guest choirs from all over the world, the organists, the poets and painters and dancers who flowed through the building under Wayne’s gentle but firm guidance were no less inspired. As the sampling from his ordinary correspondence shows he was generous, foresighted, and above all CLEAR about what was to be expected both from them and on their behalf.

It was, in the end, those warm personal connections coupled with a natural enthusiasm for the building and its wider mission that made him a great ambassador.

Reggie Pollock painting
Reggie Pollock painting
The Concert for Peace 1973
The Concert for Peace 1973
Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck
West end festival
West end festival

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