Central Methodist University alumnus Jerome Lenk ’79 will return to his alma mater on April 3 for a guest recital in memory of beloved professor Thomas Yancey. The event will begin at 4 p.m. in the Kountz Recital Hall of the Swinney Conservatory of Music. The recital will also serve as a benefit for the Swinney Conservatory Scholarship Fund.
The program will include piano pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sergei Rachmanioff, Enrique Granados, and Frederic Chopin.
Lenk currently serves as Director of Music and organist for Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco. His duties include administration of a music program of four choirs, providing musical support for regular weekend liturgies and all major feasts, coordinating and developing cantors, and conducting the Basilica Choir in major concerts each year. He is active as a recitalist and accompanist and maintains a private coaching studio. He has performed recitals and accompanied the outstanding Basilica Choir in California, Mexico, and Italy. His extensive experience as an accompanist includes appearances with the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Western Opera Theatre, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Mateo Masterworks Chorale, San Jose Symphony, San Francisco Concert Chorale, The Choral Project of San Jose, and the Valley Concert Chorale. He has also accompanied for Robert Shaw, Eugene Butler, and Jörg Demus.
Lenk is also experienced as a vocal coach and assistant conductor. His credits include the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Opera San Jose, the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute, San Jose/Cleveland Ballet, San Jose State University Opera Workshop, and the University of Iowa.
He is a published composer with his arrangement of Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley, released through GIA Publications in Chicago. He actively composes and arranges primarily liturgical music for the Basilica and has written several psalm and mass settings.
Lenk’s professional memberships include the American Guild of Organists, the American Federation of Musicians, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity.