{"id":25650,"date":"2022-12-02T11:52:48","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T17:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=25650"},"modified":"2022-12-02T12:43:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T18:43:37","slug":"obit-watch-december-2-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=25650","title":{"rendered":"Obit watch: December 2, 2022."},"content":{"rendered":"

Frederick Swann<\/a>, organist.<\/p>\n

Mr. Swann was well known in New York as organist and music director at Riverside Church in Manhattan, where he began playing in the 1950s.<\/a>
\nIn 1982 he reached a much wider audience when he moved to the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., home base of the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, the television evangelist. There he appeared each week on \u201cHour of Power,\u201d one of the most widely watched religious programs in the country, with a viewership in the millions.<\/a>
\nBefore retiring in 2001, he also served for three years as organist at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, which has one of the largest pipe organs in the world. He also played thousands of recitals all over the United States and beyond.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…<\/p>\n

\u201cFred was a genius at controlling and maximizing the potential of very large pipe organs,\u201d the organist John Walker, who succeeded Mr. Swann as music director at Riverside, said in a phone interview. \u201cEvery organ is absolutely unique. They are custom-made works of art, and Fred was so uniquely skilled at uncovering the timbres in each instrument that he was regularly invited to give inaugural recitals\u201d \u2014 that is, the first public performance on a new or rebuilt organ.<\/a>
\nHe filled that role in 2004 for the formidable organ at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, a 6,134-pipe instrument designed by Frank Gehry. His program that night included pieces by Bach, Mendelssohn and Josef Rheinberger.<\/a>
\n\u201cIn all three,\u201d Mark Swed wrote in a review in The Los Angeles Times, \u201cthe stirring deep pedal tones produced a sonic weight that seemed to anchor the entire building, while the upper diapason notes were clear and warm. The delicate echo effects in the slow movement of Mendelssohn\u2019s sonata spoke magically, as if coming from the garden outdoors.\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…<\/p>\n

Mr. Walker said that Mr. Swann held four centuries\u2019 worth of music in his head and generally played from memory. He played recitals of all kinds, sometimes as the featured attraction and sometimes accompanying a vocalist, and released numerous albums. Mr. Walker said his playing for religious services was particularly poignant.<\/a>
\n\u201cIn playing a hymn,\u201d he said, \u201che would be able to express the meaning of an individual word in such a poignant way that I would just immediately tear up.\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brad William Henke<\/a>, former NFL player and actor.<\/p>\n

He played prison guard Desi Piscatella on Netflix\u2019s Orange Is the New Black over seasons four and five. Henke was among the series\u2019 co-stars to be awarded with the Screen Actors Guild Award for best cast in a comedy in 2016.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wait, wait: “Orange Is the New Black<\/a>” was a comedy<\/strong>? By the way<\/a>, he was also “Coover Bennett” in season 2 of “Justified” (working opposite Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale).<\/p>\n

Frank Vallelonga Jr.<\/a> Other credits<\/a> include “The Sopranos” and “The Birthday Cake”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frederick Swann, organist. Mr. Swann was well known in New York as organist and music director at Riverside Church in Manhattan, where he began playing in the 1950s. In 1982 he reached a much wider audience when he moved to the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., home base of the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,40,16,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-music","category-obits","category-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25650"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25657,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25650\/revisions\/25657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}