Classics at First

05/10/2026

Thursday! A world class artist in your hometown!!

04/27/2026

Make every effort to attend what will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear a world class organist here in Greenwood. Ken Cowan has had a long and distinguished career as an international concert organist. He is highly sought out by chapters of the American Guild of Organists as a featured recitalist.

His program will include both music written for the organ and transcriptions of orchestral works. Composers whose works will be featured include Bach, Widor, Saint-Saens, Guilmant, and Vierne, and others.

We are fortunate in Greenwood to have a pipe organ like the Casavant at FPC, the largest instrument between Memphis and Jackson, and Little Rock and Tuscaloosa, which is capable of playing music literature well from a wide range of musical periods and styles, and in a room that is acoustically splendid for music.

Ken is currently Professor of Organ at Rice University in Houston, TX. He has also served in that role at Princeton University. He holds degrees from the Yale School of Music where he completed his masters in organ performance, and the Curtis Institute of Music where is bachelor degree in organ performance was earned.

04/07/2026

A major performer coming to Mississippi. Mark your calendars now!

Ken Cowan’s biography:

https://www.google.com/search?q=ken+cowan+bio&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

02/19/2026

There seems to be some confusion regarding a concert that was a possibility for Februrary, but didnt work out. Ezekiel Andrew McCall is not appearing tonight, Feb 19. We are hoping something can be worked out for the Fall of 2026.

09/17/2025

One week from tomorrow! Don't miss this free concert of incredible music.

Sophie Wang is an active concert artist and pedagogue who joined the faculty of Mississippi State University in the Fall of 2019. Recent engagements include a lecture-recital and masterclass in Novi Sad, Serbia in 2018, as well as her Carnegie Hall solo debut in May 2016. Other notable appearances include her critically-acclaimed readings of Rachmaninoff at the Internationaler Musiksommer auf Kulturverein-Schloss Rosenegg in Austria in 2011, and her return performance in her native Taipei, Taiwan, which was given to a sold-out audience in 2010. She was also honored to serve as performer and organizer of the long-running series Pianopalooza at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2013 and 2014. Her first orchestral collaboration came in 2002, when she performed the rarely-heard Moszkowski Piano Concerto. More recent orchestral activities include the Beethoven C Minor Concerto with the Cincinnati Community Orchestra in 2017.

Concurrent with her performances, Wang has previously held teaching positions at Gulf Coast State College, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Northern Kentucky University, where she served as Keyboard Area Coordinator. As a clinician, Wang has offered masterclasses and presentations for the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, the College Music Society, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and MTNA, where she shares her work in both national and state conventions. Recent presentations include Music Transformed: The Piano Transcription and Its Evolution, A Walk on the (Earl) Wild Side, MacDowell: A Poetic Voice as Seen in the “Keltic” Sonata, and Worth A Thousand Words: Poulenc’s Musical Depictions in Les Soirées de Nazelles.

Wang holds the Doctor of Music Arts degree in Piano Performance from the CCM, where she was a pupil of the distinguished virtuoso James Tocco. A laurate of numerous competitions, Wang has earned prizes at the MTNA Steinway Young Artists Competition in 2002 and 2004, as well as the Celebration of Excellence Competition (three consecutive years, 2002-05).

09/01/2025

Sophie Wang is an active concert artist and pedagogue who joined the faculty of Mississippi State University in the Fall of 2019. Recent engagements include a lecture-recital and masterclass in Novi Sad, Serbia in 2018, as well as her Carnegie Hall solo debut in May 2016. Other notable appearances include her critically-acclaimed readings of Rachmaninoff at the Internationaler Musiksommer auf Kulturverein-Schloss Rosenegg in Austria in 2011, and her return performance in her native Taipei, Taiwan, which was given to a sold-out audience in 2010. She was also honored to serve as performer and organizer of the long-running series Pianopalooza at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2013 and 2014. Her first orchestral collaboration came in 2002, when she performed the rarely-heard Moszkowski Piano Concerto. More recent orchestral activities include the Beethoven C Minor Concerto with the Cincinnati Community Orchestra in 2017.

Concurrent with her performances, Wang has previously held teaching positions at Gulf Coast State College, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Northern Kentucky University, where she served as Keyboard Area Coordinator. As a clinician, Wang has offered masterclasses and presentations for the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, the College Music Society, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and MTNA, where she shares her work in both national and state conventions. Recent presentations include Music Transformed: The Piano Transcription and Its Evolution, A Walk on the (Earl) Wild Side, MacDowell: A Poetic Voice as Seen in the “Keltic” Sonata, and Worth A Thousand Words: Poulenc’s Musical Depictions in Les Soirées de Nazelles.

Wang holds the Doctor of Music Arts degree in Piano Performance from the CCM, where she was a pupil of the distinguished virtuoso James Tocco. A laurate of numerous competitions, Wang has earned prizes at the MTNA Steinway Young Artists Competition in 2002 and 2004, as well as the Celebration of Excellence Competition (three consecutive years, 2002-05).

08/19/2025

Dr. Sophie Wang, Assistant Teaching Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano at Mississippi State, will present a solo recital on Thursday, September 25, at 7:00 p.m. Details will be forth coming, but please mark this recital on your calendar now!

04/28/2025

04/27/2025

https://youtu.be/CZGagdd2S2s

04/24/2025

Scott Montgomery is the Director of Classic Music and Organist for Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, adjunct instructor of organ at the University of Arkansas, and a widely respected concert organist.
Mr. Montgomery became nationally recognized in 2006 by winning both the Lilian Murtagh Memorial Award (first-prize) and the Audience Prize of the prestigious American Guild of Organists' National Young Artist Competition in Organ Playing (NYACOP), the first person to win both prizes in the history of the competition. Scott has been a prize winner in several other notable competitions including first-prize in the American Guild of Organists' Region V Competition in Evansville, Indiana (1997), second-prize in the Arthur Poister National Organ Competition in Syracuse, New York (2002), and was also the first recipient of the M. Louise Miller Scholarship (2002) sponsored by the Greater Bridgeport Chapter of the American Guild of organists. Scott is a member of the Concert Artist Cooperative, a roster of national and international concert artists.
He is widely active as a concert organist throughout the country and abroad. Notable performance venues have included Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (Philadelphia, PA), Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA), Ball State University (Muncie, IN), and Heinz Chapel at the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA). He has performed for both regional and national conventions for the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the Organ Historical Society (OHS), National Pastoral Musician Conferences (NPM), and for Pipe Organ Encounters (POE) in the Midwest for both youth and adults. His performances have been broadcast on nationally syndicated radio programs "Pipedreams" and "With Heart and Voice."
Mr. Montgomery has produced three critically acclaimed compact disc recordings. Water and Light, released in 2008 by the Pro Organo label, features the tonally resourceful Mander Organ at Peachtree United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. His second CD, Inspirations From England, released in 2009 by the Regent Record label, featuring the two Mander Organs at St Peter’s Episcopal Church in St Louis, Missouri. Scott released his third CD, Organo Plano: Music for a Joyous Occasion, on the Raven label in 2013, showcasing the large Reuter Organ at Christ United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas.
He received his formal training at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees in organ performance studying with Dr. Dana Robinson.

04/09/2025

Don’t miss our next concert!