A Chamber Built For Music: Walter Klauss Spearheads New Series At Old Whalers' Church

Intended originally for a smallish room and private audience, chamber music is heard best when the chamber gives off a sense of intimacy, generating a feeling of closeness between the limited number of performers and the audience—soloists with accompanists, and small vocal and instrumental ensembles, typically one player to each instrument, as opposed to an orchestra comprised of sections. The essence of a chamber music group is that everyone is equal. The performers engage with each other in musical conversation, without a conductor.But what a chamber, both aesthetically and auditorily, for “Bach, Before & Beyond,” the East End’s new music series conceived by Old Whalers’ Church artist in residence, Walter Klauss. The series sets full sail in March, after having had a short but well attended maiden voyage this past November with “Bach to Broadway.”

The Egyptian revival-style Presbyterian church, built in 1844 with its beautifully restored trompe l’oeil apse mural and welcoming interior, will be filled with music, all under the auspices of Mr. Klauss, a highly regarded organist, harpsichordist and pianist, who for close to 40 years was director, then minister of music, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan, where he founded the critically acclaimed concert series, “Musica Viva.”

He retired recently from that position—their loss, the East End’s gain—though his reputation among the performers he has worked with over the years ensures he can attract “top-quality professional talent, national and international, to Sag Harbor,” he said.

The idea for “Bach, Before & Beyond” grew out of the first organ recital Maestro Klauss gave as a fundraiser for the church’s various and diverse community activities—and to show off the organ. It was so successful that he was invited to be an artist in residence and was “offered the space with full freedom to suggest programs,” he said.

The acoustics are impressive, with “reverberations that enhance sound with distinct clarity,” he explained. Of course, Sag Harbor itself also drew him in. The village, he noted, “has a theater, art galleries and studios, and a long literary tradition, but it did not have an established music series that could serve as the center of classical music, especially in the off season.”

Thus was born “Bach, Before & Beyond,” with three concerts every year, the next slated for March 6—featuring cellist Maureen Hynes, who will perform works by, among others, Haydn, Bach and Mendelssohn.

“The timing was perfect, the venue just right and the village a great place from which to launch a classical music program,” he said.

Music seems always to have been in Mr. Klauss’s life. At age 17, he made his debut as an organ recitalist at the Cleveland Museum of Art and, later on, with a master’s degree from Case Western Reserve University, he was invited to perform the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan—with the composer in the audience.

As Mary-Ella Holt makes clear in her 2001 festschrift, “The Biography of a Sound: A Profile of Walter A. Klauss,” young Wally was already recognized as a talent by age 3½. He had just emigrated from Germany with his parents, who discovered their son had perfect pitch and encouraged him to study piano and organ.

Years later, he has exercised his own ability to spot talent, which once included auditioning a young soprano, her first such experience, and heard someone he was sure was going places: Renée Fleming, now a powerhouse in the opera world. Who knows whom Mr. Klauss may discover, or rediscover, for this year’s remaining concerts.

A familiar presence on the East End, where over the years he has appeared as guest conductor of the Choral Society of the Hamptons, Mr. Klauss has a long and admired career not only leading orchestras, choirs and workshops in conducting and performances in this country and in Paris, but as a teacher. He served for several years as chair of the music department at LIU Post and is still on record as professor of organ at Queens College, and as a music consultant at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregational Society of Brooklyn.

But he is spending more time in the Hamptons, while also keeping to a travel schedule that includes leading performances at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe, one of Africa’s largest arts organizations, and appearing as a recitalist in the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra in Switzerland.

At Old Whalers’ Church, some of the instruments themselves are worth coming out to see. These include the organ, the oldest in a church on Long Island. It was built in 1845—two years before the death of Felix Mendelssohn, one of whose pieces will be performed during the upcoming concert. The work of the then-celebrated firm of Henry Erben, the pipe organ was built when Sag Harbor was a leading whaling port, and parts of the organ still bear whaling decorations, including carved blubber spades and whale teeth. Renovations made in 1872 and, again, in 1978 preserved much of the original pipework and other mechanisms.

The church also boasts a lovely harpsichord, a Flemish-style reproduction from the 1700s that had been owned by Mr. Klauss, but which he donated to Old Whalers’ and can be heard, with him at the keyboard, on occasion at a Sunday service—and perhaps, if the audience is lucky, during the new concert series.

“Bach, Before & Beyond” will feature cellist Maureen Hynes for a concert of work by Haydn, Bach, Mendelssohn and more on March 6 at 3 p.m. at Old Whalers’ Church in Sag Harbor. On May 22, Dutch recorder player Marion Verbruggen will play a concert of Bach, Telemann and Handel at 3 p.m. For more information about the series, email bachbeforeandbeyond@gmail.com.