Betty V. Nickerson Memorial Organ Recital

Mr. Martorella will be joined by Lucinda Ladd, flute and Jennifer Harris Collins, trumpet in music of J. S. Bach, François Couperin, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Alfred V. Fedak, Florence Price, Flor Peeters, Frederick Chopin, César Franck, Samuel Barber, Nick Glennie-Smith, and Samuel Augustus Ward. We will celebrate the life of Betty V. Nickerson, 1928-2022, organist and choir director emeritus of the Peace Dale Congregational Church and past Dean of the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. 

Betty Virginia Nickerson was born in Providence, Rhode Island and graduated from Classical High School. She began organ studies at age 13 studying  with Ethel Bird, taking her first position at the Methodist Tabernacle Church in Providence. She married Robert A. Nickerson, her husband of 65 years, in 1950. They made their home in South Kingstown later moving to Narragansett where Betty served as organist, handbell and  choir director of the Peace Dale Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, for 39 years, retiring in 1989 but continuing as a substitute in over 30 churches throughout the cities and towns of Rhode Island, including a year at the Peace Dale Church as an interim, bringing her service there to 40 years. Betty passed away on April 12, 2022, in Olympia, Washington, but not before serving on the Stewardship Ministry and the Caring Friends Ministry of The United Churches of Olympia. She became a member of the Olympia Symphony Guild, serving as chair of the scholarship committee for high school seniors for five years. Betty was a member of The American Guild of Organists and served as Secretary, Sub-Dean and Dean of the Rhode Island Chapter, as well as Rhode Island State Chairperson. She earned the Choir Master's Certificate in 1973. In 1985, Betty co-chaired the Region I American Guild of Organists' convention held in Providence and she was co-chairperson for the Chapter's 50th Anniversary Celebration held at Grace Episcopal Church, Providence. 

Stephen Martorella began his studies at The Julliard School in New York and later attended Mannes College of Music, Queens College at the City University of New York, and Hartt College of Music at the University of Hartford. His piano teachers included Josef Raieff, Nadia Reisenberg, Artur Balsam, and Murray Perahia. He also received tutoring in organ and conducting from Bronson Regan, Robert Flood, Marcel Dupré, and Harold Aks. He enjoys an international reputation as both soloist and conductor and has often appeared in concert with his brother, Philip Martorella, as a two-piano team. A native New Yorker, Stephen Martorella is currently Minister of Music at the First Baptist Church in America, Providence, Rhode Island; an adjunct instructor at Rhode Island College, and former artistic director for South County Chamber Singers, Kingston. He has also served as organist for Temple Torat Yisrael, Cranston, and as adjunct instructor at the University of Rhode Island and adjunct assistant professor at Salve Regina College. In 1989, Stephen Martorella was both soloist and conductor with the American Wind Symphony in a joint concert with the Wind Orchestra of the Soviet Army in St. Petersburg's (formerly Leningrad) October Hall. He has also appeared as soloist in Belfast, London, Paris, and Miami and on live broadcast as part of the Kerkrade summer festival in Netherlands. As both soloist and conductor, he has given U.S. and world premieres of several major works of contemporary composers, including the New York premiere of Flor Peeters' Concerto for Piano and Organ; and the world premieres of Geoffrey Gibbs' Partita for Organ, Strings and Percussion and Intavolatura of Song, A Chamber Symphony. A resident of Rhode Island since 1975, Stephen Martorella has made frequent appearances with such groups as the Rhode Island Civic Chorale, the Rhode Island State Ballet, the Providence New Music Ensemble, Music on the Hill, the Rhode Island College Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Music Series, Swanhurst Chorale and the American Band. Still an active performer, Martorella will in the coming week be giving the world premiere of "Caracolas" - a concerto for Harpsichord and Winds Orchestra by Efrain Amaya with the American Wind Symphony in Pittsburgh. 

The Providence Journal-Bulletin has described Stephen Martorella as "a performer of the most refined musical tastes and abilities".

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Artists: Stephen Martorella, Jennifer Harris Collins, Lucinda Ladd