MARY LEE TALBOT
Staff Writer
The final concert on the Massey Memorial Organ will take place at 12:15 p.m. today in the Amphitheater. Sonya Subbayya Sutton, interim director of Sacred Music, will play a concert that will include traditional organ pieces and a few that aren’t often played on the organ.
The program will include “Rondeau from Abdelazer” by Henry Purcell, “Vocalise” by Sergei Rachmaninoff, “Fugue, L. 499 (‘Cat Fugue’),” by Domenico Scarlatti, “Girl with the Flaxen Hair,” by Claude Debussy, “The Chrysanthemum,” by Scott Joplin, “Adagio,” by Samuel Barber and Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Sutton worked as an organist and choirmaster in Episcopal churches for nearly forty years before retiring in 2025. In recent years, she has specialized in interim music ministry across the country, working and consulting with music programs during periods of transition.
Sutton has served as the music director of the World Bank/IMF Chorus since 2013. In addition, she frequently collaborates with other instrumentalists as an accompanist and chamber musician. She has directed choirs in eight European tours and cathedral residencies and participated as organist or singer in four more. She is a past president of the Association of Anglican Musicians and currently serves on the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. She is a board member for the Boulanger Initiative, an organization that serves to promote the work of women composers. Sutton earned degrees in piano and arts administration from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. She and her husband, the Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton, divide their time between Washington D.C. and Chautauqua.
