John Gouwens will be the featured musician at the First Friday concert Feb. 3, 12:10 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 1000 Michigan Ave., LaPorte.

Gouwens has served as Organist and Choirmaster of Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church (La Porte) since the fall of 2019. Shortly after starting in that position, he also became carillonneur, organist, and choirmaster at The Presbyterian Church, also in La Porte.

He is a prolific composer and arranger for carillon, and also plies those skills providing relevant and enjoyable music for his choirs to sing. In the organ and carillon fields, he is renowned for his improvisation skills, which he will be including in the Feb.3 recital.

From 1980 until his retirement in 2019, Gouwens served as Organist and Carillonneur at Culver Academies, also leading the choir program for many of those years.

Throughout his career, he has been active playing recitals on the organ and on carillon, for many years at Culver, but also around the country. In the summer of 2023, he’s making his eighth carillon recital tour in Europe. Gouwens has also garnered many prizes over the years in competitions for organ playing, carillon playing, improvisation, and composition.

The program will include Toccata and Fugue in D-Minor, by J.S. Bach; Adagio in E, by Frank Bridge; The Dam-Busters, by Eric Coates; Hymn and Improvisation (hymn to be announced) and Epilogue (Saga III from Metal Angel) by Gunnar Idenstam.

There is no charge for the concert, but a free-will offering box will be available. People are encouraged to bring their lunch and enjoy the concert.