Concert List
Sunday, July 13, 2025, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Groningen, Netherlands
Saturday, August 23, 2025 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sweet Home, OR
Sunday, October 12, 2025, 6:30 p.m. at Church of the Holy Comforter, 543 Beulah Rd. NE, Vienna, VA
Saturday, November 1, 6:30 p.m. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 810 E 600 N., Oregm Utah
Featuring music of Kapustin, Brahms, Gounod, Mascagni, Bedard, and Bach.
Background
Carmen and I come from a family of five children. We all play the piano. This was inspired by our father, a passionate organist, and our mother, an accomplished pianist. Our dad had an organ in the house before we furnished the living room! Our household grew from one piano to three as all children took piano lessons from the same teacher, Mrs. Virginia Buhn.
We were so lucky to have Mrs. Buhn as our piano teacher. She lived just a couple blocks away and was a top-quality teacher with high expectations! When she moved to Eugene, Oregon after Carmen and I had graduated from high school, my younger siblings drove an hour for piano lessons so they could continue to study with her. On our recent trip to Oregon (summer 2025), we drove to Eugene to visit with her and play the piano for her. She’s 99 years old! It was such a privilege to see her again!
When I was in High School (Carmen was probably in 6th or 7th grade), we performed our first duet recital together. Whenever we are in the same town, we always spend time together playing the piano.
In the following years, Carmen received her BA, MA, and DMA in Piano Performance. I earned the CAGO level at the organ with the American Guild of Organists. We both teach piano.
Performing
in 2019, we prepared the Kapustin Sinfonia Piano duet to perform at our Wolthuis family reunion in Oregon. It is a massive piece and challenging and took a lot of work! We had fun with matching dresses, shoes, and necklaces.
Then in 2024, we traveled to Rome to perform a concert. We added a number of duets and performed the Kapustin piece again.
In July 2025, the Wolthuis siblings and parents traveled to the Netherlands and as part of the trip, we were able to perform a concert in a chapel in Groningen. This was a meaningful place for us since this was the city were our paternal grandfather and his family were baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They emigrated to the United States shortly after joining the church and traveled by train to live in Ogden, Utah. These decisions had a lasting impact on our family. We loved performing in Groningen. The audience was so wonderful, appreciative, and friendly. We talked with those who attended the concert for quite a while after the performance.
In August, we traveled to Sweet Home, Oregon for another concert and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LDS chapel in Sweet Home. Again, we had a really wonderful audience and we enjoyed seeing people from the congregation that we had grown up with. Satina Tolman wrote a really beautiful article after the performance which you can read here: New Era Article, Sweet Home, OR August 2025
On October 12, 2025, Carmen and I will be presenting this program at The Church of the Holy Comforter, 543 Beulah Rd. NE, Vienna, VA at 6:30 pm. We hope you can join us! .
Frequently Asked Questions
Q-What is it like preparing a concert together while living on opposite sides of the country?
A-Since we live in Virginia and Utah, practicing together presents its challenges. Fortunately, I am in Utah multiple times during the year since we have two sons who live there with their families. When I’m in Utah, Carmen and I usually wake up at 6 a.m. to grab a few hours of practicing before other activities. We also created recordings for each other to practice with and agreed on tempos and other YouTube recordings that we both liked. Then, once we are in the same city for a performance, we spend as many hours practicing together as possible.
Q-How does your bond as sisters influence the way you play music together?
A-Since we both spent about 10 years with Virginia Buhn, her influence is very strong on our music making. We also become very attuned to our breathing and subtle hand movements. We watch each other’s eyes and heads when we are playing on separate instruments and have learned to communicate with very small movements.
Q-Who usually takes the lead when preparing a piece? or is it always collaborative?
A-Carmen has had more performing experience and her DMA in piano performance has been very valuable in our practices and performing together. We collaborate on many aspects of the performance preparation.
Q-What do you admire most about Carmen’s musicianship?
A- She is a true professional! Her fingers can fly. She has great vision of the musical arc of a piece. She is artistic and is the best pianist I’ve ever played with!
Q-What drew you to pair organ and piano—-two such powerful instruments—for these concerts?
A-It gives us an opportunity to do something together that we really love. It is really a beautiful bonding activity for us. We love performing. We love sharing beautiful music. It’s been fun to travel together. We are actually good travel partners too.
Q-How do you select your repertoire as a duo?
A- A lot of our repertoire choices were inspired by the Scott Brothers. They’ve done quite a few arrangements that are fun and they’ve performed together as well. We look online for other recordings and propose them to each other. We decide if we like them, if they are in the scope of effort and time.
Q-Do you arrange any of the music yourselves, or do you stick with published duets?
A-We tried our hand at arranging a piano-organ duet while we were in Sweet Home this summer. We had been asked to provide a special musical number for our church meeting on Sunday. We were not finding anything that we really liked, but we found a piano arrangement of the hymn “How Gentle God’s Commands” by Sally Deford. I remembered that I had an organ arrangement of the same hymn by Mike Carson. Fortunately, both arrangements started out in the same key. So, we devised a short introduction, we followed Deford’s key change in the middle. I transposed Carson’s hymn for the new key in the middle, and we came up with an ending. So, yes, that was our first foray into arranging and we received some very nice comments afterwards.
Q-Are there challenges in balancing the sound of organ and piano?
A-Most definitely. The accoustics in the room vary from place to place. Sometimes I had to play “ahead” of the music with my fingers compared to what I was hearing. I had to anticipate the next beats in order to stay with the piano. Sometimes the sound in the room is very different from what we hear at the instrument. These are definite challenges that we have to accommodate.
Q-What piece in your current program best shows off your partnership?
A-That’s a tough question. Can I share a few examples? The Ave Maria piece is very emotional and beautiful. We have to be very in tune to each other’s expression of the music. The 2nd Bedard piece has some “conversational” elements between us that are very fun. The 5th Bedard piece is grand and very fun to play together.
Q-Do you see these concerts as the start of an ongoing tradition?
A-Maybe! It has potential! We have some places where we would like to perform in the future.
Q-What do you hope audiences take away from your concerts?
A- I hope they have a very enjoyable evening. I hope they enjoy our sisterhood. I hope they smile. I hope they feel contemplative, inspired, empowered. I hope it brings some peace to their lives.
Listener Comments from the 10/12/25 Virginia concert
Diane: What a joy it was to hear the beautiful music you and Carmen made last night!
The whole program was compelling, with impressive variety, incredible energy, and impeccable timing and adherence to style. My favorites were the Kapustin duet and your Bach. I wish all my Bach-reluctant students could have heard the passion in your playing of that magnificent music.
Thank you for inviting me to your concert.
Chris K: You and your sister were totally amazing last night. She is a strong and sensitive player, and the two of you were in perfect synchronization all night. Wow! Organ and piano together is a thing that I had never really considered, so sorry to admit that! But in the Widor, on occasion, the effect seemed a bit like a piano concerto with the orchestra being played by the organ, if that makes any sense at all. The Canadian piece had moments that reminded me of Poulenc—in the harmonic sequences that went in unexpected directions e.g.. The inner movements of that piece were my favorites—the minuet of course but also the slow movement was very beautiful.
One has to give Gounod credit. He really did something good with that Ave Maria piece!
About Bach, that piece you played is so impressive, as was your performance. That church is lucky to have two such fine instruments as was mentioned.
Cynthia: WOW! What talent and technique!!! Favs were the Kapustin and Mascagni. Super fav was the Bedard number; it WAS fun!! And the “knock your socks off” was the Bach piece … It was magnificent!! Your technique was amazing … The pipe (?) organ or building acoustics … Beautiful … You had Vic in tears.
Amy: Wow! That was so amazing and uplifting. Thanks to you and Carmen for developing and sharing your talents. Ezra and I watched most of it from a big window in the back and swayed back and forth to the “loud and soft and fast and slow.” I just loved the music so much.
David: “You and Carmen were a gift to everyone tonight!
Shauna: Beautiful concert!! It was lovely meeting your sister as well.
Listener Comments from the 11/1/25 Utah Concert
I heard about it from a friend. I thought every piece was fabulous. So glad I could come. Each piece was different, and thus the whole concert was super engaging. You both are so precise, and played so beautifully together. It was such a joy to hear you both. Bedard - Fughetta - so delightful. I think it was my favorite. Oh, loved the finale. I would love to come to more.
I thoroughly enjoyed the bounciness of the music and its happiness that I felt as well as the peace. It was much needed for me. Suggestions - bring it down to ST. George, Utah so I can enjoy it again.
I am a piano student of Carmen Hall and was told about this concert and decided to come. All the pieces were very beautiful and I enjoyed the music very much. I found it very nice seeing my piano teacher play in front of an audience. I would enjoy seeing more performances with more modern piano songs.
The selection of repertoire, also the guided listening comments - so GREAT!
We enjoyed hearing some modern music that was new to us, and appreciated the historical background. Then - enjoy familiar music. The Ave Maria was wonderful. Our favorite was Kapustin!
My mother-in-law told me about the concert. Love hearing the history and personal connections to a piece. The passion and connection between you two is very engaging. Loved the variation in tempo and the lower register of the organ. I enjoyed the back and forth between the piano and organ, followed by a smooth blend.
A personal invitation was sent through email. We enjoyed the concert tremendously. It was professional and highly entertaining. I think perhaps I enjoyed seeing your sisterhood on display the most. Your love for each other and the music was so fun to watch. I also appreciated the explanation and history of each song. Thank you for sharing your talents.
I saw a notice on Facebook. I did not see it until less than a week ago because I was away from FB in early October. What’s not to enjoy? Great music. Awesome family! Make the concert longer? Where was CHOPIN? RACHMANINOFF? I have always thought it would be cool if my kids could sometimes have a concert together and play duets again, but they are spread out across multiple time zones. How do you do it?
The duets and organ solo were just delightful! More - It was very nice! Just about the right length.
I heard about the concert from Rene. It loved it! Great variety of music, played so beautifully! I also loved that you shared information about the music and composers - it helped me appreciate it more. Thank you for sharing your talents with us.
This was delightful. Thank you, Rene and Carmen, for sharing your phenomenal talent with us. A couple of these pieces are familiar to me - Ave Maria and Hungarian Dance. I appreciated hearing well-known songs, as well as several that are new to me. Thank you, Carmen, for giving a brief description of each piece. As well as a suggestion of things to listen for. That’s helpful. The song selection and concert duration make this an audience-friendly performance. Loved it. Thanks for the invitation.
Thanks for doing this. The Bedard was awesome, it was my favorite, and I also really enjoyed the Widor. I would suggest taking the same dynamic clarity and range of expression you showcased so brilliantly in these two pieces and applying them a bit more to the others. (I understand the acoustics in this room aren’t as ideal for the piano.) I enjoyed the whole program, again, thanks for your preparation and performance tonight! You’ve got my email already.
Looked up events on Google. Free, but excellent, comfortable seats. The first song was delightful and different from anything we had heard before. The piece Meditation moved me so deeply. It was warm and comforting and stirring. I’m a dancer, and it made me wish I could get up and move - move in a cathartic way to release emotions that are hard for me right now. But even though I want to release sadness, fear, disappointment, and worry, this song has hope in it to comfort me. So beautiful. Sinfonietta was a fun surprise with the jazzy influence. It reminded me of the music in Charlie Brown at the beginning. Thanks for the information about each piece. It was fun to hear the history of the music. So impressed. Thanks for sharing your talents!
My sister-in-law and personal invite from Rene. AMAZING! Lovely! Very enjoyable! I love how the program was laid out with information about each piece. I enjoyed the short stories told about the composers or the pieces. It was so helpful to be directed in our listening of the last piece, which instrument had the melody. The final of the Duet Suite had amazing runs and felt so jubilant and triumphant
Extraordinary talent, so so enjoyable! Thank you for sharing this beautiful music with us.
I loved the Intermezzo Sinfonico. The duet was warm and lovely. Bach inspires me in so many ways—he is both regal and lovely and makes me want to contemplate. So, I really liked the Ave Maria because I heard Bach in it. The piano duets were so fun—sisters playing together!
I heard about it through family. The concert was beautiful! Mesmorizing actually. The length was perfect.
Special invitation from Rene. I loved the duets! There was a great variety of composers and styles of music. Ave Maria was beautiful. Hungarian Dance No. 1 was a lot of fun! You two practice to perfection. I’d call you the dynamic duo.
Amazing! So enjoyable. The energy was astounding! I would suggest Bohemian Rhapsody!
I love classical music and feel there is not enough offered to the community. So this is great!! Thank you. I found this concert on NowPlayingUtah.org. Ave Maria was sublime, so very enduring and touching.
I learned about the concert from Cassie Johnson - announcement in our ward email. Wondering where you played in the Netherlands. In a beautiful cathedral, I suppose. Thanks - a beautiful concert.
I liked your selections. They were very melodic and easy to enjoy. Carmen, your introductions of the pieces were great - it made the concert a little educational as well. My only suggestion would be a better venue - probably not possible. I didn’t think the acoustics for the organ were very good. The piano resonated nicely in the room, but not so much with the organ. Thanks for all your hard work! It was so fun to see two sisters, both very talented, playing together.
Heard about the concert online, looking for chamber music concerts. I’m a BYU music major. Loved how well the piano and organ sounded together. As a violinist, it was new and fun. Thank you!
Dr. Hall texted my mom. I could really hear the jazz in the Kapustin. My favorite was the Hungarian Dance No. 1, or the Meditation on Ave Maria on Bach’s First Prelude.
I loved the Meditation - Ave Maria on J.S. Bach’s First Prelude! I wish I had a recording of it to listen to again and again. Every concert we attend, I wish more people were there to enjoy such wonderful and soul-filling music. It is always such a treat and simply delightful. Also, the Duet for Organ and Piano was so fun! The perfect way to end the evening.
I received an email from Rene about the concert. A great variety of music that highlighted the strengths of the organ and the piano. No suggestions. It was really helpful to get an introduction to each piece so we could know what to listen for ahead of time.
I really loved the variety of pieces selected and the different styles and time periods. I especially appreciated being introduced to composers I had never heard of before, along with a couple of favorite pieces. Beautiful performance. Thank you for bringing this music to our community free of charge.
A wonderful concert! Excellent balance between piano and organ, not an easy accomplishment. Bravo! Also excellent choice of repertoire. The last piece was my favorite. So dramatic!
My mom in Orchard 7th ward let me know about the concert It was wonderful. I feel so lucky I could attend with my mom. I wish I knew your background - how you both became so talented. Children today say it’s too hard to practice, and they want to give up.
I learned of the concert through word of mouth. The performance was engaging. The program was lovingly crafted, and the music was expertly played. The selection of pieces guided the audience through the night with care and professionalism. It was a joy to see the interplay between the organ and piano. Thank you for a lovely evening!
I heard about the concert by word of mouth. I hadn’t ever heard of duets with piano and organ, but it’s definitely something I would listen to more of. This was fantastic. I really enjoyed the mixture of slightly more percussive piano sounds and the sustained resonant sound of the organ. The piano duets were also very enjoyable.
"The Timpanogos Chamber Music concert featuring René Johnson and Dr. Carmen Hall in Orem was just wonderful! The two accomplished musicians brought depth, verve, and warmth to their performance, enchanting the audience and introducing us to some new composers while reviving the beauties of old favorites. The individual and duet piano numbers were uplifting and exciting, and the organ performance was a delightful demonstration that an organ can be fun and sparkling, and not just a somber accompanist of church hymns."
