LAKE CITY — Jeffrey Brillhart will present a hymn festival at 2 p.m. on March 15 at the Lake City Union Church in memory of long-time Lake City music educator Audrey Williams. Structured around readings and some of Audrey’s favorite hymns, the program will include pieces by Bach and Widor as well as music improvised in the moment. The program is free and open to the public.

Williams left an indelible mark on generations of Lake City school students, teaching them to love singing. In addition, she gave private piano lessons in her home for decades and was director of music at Lake City Union Church for many years. She accompanied students at state-level music contests and was also a contest adjudicator. She loved music, she loved sharing her talents, and nothing made her happier than to see her students grow and succeed as musicians.

This program is literally a coming home for Brillhart, who grew up in Lake City. Williams was his piano teacher, and he served as accompanist for her choirs while he was in school. She followed with interest as he advanced through his education, studying with well-known teachers at Drake University, the Eastman School of Music, and elsewhere. After studies in improvisation with famous French organists Olivier Latry and Philippe Lefebvre, he won first prize in the American Guild of Organists’ National Competition in Organ Improvisation in 1994. He in turn became an educator, teaching students at Yale University and Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. Audrey doted on her former student, regularly visiting him in Pennsylvania, where he served as music director for Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, and occasionally traveling with him in Europe.

The March 15 program is the inaugural event of the Audrey Williams Concert Series, which will present a fall and a spring concert each season. Spearheaded by John Panning of Lake City’s Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, the Series honors her formative influence on so many Lake Citians, and shares the joy she found in music and in people.