Cristina Garcia Banegas

The world’s most distinguished concert organist, Marie-Claire Alain, died at the age of 86 on February 26, 2013, in Le Pecq, France

James David Christie holds positions as the Distinguished Artist in Residence at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, Chair and Professor of Organ at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio, and serves as College Organist at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He has previously held positions at Boston Conservatory, Harvard University, M.I.T., and Boston University. He has served as organist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1978. 

James David Christie has made over fifty tours of Europe and performs regularly in Canada, Asia, Australia, and Iceland. He has recorded for Decca, Philips, Nonesuch, JAV, Northeastern, Arabesque, Denon, RCA, Dorian, Naxos, Bridge, and GM and has received several awards for his solo recordings, including the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik and the Magazine d’Orgue: Coup de Coeur. In the fall of 2010, he was on sabbatical in Paris, France, where he served as visiting Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatory.

The world’s most distinguished concert organist, Marie-Claire Alain, died at the age of 86 on Tuesday, February 26, 2013, in Le Pecq, a small French commune located next to her home city of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. She had been in failing health for several months and the cause of her death was reported as a cardiac arrest. Madame Alain performed around the entire world, but always held her many American friends and audiences in her heart as her favorite public. She performed over 2,500 concerts and made over 280 recordings during her lifetime.

Marie-Claire Alain was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on August 10, 1926. Her father was the organist-composer Albert Alain (1880–1971) and her mother was Magdeleine Alberty (1890–1971). She had three siblings, all excellent musicians, who preceded her in death: her older sister, Marie-Odile Alain (1914–1937), and two brothers—the renowned organist-composer Jehan Alain (1911–1940) and Olivier Alain (1918–1994). Her father, Albert, was the organiste titulaire of the Church of Saint-Germain-en-Laye from 1924 until his death in 1971. Marie-Claire began assisting her father at the church in 1937 at the age of 11. She was appointed her father’s successor upon his death in 1971 and faithfully served as organiste titulaire for the following 40 years. She resigned in 2011 because of her declining health. 

She studied at the Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris, where she was an organ student of Marcel Dupré; there she also studied harmony with Maurice Duruflé and fugue with Simone Plé-Caussade. At the Paris Conservatory, she won first prizes in organ, improvisation, fugue, harmony, and counterpoint. She studied organ privately with Gaston Litaize and André Marchal; both of these famous teachers were important mentors in her career and played a great role in her artistic development.

Marie-Claire Alain was an extraordinary teacher and her students have won a staggering number of international competitions. Today her students hold some of the most important and prestigious teaching and church positions around the world. Marie-Claire Alain was professor of organ at the Conservatoires nationaux de région in Rueil-Malmaison (1978–1994) and Paris (1994–2000). Prior to and even after 1978, she always had a very large private studio and taught many of the most famous organists of today on her Haerpfer-Erman house organ at her homes in L’Étang-la-Ville and Maule, as well as at the Church of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Madame Alain taught every summer in the Netherlands at the Haarlem Summer Organ Academy with her close friends and colleagues Anton Heiller and Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini from 1956–1972; after 1972, she returned to teach at Haarlem on three occasions in 1974, 1982 and 1994. She also founded and taught at the Académie Jean-Sébastien Bach de Saint-Donat from 1971–1991. From 1991 to 2009, she was a permanent member of the organ faculty for the Académie d’orgue de Romainmôtier, Switzerland. In 1985, Marie-Claire Alain donated the family house organ, built by her father between 1910 and 1971, to the Jehan Alain Association in Romainmôtier. Madame Alain’s last teaching in North America took place at the McGill Summer Organ Academy, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in July 2007, and her very last trip to North America was as a juror for the First Canadian International Organ Competition in Montreal in the fall of 2008.  She served on that jury with five of her former students: John Grew (Artistic Director of the CIOC), Dame Gillian Weir, James David Christie, Ludger Lohmann, and James Higdon.

The list of awards and honors given to Marie-Claire Alain is immense. She received honorary doctorates from Colorado State University, Southern Methodist University, the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), the Boston Conservatory, McGill University, and Johns Hopkins University. She was awarded the Prize of Les Amis de l’Orgue, the Edison Prize (Holland), the Golden Disque Award (Japan), the Prize of the President of the Republic (Académie Charles-Cros), and the Buxtehude Prize (Lübeck). In addition, she was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque (Académie Charles-Cros) sixteen times, the Léonie Sonnig Foundation Prize (Copenhagen), the Franz Liszt Prize (Budapest), the Golden Laser Prize of the Académie du Disque Français, and 1984 International Performer of the Year (New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists). She has received numerous “Diapasons d’or” for her outstanding recordings. Marie-Claire Alain was a member of the Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm and the Royal Academy of Music, London. She was made a Chevalier in the Royal Order of Danneborg (Denmark). She held the rank of Commandeur in the Légion d’honneur, the Ordre national du Mérite and the Ordre des Arts et Lettres. French President François Hollande promoted Madame Alain to the rank of Grand Officier in the Ordre national du Légion d’honneur on July 14, 2012.

Marie-Claire Alain’s impressive list of recordings includes three versions each of the complete organ works of J.S. Bach, François Couperin, Nicolas de Grigny, and Jehan Alain, two versions each of the organ concerti (with orchestra) of G.F. Handel and the organ works of César Franck, and complete recordings of the organ works of Buxtehude, D’Aquin, Bruhns, Böhm, and Mendelssohn. She recorded organ concerti by Poulenc, Charles Chaynes, Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart (Church Sonatas), and two recordings of Symphonie III of Saint-Saëns. Madame Alain appeared as a continuo artist on dozens of recordings, many with the Jean-François Paillard Chamber Orchestra. She also has recorded many works by Liszt, Pachelbel, Vierne, Widor, Messiaen, and others. Madame Alain performed and recorded with the legendary flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and the acclaimed trumpet virtuoso Maurice André. For a complete discography, please consult Alain Cartayrade’s thorough listing in the French publication L’Orgue, Cahiers et Mémoires No. 56, 1996; the listing may also be read online: www.france-orgue.fr/ (to access the listing, type in “Marie-Claire” in the box marked “Recherche rapide organist” on the right side in the middle of the page).

Marie-Claire Alain married Jacques Gommier, a musician and choral conductor, in 1950; he died in 1992. Monsieur Gommier was a wonderful husband and often handled her correspondence and did musicological research for Madame Alain. He never complained or corrected anyone when he was addressed as ‘Monsieur Alain’ when he accompanied his wife on her many North American tours! They had two children: a son, Benoît, who died in 2009 at the age of 57, and a daughter living in Paris, Aurélie Decourt, musicologist and author of several books on the Alain family. Dr. Decourt organized a national French celebration and festival held in Saint-Germain-en-Laye for the 2011 centenary of the birth of Jehan Alain; she also appeared at Alain centenary events in the United States. [See articles in The Diapason: “Marie-Claire Alain—80th birthday tribute” (July 2006), “National French Centenary Celebration of the Birth of Jehan Alain” (November 2011), “Jehan Alain—The American Festival: Wichita State University” (January 2012), and “Jehan Alain: His Life and Works” (July 2012).] She took extraordinary care of her mother in her last years, and this was greatly appreciated by Madame Alain’s family and friends. In addition to her daughter, Marie-Claire Alain’s survivors include six grandchildren, one nephew, and two nieces (the three children of Jehan Alain: Lise, Agnès, and Denis).  

Madame Alain’s funeral took place at the Church of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on Friday, March 1 at 10:00 am. Her coffin was placed under the Grand Orgue in the church before and after the service. The church was full and the congregation was filled with her many friends from Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Paris, as well as musicians and many organists from Paris, France, and western Europe. Several organists played works of J. S. Bach and Jehan Alain for the service, including former Marie-Claire Alain students Vincent Warnier, Daniel Roth, Bruno Morin, Jean-Baptiste Robin, and Jean Ferrard. A small Gregorian choir sang parts of the Requiem Mass. Her daughter, Aurélie, gave a touching eulogy and spoke lovingly of her mother’s last difficult weeks and how optimistic she was about life. When she would ask her mother how she was feeling, she would respond that she was getting ‘better and better each day.’ As Madame Alain held the rank of Grand Officier in the Légion d’honneur, an honor guard carried the French flag into the church and gave a military homage when her coffin was taken outside the church at the end of the service. Marie-Claire Alain was buried next to her husband in the Gommier family plot in the “New Cemetery” of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.  

The world has lost a great artist—we have lost a great inspiration, an exceptional human being, and a great friend. Thank you, Madame Alain, for making our lives so rich and so full of beauty—we will never forget you. May your soul rest in peace, now and forever—Amen.

James Wyly is an organ historian and holds a doctorate in music from the University of Missouri. He also holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, and practices psychotherapy in Chicago. He performs on the organ and harpsichord with Ars Musica Chicago.

It is paradoxical in the organ world that the most widely-researched and famous old organ type, the north European baroque, is represented by relatively few examples that have survived in unaltered condition, while the most widely-diffused and perhaps the commonest old organ type, the Ibero-American organ, remains relatively strange and unknown, even among organists and organ historians. In fact, organs in the style of Spanish and Portuguese baroque instruments were built throughout Latin America from the seventeenth to the first part of the twentieth century. No one knows how many of these organs survive today, but it is increasingly obvious that there are a great many. As of today, several hundred have been documented in Mexico alone, though many parts of that country remain to be investigated. Very old organs (some apparently from the sixteenth century) have been found in Perú and now instruments are appearing in Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, and other countries. Most of these organs are unplayable and in total disrepair; but on the other hand, a large number of the known examples appear never to have been significantly altered from their original states. The result is an immense repository of historic instruments which only now are beginning to be recognized as supremely important parts of their national patrimonies. Restoration projects are beginning to be undertaken, concerts are played, old music is discovered, and the history of the organ and its literature is turning out to be very different from what it was imagined to be even fifteen years ago. Naturally, with the increased attention comes increasing risk that precious instruments will be thoughtlessly altered in the name of restoration, while the urgency grows daily of saving important instruments in imminent danger of being junked or of succumbing irreversibly to decay.

It is against this background that nearly a hundred organ historians, organ builders, restorers, curators, organists, and officials of cultural institutions convened in the Mexican city of Oaxaca from November 29 to December 3, 2001, for a congress, "The Restoration of Organs in Latin America." Organized by the Instituto de Organos Históricos de Oaxaca (known as "IOHIO", pronounced "yo-yo") under the direction of Cicely Winter and Edward Pepe, the meeting centered around the old baroque-style organs of the state of Oaxaca, of which fifty-one have presently been discovered and six restored to playable condition.

The congress felt to all the participants like a very important event, both from the standpoint of defining issues and proposing solutions relating to preservation of this organ heritage and from the standpoint of establishing an international community of experts and interested parties concerned with the Ibero-American organ. Connections were made and projects discussed which will be influential in the preservation of organs all over the Americas. There follow some highlights and impressions from the congress's proceedings.

The congress

The congress opened at the IOHIO offices on Thursday afternoon, with welcoming speeches by representatives of IOHIO (Cicely Winter and Ed Pepe) and of the sponsoring Mexican cultural institutions. These included the National Institute of Anthropology and History and the Cultural Foundation of Banamex, which has underwritten a number of organ restorations and research projects. The remainder of the sessions were held in a beautifully restored hall of the Biblioteca Burgoa, which houses an enormous collection of Oaxacan colonial archives in a former Dominican convent next to the spectacularly decorated church of Santo Domingo (the two organs of which disappeared in the last century). Everywhere careful planning, attention to detail, and concern for the comfort and enjoyment of the participants were evident; clearly this congress was a major item on the agendas of all the sponsoring institutions, which were fully aware of the cultural importance of its concerns.

Friday, Sunday, and Monday were devoted to presentations and discussions while Saturday was given over to an all-day field trip in two luxuriously appointed buses which took us to five villages with five organs--three restored and two derelict but reasonably complete. Evenings were given over to concerts, while the midday breaks involved long lunches and a crash course in the justifiably famous Oaxacan cuisine. There was plenty of time at meals, on the buses, and in the delightful cafés that surround Oaxaca's main square for intense informal discussion. It is hard to imagine that any participant could have left Oaxaca without a lot of new friends and a head spinning with music and new information--and an enormous sense of gratitude to IOHIO and all its hard work in putting together such a congenial, successful and glitch-free event.

The participants

Participants came from thirteen European and American countries and included many internationally-known names among the organ builders, performers, and experts. Among the foreign organists, organ builders, and organ scholars were Federico Acetores (Spain), Michael Barone (U.S.A.), Guy Bovet (Switzerland), Lynn Edwards (Canada), Henk van Eeken (Netherlands), Elisa Freixo (Brazil), Roberto Fresco (Spain), Cristina García Banegas (Uruguay), Enrique Godoy (Argentina), Gerhard Grenzing (Spain), Laurence Libin (U.S.A.), Christoph Metzler (Switzerland), Piotr Nawrot (Bolivia), Pascal Quioirin (France), Susan Tattershall (U.S.A.), and your reporter. Our Mexican colleagues included Eduardo Bribiesca, Gustavo Delagado, José Luís Falcón, Horacio Franco, Mercedes Gómez Urquiza, Daniel Guzmán, Eduardo López Calzada, José Suárez Molina, Aurelio Tello, Victor Urbán, María Teresa Uriarte, Alfonso Vega Núñez, Alejandro Vélez, and Joaquín Wesslowski.

The official languages of the congress were Spanish and English, and simultaneous translation of the presentations made them accessible to speakers of either. While many of the participants' names were known to one another, it was new to realize that all brought to the congress major expertise in Ibero-American organs. It was possible to perceive for the first time the full scope of understanding of a topic that had always previously been relatively obscure and difficult of access.

The organs

Dispositions of the three restored organs used for the five evening concerts appear below. The reader should bear in mind that the original chest of the cathedral organ does not exist and there is doubt as to whether the old parts of the chest at La Soledad are original. Thus, both dispositions are reconstructions, and neither is entirely typical of what might be called the Oaxacan style. The Soledad disposition is especially unusual, though the restorer points to evidence for its almost bizarre-seeming pitches on the surviving old parts of the windchest.

The Tlacochahuaya organ, on the other hand, with its breaking high-pitched stops and duplications of 4' and 2' principals in the right hand, seems to conform more closely to a style in which a fair number of Oaxacan organs appear to have been built. (More extensive research on the many unrestored organs will be necessary to confirm this theory.) It was originally a 4' organ, the reeds and 8' stopped register having been added in 1735.

Current research suggests that eighteenth-century Oaxacan organ dispositions did not stress color-stops and mixtures to the degree that, for example, Pueblan or Castilian organs did, but instead were dominated almost exclusively by a plenum made of separately-drawing, virtually identically scaled principal ranks, within which breaks and duplications of treble octave pitches gave each of the four octaves of the keyboard its own tone color. Quint-sounding ranks were few in relation to octave- and unison-sounding ones.

When polyphony is played on such an ensemble it can sound as though each voice were being played on a different registration. Nevertheless, there are possibilities for solo-accompaniment sounds between treble and bass halves of the keyboard, which facilitate the playing of Iberian medios registros. As in Spain and Portugal, in Oaxaca façade trumpets were almost universally added to extant organs of any size in the first decades of the eighteenth century. At the same time, the Tlacochahuaya organ was given its 8' foundation stop, composed of covered pipes.

Christopher Hogwood—English conductor, musicologist, and harpsichordist—died September 24 at his home in Cambridge, England. He was 73. Born in Nottingham, England, on September 10, 1941, he received piano lessons as a child and enrolled at Cambridge University, where he switched from studying Greek and Latin to music, and went on to pursue keyboard studies with such talents as Rafael Puyana, Mary Potts, and Gustav Leonhardt.

Early in his career, he performed on the harpsichord with the Academy of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields and was a founder, with David Munrow, of the Early Music Consort of London. He founded the Academy of Ancient Music in 1973, with help from the Decca recording label, and created approximately 200 albums with its musicians.

Hogwood stepped down as the ensemble’s music director in 2006 and assumed the title of emeritus director. Even when he was leading the Academy of Ancient Music, he found time to appear with other ensembles, landing jobs as principal guest conductor with groups in Europe and the U.S., including a long association with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

His conducting projects were closely connected to his research and editing work. He was in the process of a completing a new edition of Mendelssohn’s orchestral works for Bärenreiter and sat on the board of the Martinů Complete Edition and the C.P.E. Bach Complete Works Edition. In 2010, he launched his latest project as general editor of the new Geminiani Opera Omnia for Ut Orpheus Edizioni in Bologna.
He wrote extensively on George Frideric Handel and gave lectures as well as master classes in Europe. As a conductor, Hogwood received the most acclaim for his renditions of well-known Baroque pieces, particularly Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. He sometimes made forays into 19th and early 20th-century music, and led performances of music by Schubert, Stravinsky, and Britten.

Hogwood was on the music faculty at Cambridge for many years and recently served as a professor of music at Gresham College in London. He was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1982 and a Commander of the British Empire in 1989.

Christopher Hogwood is survived by his sisters, Frances, Kate, and Charlotte, and his brother, Jeremy.

Carl B. Staplin died July 12 in Des Moines, Iowa, at the age of 79. Professor emeritus of organ and church music and former chair for the keyboard music department at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Staplin was also minister of music and organist emeritus at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Des Moines. He served as a member of the faculty at the University of Evansville, Evansville, Indiana, from 1963 to 1967.

Born December 5, 1934, Carl Staplin was a choirboy and acolyte at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buffalo, New York. He received organ training with Roberta Bitgood, followed by four years of study under Arthur A. Poister at Syracuse University. His private composition study was with Ernst Bacon. Following military service with the United States Army as the chaplain’s assistant in Frankfurt, Germany, Staplin studied at the Yale University School of Music, under the guidance of Charles Krigbaum and Finn Viderø; he earned his master’s degree in 1963. Private composition study was pursued with Richard Donovan. 

Appointed to the music faculty at the University of Evansville, he took a leave of absence to further his scholarly pursuits in 1965, and returned to graduate studies at Washington University, St. Louis, where he received an appointment as a graduate research fellow and received Phi Beta Kappa Honors while earning his Ph.D. in performance practice, following which were studies in organ performance and musicology with Anton Heiller, Howard Kelsey, and Paul A. Pisk. He received coaching in improvisation in Paris, France, during a 1984 sabbatical with Jean Guillou and premiered Guillou’s La Chapelle des Abîmes. His 1997 recording of Bach’s Clavierübung III was performed with the Chancel Choir of Faith Lutheran Church (Eric Knapp, conductor) on a Dobson mechanical-action organ (Opus 61) at Faith Church, Clive, Iowa, and was released by Calcante Recordings Ltd.  An earlier recording of other Bach works (1975) was made on a Holtkamp tracker instrument (First United Methodist Church, Perry, Iowa), and selections from both recordings have been heard on Pipedreams.

On a 1972 sabbatical, Staplin resided in Paris, France, where he studied with Marie-Claire Alain and André Marchal, studying French organ literature. While working in the Washington University library as part of his 1991 sabbatical research, he located a previously unidentified manuscript composed by J.S. Bach. In 1999, he received coaching by Harold Vogel while surveying Baroque-era German instruments. While in Europe he traveled extensively and recorded more than 35 organs in seven countries. He studied the English choir tradition in a number of English cathedrals and completed a series of five recitals devoted to Bach’s organ masterpieces, a total of 44 works. These recitals were performed in Des Moines, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Freeport, Illinois, and Perry, Iowa.

Staplin’s publications include his doctoral dissertation on the chorale preludes of J.S. Bach, and more than 20 organ, choral, and instrumental compositions released by eight national publishing firms. He presented over 200 concerts and workshops throughout the United States and Europe, appearing at conventions of the American Guild of Organists, and the Music Teachers National Association.

Staplin concertized under Phyllis Stringham Concert Management and was also a touring artist for the Iowa Arts Council. He also performed in Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland, consulted for organ installations in numerous churches and institutions, and served as organist for the Des Moines Symphony directed by Joseph Giunta and Yuri Krasnapolsky. A member of the Iowa Composers Forum, recent performances of his works were featured at Drake University, Iowa State University, Coe College, the University of Northern Iowa, and the Iowa Composers Forum Festival. 

Staplin’s former organ students, more than 300 total, occupy leading positions in churches and universities; many have been winners and ranked finalists in organ competitions, and have received grants for postgraduate study abroad.

Carl B. Staplin is survived by his wife of 53 years, Phyllis M. Staplin; two children, Elizabeth Tausner (Eric) and William Staplin (Ruth); and his five grandchildren, Mena, Benjamin, and Samuel Tausner, and Mary and Esther Staplin. 

David K. Witt, 72, died August 27. He had fallen and shattered his ankle August 23, and suffered a stroke during surgery from which he did not awake.

Witt graduated from Vanderbilt University cum laude with a bachelor of arts in mathematics, physics, and music. His career in software development, which began with GE and continued for more than 30 years at IBM, encompassed various programs, such as those related to retail store systems, antiballistic missile systems, and the NASA Gemini Space program.

Witt served as an organist in churches throughout the Southeast, Texas, and New Jersey for over 50 years and was integral in the design of new pipe organs in many of those churches. He served 39 years in the Raleigh area at Hillyer Memorial Disciples of Christ Church, Edenton Street United Methodist Church, and most recently at Hayes Barton United Methodist Church. He made recordings of his original hymn arrangements to raise money for the Methodist Home for Children, where he served on their board and as interim president and CEO. He was also a founding board member of the N. C. Child Advocacy Institute (now NC Child), and served as the Vice-Chair of Trustees with the Institute for Worship Studies, an institute dedicated to Christian worship renewal and education. Witt was active in the American Guild of Organists and served as dean of the Central North Carolina Chapter.

He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Patricia Carroll Witt (Pat), his daughter, Susan Craige and husband, Mark, of Raleigh, two grandsons, John Dakota (Koty) and David Paxton, and his nephew, James David (Jim) Nickle, son of his only sister, as well as many other nephews and nieces. ν

Latin-American Conference of Organists and Organ Builders

The fifth annual Conference of the Brazilian Association of Organists and Organ Builders coincided with the third annual Latin-American Conference of Organists and Organ Builders in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from September 6-10, 1995. The amount of activity in the organ world in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay has grown considerably in recent years: the Association now has a membership of approximately 150 from around South America. The conference was extremely well planned and administered, and presented a cosiderable amount of information about instruments, both historical and modern, from around the continent. Excellent recitals and lectures were given, and the entire meeting was marked by a great sense of conviviality. About 25 people attended, many having travelled great distances. Most of the meetings were conducted in Portuguese, but those from Argentina and Uruguay were able to communicate easily in Spanish, since the two languages are very similar. Since several of the organ builders are immigrants from Germany, or are of German heritage, some German was spoken as well.

The President of the Associação Brasileira de Organistas is a very talented woman by the name of Any Raquel Carvalho, who was actually raised in the USA and studied in Georgia, so she is fluent in English and is well acquainted with the activities of the AGO. (Any Carvalho, Avenida Plínio Brasil Milano 2195/201, Porto Alegre, RS 90520, Brazil. 011-55-51-341-4349. E-mail: [email protected]) The Brazilian conference was patterned after an AGO convention. The secretary, and the person who founded the Associação in 1992, is Elisa Freixo, who lives in Mariana, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, where she presides over the fascinating Schnitger organ.  Josinei Godinho, a fine organist from São Paulo, is the treasurer, and Yolanda Serena is the secretary.  (For information: Associação Brasileira de Organistas, Caixa Postal 5, Mariana, MG 35420-000, Brazil.)

The conference was held at the Igreja São José (Church of St. Joseph) in Porto Alegre, which has a 1936 Rieger organ from Germany. António Darci von Frühauf, a native Brazilian, has been the organist there for over 30 years; Renato Koch helps keep the organ running. Recitals during the conference, scheduled each day at noon and 7:30 p.m., were given by Enrique G. Rimoldi, Buenos Aires; Dorotea Kerr, São Paulo; Osvaldo Guzman, blind organist from Buenos Aires; Elisa Freixo, Mariana, Brazil; James Welch, California; and Josinei and Josinéia Godinho, two sisters from São Paulo who gave a 4-hand recital. In addition, a chamber group from Porto Alegre by the name of Stúdio de Música Antiqua gave an excellent concert of medieval music on copies of period instruments.

Because the Igreja São José is also part of a local college, the church nave is equipped with closed-circuit TV monitors. All of the recitals were broadcast over these monitors, affording those in attendance an excellent view and a very informative experience. This was particularly valuable in a country where few have been exposed to pipe organ music. Before my recital at the conference in Porto Alegre (a city of approximately 3 million inhabitants), a local television station came to the organ loft and conducted a live interview with me, probably because I was the token foreigner who could speak Portuguese.

Lectures at the conference included the following: Mysticism in Liturgical Organ Music, Renato Koch, Canoas, Brazil; The Colonial Organ of the Cathedral of Buenos Aires, Enrique Rimoldi, Buenos Aires; Basic Organ Maintenance, Manfred Worlitschek, originally from Germany but now living in Santa Maria, Brazil; The Importance of Counterpoint for the Liturgical Organist, Any Raquel Carvalho, Porto Alegre; Structure and Organization of the Preludes and Fugues of J. S. Bach, Dorotea Kerr, São Paulo; Preparation for the Evangelical Service, Josinéia Godinho, São Paulo; Mexican Organ Music, James Welch, California; Music in the Catholic Church after Vatican II, Júlio Amstalden, Piracicaba, Brazil; The Restoration of the Organ of Maldonado, Uruguay, Sergio Silvestri, Montevideo, Uruguay; Preparation for the Catholic Liturgy, Renato Koch, Canoas, Brazil; The Use of Polyphony and the Organ in Iberian Monasteries in the 13th Century, W. D. Jordan, Australia (read by Any Raquel Carvalho); Lutheran Liturgy, Carlos Dreher, Porto Alegre.

Each evening following the final concert, the entire group had dinner at a different restaurant (including Middle-Eastern, German, and gaúcho churrasco barbecue), starting at the typically late hour of 9:30 or 10 p.m.

One of the fascinating side-trips was to the Centro Educacional La Salle in nearby Canoas, where Irmão Renato Koch, a member of the La Salle Brotherhood, is a professor, as well as a skilled musician, painter, woodworker, and restorer of antique art pieces and musical instruments. There are four noteworthy instruments in the chapel of this Catholic school. The first is an 1865 Merklin organ from Paris, bought originally by Bishop Dom Laranjeiras for the cathedral of Porto Alegre. Although it is dismantled at this time, Koch is in the process of restoring it. This one-manual organ with pedal pulldown has a 56-note keyboard, 25-note pedalboard, and 6 registers: Bourdon 16, Montre 8, Salicional 8, Bourdon 8, Flûte 4, and Trompette 8.

The second organ is the Opus 2 of the Bohn Company of Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, which until recently was the largest and oldest manufacturer of organs and harmoniums in Brazil (the Bohn Company now builds only electronic instruments). This 2-manual tubular-pneumatic organ from 1939 is in fair condition, and is very typical of many other Bohn organs found around Brazil.

The third is a one-manual portativ organ, built in 1977 by Siegfried Schürle of São Bento do Sul in the neighboring state of Santa Catarina, which was colonized by Germans in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many towns in Santa Catarina still abound in typical German architecture; blond-haired and blue-eyed people are seen everywhere, many still speaking German. This organ of 5 registers (Bourdon 8, Flauta 4, Prestant 2, Larigot 11/3, Regal 8) has the unusual feature of a harmonium-style pedal winding system. I tried the organ, which sounded lovely in the large chapel, but I have to admit that keeping the wind pressure steady while playing was tricky, far more so than playing a reed organ.

The fourth is a small lap organ, built in 1980 by Renato Koch, for the Conjunto da Câmara (Chamber Group) of Porto Alegre, which performs medieval music. The woodworking on this organ is particularly fine.

At the conference round-tables, organists and organ builders had literature available about their work. I enjoyed meeting Sergio Silvestri Budelli from Montevideo, a very enthusiastic organ builder and restorer of organs and pianos. Markus Ziel, a young organ builder from the very Germanic town of Blumenau, Brazil, was born in Germany, but came to Brazil with his family as a child. Ziel also does fine work in hardwoods. Because of the severe tropical climate, organ builders in Brazil have an entirely different set of challenges to work with, not the least of which is termites, and Ziel discussed some of the processes used to treat woods for organ building in Brazil.

One of the biggest projects for the Associação is to catalog the instruments, compositions, and literature concerning the organ in South America, so that researchers can find out what is even available. I am still discovering important sources of information on Brazilian organs, and one of the most important found on this trip is a doctoral dissertation about the historical organs in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Written by Padre Marcello Martiniano Ferreira in 1985 and presented at the Instituto Pontifício de Música Sacra in Rome, it is entitled Arp Schnitger: Dois Órgãos Congêneres de 1701, published in Niterói, state of Rio de Janeiro, in 1991. This lengthy dissertation documents fully the history, specifications, scaling, and use of these landmark instruments.

As part of my lecture on Mexican organ music, I stressed the importance of publishing music and articles about the organ. Many South American compositions exist only in manuscript form or in photocopies which languish around the continent. I displayed a copy of the book Voces del Arte (the immense catalog of organs in Mexico, with beautiful photography) and copies of Mexican organ music recently published, urging the South Americans to find publishers for their works so they could find their ways into libraries around the world, not to mention Internet coverage.

Next year's conference will probably be held in Montevideo and/or Buenos Aires. There is also the possibility of an excursion-type conference, in which those attending will travel together on a comfortable bus through Southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, visiting instruments and hearing concerts. With ground transportation, hotel accommodations, and some meals in a package, this would be an ideal arrangement for those not as familiar with travel in South America.

I also received invitations to perform on two other organ recital series in São Paulo. The first was the Festival Internacional São Bento de Órgão, which alternates at three different churches in São Paulo: Mosteiro São Bento (Monastery of St. Benedict), Nossa Senhora de Fátima, and Nossa Senhora do Carmo. My recital was held at the monastery. (The organ loft at the monastery is accessible only through the cloister, so only men may perform there. Women on this festival perform at the other two locations.) The concerts are open to the public and are very well attended--often there is standing room only. The monastery has a 1954 German Walcker organ (Opus 3219), with 4 manuals, 78 stops, and about 7,000 pipes. It is one of the best-maintained organs in Brazil, cared for by José Carlos Rigatto of São Paulo. Performers on the series this year came from Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the USA--truly an international festival. The organizer of this festival, which is funded in part by the Banco de Boston, is José Luís de Aquino, Rua do Manifesto 1435, São Paulo, SP 04209-001, Brazil. Phone/Fax: 011-55-11-914-8846.

The other series is sponsored by the Associação Paulista de Organistas (the Association of Organists of São Paulo). Concerts this year are taking place in the Cathedral da Sé, the Catedral Evangélica, and Igreja Imaculada Conceição, all in downtown São Paulo. My recital (of Mexican music) was held in the Catedral Evangélica, a large, reverberant Presbyterian church with a 1911 Austin organ of 3 manuals, which came some years ago from a church in North Carolina.  This organ is maintained by Warwick Kerr. For information, contact the Associação Paulista de Organistas at: Rua Carlos Sampaio 133, São Paulo, SP 01333-021, Brazil; Nelly Martins, President, 011-55-11-282-5651, or Dorotea Kerr, 011-55-11-210-5830.

One of the more unusual experiences on this trip was that of being on the same plane from Miami to São Paulo with Ozzy Osbourne, the heavy metal rock singer, on his way to a monster rock festival in São Paulo the same weekend I was to play in São Paulo. I introduced myself at the baggage claim as a fellow musician, and we wished each other well in our respective concerts.

Brazil is an enormous country, larger than the continental US, with endless possibilities for the adventurous traveller. A tip: anyone arriving in Brazil from abroad can, for approximately $440, buy a Brazil Airpass from Varig Airlines, which is good for five flights anywhere in the country. This Airpass has enabled me on occasion to travel from Rio and São Paulo to the Amazon jungle, to Salvador de Bahia, to Iguaçu Falls, to Recife, and to Minas Gerais. Brazilians are exceptionally hospitable, and I have enjoyed every one of my trips to South America. Please feel free to contact me for any information. (James Welch, 409 Central Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025; Phone/Fax: 415/321-4422.)

Samuel Baron, flute performer and teacher on the faculty at Yale, Mannes, Juilliard, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and director of the Bach Aria Festival and Institute, died on May 16, 1997. He was born in Brooklyn and studied violin first, later switching to flute. He attended Juilliard and after graduation reapplied as a conducting major. He became conductor of the New York Brass Ensemble with whom he made a highly acclaimed recording of music by Gabrieli. In 1948 he became a member of the New York Wind Quintet, and played first flute for the 1952 season of the Minneapolis Symphony. In 1965 he joined the Bach Aria Group. In 1980 he became its director and located it at the Stony Brook campus. It was here that I met him and his wonderful wife Carol, when we installed a copy of a Silbermann organ in the school's recital hall. The first performance on the new organ, Wednesday, June 27, 1984, featured Joan Lippincott in a solo performance of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in F, and a Sinfonia for organ and the Bach Aria Festival under Mr. Baron's direction.

--George Bozeman, Jr.

Florence Scholl Cushman died February 26, 1997 at the age of 103. She left a career as a concert pianist in Chicago to teach generations of youngsters in rural Randolph, VT. Her career as a Vermont piano teacher began when she was nearly 60--and lasted almost 40 years, continuing to take students well past the age of 100. She was born Florence Wilhelmina Paulina Scholl in Joliet, Illinois on June 22, 1893. She was educated in Joliet schools and began piano lessons at age eight. At the age of 11 she began traveling alone to Chicago for lessons from world-famous organist Wilhelm Middleschulte. Later she added piano lessons with Glenn Dillard Gunn and then with Swiss pianist Rudolf Ganz. Her last teacher was Moriz Rosenthal. She entered the Chicago Music School, studying with Percy Grainger and Louis Victor Sarr. At the age of 20 she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, playing the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. She married Dr. Charles Cushman in 1948 and moved to Vermont, where she taught piano students six days a week, maintaining some students until 1995, when she was 102. Mrs. Cushman was a member of Bethany United Church of Christ, where she served as organist for a short time.

Donald Joyce died March 10 of cancer at the age of 45. In addition to degrees from the Juilliard School, he held the Premier Prix de Virtuosité (with Distinction) from the Geneva Conservatory where he worked with Lionel Rogg. During the Bach tercentenary year (1985) he performed the complete Bach organ works in 13 recitals, and was scheduled to repeat this series at the Lincoln Center this summer. Many performances and two CDs grew out of his interest in Iberian and Mexican organ music; at the time of his death he was writing a monograph on historic Mexican organs. He served as Music Director and Organist at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Chelsea, organist at Central Synagogue, and taught at Queens College. As winner of a Fulbright-García Robles grant from the US and Mexican governments, he established a class in organ studies at the University of Guanajuanto, Mexico, last summer. His recordings included music of Bach, Reger, and Glass, as well as Iberian and Mexican composers, on such labels as Catalyst (BMG), O.M., Pickwick, and Titanic. His more recent performances included recitals in Spain as part of the festival Els Orgues de Catalunya, a series of recitals on the historic Appleton organ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, recordings of the historic Aeolian organ at the Frick Collection, and an inaugural recital for the van den Heuvel organ at the Church of the Holy Apostles in New York. Survivors include his parents, a brother, and two sisters. A service was held on March 28 at the Church of the Holy Apostles, New York City.