Dr. Damin Spritzer is Area Chair and Associate Professor of Organ at the University of Oklahoma and Artist-in-Residence for Cathedral Arts at the Cathedral Church of Saint Matthew in Dallas. Active in the Dallas and Oklahoma City Chapters of the American Guild of Organists, she also serves on committees for the Organ Historical Society, the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Anglican Musicians, and Organlive Media Foundation. Her doctorate is from the University of North Texas, her Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music, and her Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Spritzer’s recital engagements take her across the United States as well as to international venues. She has been honored to contribute to numerous convention performances and lectures for the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, and the Anglican Association of Musicians. In addition to recent performances in Iceland, Belgium, England, and Germany, she has performed at historic churches in Leipzig, Germany; Orléans, France; Sao Paolo, Brazil; the La Verna Festival in Italy; with the Terra Sancta Festival in Israel; and the Arctic Cathedral in Norway.
Her seventh CD, recorded in France, was released in 2023: Organ Music of Pierre Kunc. Her fifth and sixth CDs were recorded in England, the latter released fall of 2022: Resurgam: Organ Music of Harvey Grace. It received a 5-star review from British magazine, The Organ. For Spritzer’s acclaimed fifth CD, Rhapsodies & Elegies, she was the first American and first woman to record at Hereford Cathedral on the Fr. Willis organ. The five-star review from Organists Review writes, “Damin Spritzer’s performance is spellbinding—and her wide-ranging program notes are fascinating…on so many levels this CD impresses as a serious undertaking.” Her next recording and research projects focus entirely on unknown music by women composers.
Spritzer’s first two discs for Raven Recordings are world premier releases of Alsatian-American composer René Louis Becker’s (1882–1956) music performed in France. The first was recorded in Pithiviers on the Cavaillé-Coll organ of Saint-Salomon-Saint-Gregoire. Choir & Organ magazine gave it five stars, writing, “Damin Spritzer serves both instrument and music well, alert to the music’s lyrical mien and harmonic muscle, negotiating the III/49 machine with an easy command of drama and a real feeling for Becker’s melody-led, cleanly-executed music…A second volume is eagerly awaited.” The second, recorded in Orléans, France at the Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d'Orléans, received four stars from Choir & Organ: “This second installment in Damin Spritzer’s enterprising rehabilitation of the prolific but largely unknown [Becker] comes…three years after the first volume. Happily, it’s been worth the wait.” The third was recorded on the historic Kimball organ of St. John’s Cathedral, receiving a four-star review from Choir & Organ magazine and a glowing review from the American Record Guide. Her fourth recording, Fantasia, was a collaborative project with Dr. Donald Pinson, trombone, recorded in Texas at St. Monica Catholic church in Dallas. Future recording projects are planned in France, England, and the United States.
Damin Spritzer is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.
www.concertartists.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 860-560-7800
10 Abbott Lane, Dearborn, MI 48120-1001
Photo credit: Tiffany Millspaugh
