Nunc dimittis

David Martin Barnett

David Martin Barnett, 75, of Richmond, Virginia, died November 8, 2022. Born on December 6, 1946, he led a varied career in advertising, broadcasting, computers, welfare agencies, and administration of churches and non-profit organizations, including positions as building administrator of Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, 2009–2014; and as facilities manager of St. James’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, 2010–2013.

Barnett served as treasurer of the Organ Historical Society from 1983 until 2010 and managed the OHS catalog between 2007 and 2010. He was vice president and operations manager of Duboy Advertising, 1974–1999, a Richmond firm specializing in advertising via broadcast media for automobile dealers nationwide. There, he wrote and produced more than 10,000 radio and television commercials for hundreds of clients. Barnett also operated DMB & Co., 1988–2011, designing and building computers and networks for small businesses and homes.

From 1965 until 1986, Barnett was weekend news anchor at radio station WLEE in Richmond and from 1965 until 1970 was announcer, studio engineer, traffic manager, and sales manager at radio station WFMV, Richmond’s classical music FM station. In 1964 and 1965, he worked at the Richmond Times-Dispatch as a newsroom copy boy. 

As an audio components salesman, Barnett was employed between 1969 and 1975 by Audio Fidelity Corporation, a central Virginia audio salon. Between 1970 and 1974, he worked for the City of Richmond as a welfare eligibility technician, supervisor, and child welfare eligibility supervisor, and in a similar role in 1972 for the state. He attended the University of Richmond following graduation from George Wythe High School in 1964.

Barnett served as an officer or member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Theatre Historical Society of America, American Theatre Organ Society (several chapters), Organ Historical Society, Cinema Organ Society (UK), Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He volunteered extensively for the Mosque Theater (now the Landmark Theatre) and the Byrd Theatre, where he served as announcer beginning in 1982. 

With friends, Barnett installed a nine-rank Wurlitzer organ in his Richmond home. Following closure of Monumental Episcopal Church, Richmond, he helped renovate the 1926 Skinner Organ Company Opus 574 before it was relocated in 1975 to St. Bridget’s Catholic Church, Richmond, and subsequently was incorporated into the organ completed in 2014 by Kegg Pipe Organ Builders at the Cathedral of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.

James H. Litton

James H. Litton, 87, died November 1, 2022, in Florham Park, New Jersey. He was born December 31, 1934, in Charleston, West Virginia. Recognizing his talent and passion for music, his parents purchased a piano and provided piano lessons at the Mason College of Music and Fine Arts in Charleston. His piano teacher encouraged him to progress to the organ, securing him a position as his assistant organist at a local church to get access to a practice instrument. That teacher later convinced him to pursue his college education at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, studying with Alexander McCurdy. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music and continued postgraduate studies at Canterbury Cathedral in England with Allan Wicks.

Litton’s choral music career spanned more than 60 years, serving as organist, choirmaster, and music director at the American Boychoir School, Princeton, New Jersey; Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC; St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York City; Trinity Episcopal Church, Princeton; Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, Indiana; and Trinity Episcopal Church, Southport, Connecticut. He also served as organist at several churches during his graduate and undergraduate studies at Westminster Choir College (now Rider University) and while in high school.

Litton toured with his various choirs and led choral festivals worldwide. He prepared his choirs for performances of major works with many of the world’s orchestras and for several dozen recordings, including a track with the American Boychoir on a platinum album by Michael W. Smith, Go West Young Man. As organist, Litton played organ recitals throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, and Asia.

Litton was assistant professor of organ and head of the church music department at Westminster Choir College and the C. F. Seabrook Director of Music at Princeton Theological Seminary. He also served as visiting lecturer at Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, and at Sewanee: The University of the South.

A Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music, Litton was awarded honorary Doctor of Music degrees from the University of Charleston and from Westminster Choir College of Rider University. The Litton-Lodal music directorship of the American Boychoir School was endowed by a gift from Jan and Elizabeth Lodal in honor of his career.

As a member and vice chairman of the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Church Music, he participated in the preparation and publication of The Hymnal 1982. He was also the editor of The Plainsong Psalter for the Episcopal Church. Litton was a co-founder in 1966 and former president of the Association of Anglican Musicians. He also founded choral ensembles in West Virginia, Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, and New York.

James Litton met his late wife, Lou Ann, in seventh grade in Charleston, West Virginia, brought together by their mutual love of music. They married after graduating from college in 1957. 

James H. Litton was predeceased by his wife Lou Ann. He is survived by his son Bruce Litton and daughter-in-law Patricia of Bedminster, New Jersey; daughter Deborah Purdon of Maplewood, New Jersey; son David Litton and daughter-in-law Carol Dingeldey of West Hartford, Connecticut; and son Richard Litton and daughter-in-law Alysia of Wall Township, New Jersey; sister Betty Ray of Charlottesville, Virginia; and three grandchildren. A funeral was held on November 12 at Trinity Church, Princeton. Burial will take place at a later date at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in the village of Litton in Somerset County and the Diocese of Bath and Wells in England. Memorial gifts may be made to the Association of Anglican Musicians James Litton Grant for Choral Training (anglicanmusicians.org/litton-gift) and the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org).

Wayne Kerr Riddell

Wayne Kerr Riddell, 86, died November 6, 2022. Born September 10, 1936, in Lachute, Québec, Canada, he began playing organ in the local United Church when he was 14. Graduating in 1960 from McGill University, Montréal, he taught music and singing in the public school system. In 1968 he joined McGill’s faculty, where he taught keyboard harmony, ear training, and choral conducting, and was head of choral studies. At the same time, he worked in church music for congregations including Westmount Park Church, Erskine United Church, and American United Church. For 14 years he was director of music at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. In 1976, he founded The Tudor Singers, a professional choir that toured the United States, Canada, and Europe. McGill University awarded him a Doctor of Music degree in 2014. He would serve as competition adjudicator, choral workshop clinician, guest conductor, mentor, and philanthropist. 

Wayne Kerr Riddell was predeceased by his life partner, Norman Beckow. A memorial service was held at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul on November 22. Memorial gifts may be given to the Wayne Riddell Choral Scholarship Fund, McGill University (mcgill.ca), or to the music program, the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, Montréal (standrewstpaul.com).

Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem, 99, died November 18, 2022, in New York, New York. He was born in Richmond, Indiana, on October 23, 1923. The family would move to Chicago where Rorem was educated at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and the American Conservatory of Music. He studied at Northwestern University before attending the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, and The Juilliard School, New York City. Rorem was raised a Quaker, and this influenced the composition of his organ work, A Quaker Reader, based on Quaker texts.

In 1966 he published The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem. This was followed by Later Diaries 1951–1972 in 1974 and The Nantucket Diary of Ned Rorem, 1973–1985 in 1987. Rorem wrote essays collected in the anthologies Music from Inside Out (1967), Music and People (1968), Pure Contraption (1974), Setting the Tone (1983), Settling the Score (1988), and Other Entertainment (1996). He was the subject of a 2005 film, Ned Rorem: Word & Music. He composed in a wide variety of genres, including operas, orchestral, and chamber music. He also wrote extensively for organ and organ with choral and orchestral forces.

Ned Rorem was predeceased by his life partner, organist James Roland Holmes, in 1999.

Frederick Lewis Swann

Frederick Lewis Swann, 91, died November 13, 2022. Born July 30, 1931, in Lewisburg, West Virginia, he was the son of a Methodist pastor (and later bishop). He began taking piano lessons at age five from the organist at Market Street Methodist Church, Winchester, Virginia, and soon thereafter began taking organ lessons. He began playing his first church services at age ten at Braddock Street Methodist Church, Winchester, where his father was pastor.

Swann’s family moved to Staunton, Virginia, in 1943, and Frederick continued organ study with Carl Broman. After graduating from high school, Swann entered the School of Music at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, studying with Thomas Matthews and John Christensen. Upon graduation, he attended the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, studying with Hugh Porter and Charles M. Courboin. After serving as interim organist at Brick Presbyterian Church during the illness of Clarence Dickinson and serving as Harold Friedell’s assistant at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Swann entered the United States Army for two years.

From 1952 until 1982, Swann worked for The Riverside Church, New York City, first as a substitute organist for Virgil Fox and then appointed organist in 1957. With the retirement of Richard Weagly as choir director in 1966, Swann became director of music and organist through 1982.

At that time, Swann was appointed director of music and organist at the Crystal Cathedral (now Christ Cathedral), Garden Grove, California, where he conducted the choir and presided over the five-manual, 265-rank Hazel Wright organ, appearing weekly on the internationally televised Hour of Power worship services. In 1988, Swann became organist of First Congregational Church, Los Angeles, which houses the largest church organ in the world, serving there until 2001.

Frederick Swann performed recitals throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Asia, including such venues as Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris; St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, London; and the cathedrals of Cologne and Passau in Germany. His accomplishments include more than 3,000 recitals in all 50 of the United States and 12 other countries, including events dedicating new, rebuilt, and restored instruments. He performed with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. Swann announced his retirement as a concert organist with a series of programs beginning in August 2016 at age 85. He would continue to serve as artist-in-residence at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Palm Desert, California. For decades he was represented in North America by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.

Swann served on the adjunct faculties of the Guilmant Organ School, Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, and Teacher’s College of Columbia University, all in New York City. He also served on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music and was the school’s organ department chair. From 2007 until 2018, he was university organist and artist teacher of organ at University of Redlands in California.

Swann was active in the American Guild of Organists, serving in various capacities including the organization’s president from 2002 until 2008. Also in 2002, he was named International Performer of the Year by the New York City AGO Chapter. At the 2010 AGO national convention in Washington, DC, he was presented the Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award. In 2015, the Royal Canadian College of Organists named Swann a Fellow, honoris causa, and in 2018 the AGO honored him as the organization’s first honoris causa recipient of its Fellow certificate (FAGO). Swann received the honorary Doctor of Music degree from University of Redlands upon his retirement in 2018.

Frederick Swann published more than three dozen anthems for choir, as well as organ works based on hymntunes. Perhaps his best-known composition is his Trumpet Tune in D Major. Swann’s discography of organ and choral recordings includes albums featuring the organs of The Riverside Church, Crystal Cathedral, First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

For more information, see Steven Egler’s interview, “A conversation with Frederick Swann, Crown Prince of the King of Instruments,” in the November 2014 issue, pages 20–24.

A memorial service for Frederick Lewis Swann will take place January 25, 10:30 a.m., at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Palm Desert, California. Memorial gifts may be made to The American Guild of Organists Frederick Swann Scholarship, The American Guild of Organists Herrmann/Swann Fund (agohq.org), or to the Fred Swann Music Endowment, St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Palm Desert, California (stmargarets.org).

James Elwin McCray

James Elwin McCray, music professor and administrator, choral conductor, and composer, died March 3 at his home in Fort Collins, Colorado, following a period of declining health. He was born February 27, 1938, in Kankakee, Illinois, and received degrees from Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, and Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He earned a Ph.D. degree in music from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Before arriving in Fort Collins, he was a member of the music faculty of the University of South Florida, Tampa, and chairman of the music departments at Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia, and St. Mary’s College, South Bend, Indiana. From 1978 until 1988 he was chairman of the department of music, theatre, and dance at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, from which he retired as Professor Emeritus of Music.

McCray composed and published over one hundred choral compositions that were sung by vocal ensembles in public schools, churches, and universities—many of them commissioned by these organizations. He received professor of the year awards from the honor societies of two universities, was awarded the Mellon Prize for distinguished contributions to scholarship, and was recognized for excellence in teaching by the Colorado State Alumni Board. An active church musician, he served Protestant and Catholic churches for decades. Additionally, he conducted Laudamus, a civic choral ensemble, and authored three books and numerous professional articles. From November 1976 through December 2016, he wrote a monthly column for The Diapason, “Music for Voices and Organ,” reviewing new choral music and reintroducing other anthems appropriate throughout the liturgical year.

As a university administrator, McCray was a leader who planned for the future and found innovative solutions to the changing climate of higher education. He was a strong and vigorous advocate for his departments and worked to broaden his departments’ reputation. A particular asset of his leadership and community building was his continuing success at hosting distinguished musicians, scholars, and composers from around the country to interact with students and frequent, gracious entertaining of the Fort Collins choral community at his home.

James Elwin McCray is survived by his wife, Joanne Campbell, and his children by his previous wife, Chris: son Matthew McCray of Los Angeles and daughter Kelly McCray of Tampa; and step-children Emily Lefler of San Diego, Bradley Lefler of Los Angeles, and predeceased by his stepson, Scott Lefler. A celebration of life was held April 6 in Fort Collins. Memorial gifts should be directed to the future James E. McCray Music Scholarship, which the family hopes to eventually endow to support conducting students in the CSU Department of Music. Checks should be made payable to the Colorado State University Foundation, Post Office Box 1870, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522, or made online at advancing.colostate.edu/give.

Robert D. Rhoads

Robert D. Rhoads, 88, retired vice president and technical director of Schoenstein & Co., Benicia, California, died February 10 in Sonoma, California. Born in Burbank, California, his family moved to a farm in Sunnyside, Washington. Rhoads attended Simpson College in Washington and assisted in relocating the college to San Francisco. Part of that project was installing two campus pipe organs. In San Francisco he earned an AA in electrical engineering from Cogswell College while working on installation and maintenance of industrial boilers.

In 1960 he started Robert D. Rhoads Pipe Organ Service. The following year he became an M. P. Möller representative, selling, installing, and servicing organs in the Northern California area. In 1970 he returned to Simpson College as head of maintenance and engineer of their radio station. When offered an opportunity to plan and install radio studio equipment and transmitters throughout the country, he became chief engineer of Family Radio, a national religious network.

After completing the radio broadcasting project in 1974, Rhoads again entered the organ business. He purchased a building and set up an organ shop, employing two full-time people besides his wife, Dolores. During the “pizza organ” craze, the firm renovated and installed many Wurlitzer organs.

In 1978 Rhoads Pipe Organ Service was purchased by Schoenstein & Co. Robert Rhoads became factory manager, and Dolores Rhoads manager of tuning service. Robert Rhoads was responsible for developing and refining the designs of nearly every component of the Schoenstein electric-pneumatic action system. He coordinated the engineering, production, and installation of all new organs as well as major rebuilding jobs. Some of his notable projects at Schoenstein were organs at St. Paul’s Parish, Washington, D.C., and First-Plymouth Congregational Church, Lincoln, Nebraska. He also supervised the restoration of the Mormon Tabernacle organ in Salt Lake City, Utah, and accomplished installing the façade of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Conference Center organ in Salt Lake City while the building was under construction.

In 1996 Rhoads was named vice president and technical director of Schoenstein & Co. In April 2003 he retired after 24 years of service. Robert D. Rhoads is survived by his wife Dolores, two children, and seven grandchildren.

James Wyly

James Wyly died October 15, 2023, in Oaxaca, Mexico. He was born November 15, 1937, in Kansas City, Missouri, and was educated in public schools. He graduated in 1959 from Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, where he majored in English and studied organ at nearby Smith College with Henry Mishkin. He then enrolled in the new Doctor of Musical Arts degree program at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, earning his degree in 1964. From 1961 through 1963 he was supported by the Fulbright Commission for his research and dissertation on historic pipe organs of Spain, living in Madrid. He was prepared to teach organ, harpsichord, music theory, and music history.

Wyly taught on the music faculty of Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois, from 1964 to 1968. Then he served on the music faculty of Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, from 1968 to 1976, where he also taught in a humanities program based in classical literature.

In Chicago he met and married Mary Gae Porter, who served as a librarian at Grinnell and later at Chicago’s Newberry Library. From 1977 through 1985 James Wyly devoted himself to the study of clinical psychology and the analytical psychology of Carl Jung. He earned his PsyD degree from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in 1981 and his diploma in analytical psychology from Chicago’s Jung Institute. He maintained a private practice in Chicago from 1981 until 2003, also serving on the staff of Fourth Presbyterian Church’s Replogle Counseling Center. He was an active teacher in the training programs of the Jung Institute until 1997.

In the 1990s Wyly worked with several groups of psychologists in Mexico City, people who wanted to study Jungian psychology and become analysts. He taught classes and provided clinical supervision for candidates.

In 2000 Wyly met paintings conservator Helen Oh, who taught painting at the Palette and Chisel Academy in Chicago, and he studied with her until 2003, learning 17th-century techniques. James and Mary Wyly moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2003, first living in a 17th-century house of the late painter Rodolfo Morales. In 2008 they moved into the house of architect Guillermo de la Cajiga, where he pursued his passion in the studio of his dreams. At the same time a group of musicians gathered around him to learn and perform music of the Baroque era. The Wylys hosted two or three concerts a year until 2023.

In 2010 James Wyly was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Treatment provided by two young physicians using alternative medicine delayed symptoms until the summer of 2023 when they cured the leukemia but could not reverse the anemia that followed. Mary, these doctors, and a loyal circle of friends cared for him until he died peacefully in his bed.

Nunc Dimittis

Roy Henry Carey, Jr., 89, died April 28. He was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, on October 18, 1929, and lived there most of his life. He attended Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, before transferring to Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, where he received degrees in music and humanities, with a major in organ performance, studying with Donald Willing. He reported to Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, in July 1953 and was in active service with the United States Navy until his honorable discharge as a Lt. JG in 1956. During his active duty he was stationed in Morocco and Nantucket as an information officer.

Carey entered Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1958. His pursuit of a Master of Business Administration degree was cut short by the untimely death of his father, owner of the Carlsbad Oil Company. Carey returned to Carlsbad that year to become manager of the family business. During his time as a student at Stanford, he met his wife, Barbara, whom he married in 1962. Before he was married, he used his Navy money to purchase a small Rieger mechanical-action organ, which he sold in 2010.

A devoted member of Grace Episcopal Church, Carlsbad, he served as its senior warden and as its organist for 54 years. One of his proudest achievements was shepherding the acquisition of a mechanical-action Kney organ for the church. Over the years he arranged many concerts on this instrument. He was a member of the Diocese of the Rio Grande Music Commission during the years when the Episcopal hymnal and prayer book were being revised. In this capacity, he and his wife traveled to national meetings to participate in the hymnal revision process. Later he served as president of the Rio Grande Standing Committee.

Roy Henry Carey, Jr., is survived by his wife, Barbara; his son Hank Carey and wife Michele and their children Hayden and Ashley; daughter Martha Carey and wife Elisabeth Fidler; and daughter Julia and husband William and their daughters Annemarie and Téa. A memorial service was held May 4 Grace Episcopal Church.

Kathryn Ulvilden Moen, 99, died May 16. She was born May 14, 1920. A fixture of the Twin Cities, Minnesota, church music and organ scene, she graduated from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, in 1941, earned a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to go to Norway where she studied at the Konservatoriet. She later studied with André Marchal in Paris, France, and with Heinrich Fleischer at the University of Minnesota.

Moen taught for 30 years at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, retiring at age 86. She held various church music positions including that at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis, where she was instrumental in the selection of a Casavant organ in the 1960s, and later at St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church. Moen attended summer organ seminars in the Netherlands, France, Norway, and the Czech Republic. She later recorded an LP album of Czech organ repertoire that was reissued in CD format.

Patrick Wedd, 71, church musician, organist, composer, choral conductor, and founding director of the choral ensemble Musica Orbium, died May 19. He retired as director of music at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, Canada in 2018, after 22 years of service.

Wedd was born in 1948 in Ontario and earned degrees in organ performance from the universities of Toronto and British Columbia. He was director of music for 11 years at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, British Columbia.

In 1986 he moved to Montreal to assume artistic directorship of the Tudor Singers. He performed organ recitals in North America and England, and he recorded the Poulenc and Jongen organ concertos with the Calgary Symphony Orchestra, NAXOS discs of music for organ and trombone with Alain Trudel, as well as organ works of Healy Willan. He composed for the church, including anthems, Masses, canticles, and hymns. He was also artistic director of the Montreal Boys’ Choir Course (now the Massachusetts Course) for over 20 years.

Wedd received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity degree from McGill’s Diocesan College and an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Canadian College of Organists. At his retirement he also received the President’s Award of the RCCO Montreal Centre. (Additional information can be found in the September 2018 issue, pp. 10–11.)

Patrick Wedd is survived by his husband Robert Wells, his sisters Penny and Pam, and Pam’s partner Jane, along with Wedd and Wells family in-laws. His funeral was held May 31 at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal.

William “Bill” Freestate Wharton, 75, of Easton, Maryland, died May 19. Born January 4, 1944, he earned degrees (Bachelor of Arts, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts) in music from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut; Northwestern University School of Music, Evanston, Illinois; and Catholic University of America School of Music, Washington, D.C. His teachers included Margaret Wolcott, organist and choir director of his hometown church, Clarence Watters, Richard Enright, and Conrad Bernier.

Wharton taught music for 35 years in the public schools of Talbot County and Chesapeake College, Maryland, where he was named professor of music and was honored at his retirement as professor emeritus. He served as organist of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, Easton, for over 50 years. In 2007 with 40 years of service at St. Mark’s, the church honored him with the rebuilding and updating of the pipe organ’s console. In 2017 with 50 years of service he was honored with a commissioned piece, “Variations on Engelberg” by Mark Miller. He earned the Associate and Choir Master certifications of the American Guild of Organists, and he presented and organized recitals and concerts throughout the Mid-Shore region.

William Freestate Wharton is survived by his brother, Franklin M. Wharton of Centreville, Maryland, and sister-in-law Kay G. Wharton of Butler, Pennsylvania.

Nunc Dimittis

Murray Albert Burfeind, 89, died December 16 in Red Wing, Minnesota. Born May 8, 1931, in Belvidere Township, rural Lake City, Minnesota, he grew up on the family farm. As a young boy he learned to play piano. By age 12 he started to play the pipe organ, and soon began playing for various churches. Burfeind graduated from Lake City High School in 1949. He went on to study at Bethany College, Mankato, Minnesota, and Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota. He graduated as a parochial school teacher and taught elementary school in Fond du Lac and Appleton, Wisconsin. At Fond du Lac, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church was buying a new organ, and as the church organist he served on the selection committee. After visiting Wicks Organ Company in Highland, Illinois, and recommending purchase of a pipe organ from that firm, he found his lifelong interest in organ construction. After one last year of teaching, he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to apprentice for United Organ Company, representative for Wicks in that region. He always referred to that day at the organ factory as the single day that changed his life.

In Milwaukee, he met and married his wife of more than sixty years, Flora Olm, a teacher and later a newspaper reporter and librarian. Together they followed the lure of building and designing new pipe organs, completing installations and providing service and tuning to organs in churches throughout the country with the Murray Burfeind Pipe Organ Company. From Milwaukee they moved first to Louisville, Kentucky, where their two oldest sons, Philip and Andrew, were born. They relocated to Arlington Heights, Illinois, to serve churches in Illinois and Indiana. Their third son, Steven, and daughter, Ann, were born while in Illinois.

After 15 years of travel and nights away from home, the family relocated to Minnesota near his family, living in the country near Goodhue, where Burfeind had his shop and continued his organ work, completing installations across the country.

Burfeind achieved his most satisfying goal of designing and completing the reinstallation of the Kilgen pipe organ at the Sheldon Theatre in Red Wing. He installed bird calls, truck horns, and bass drums in the upper reaches of the theatre above the proscenium arch.

His last installation was the Burfeind-designed and built organ at St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin. That organ featured Subczyk and Meyer pipes built to order in Milwaukee. Originally it was installed in the La Crosse home of Betty Mittlestadt and later purchased and moved to St. Norbert College in 2012 and 2013.

Murray Albert Burfeind is survived by his wife Flora of rural Goodhue. He is also survived by his children Philip (Kimberly) of New Brighton, Minnesota; Andrew (Jacqueline) of St. Paul, Minnesota; Steven (Brenda) of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and the Rev. Ann Burfeind (Florian) of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; as well as six grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.

Catherine Ennis, organist and director of music since 1985 at the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry, London, UK, died December 24, 2020. Born in 1955, she was an organ scholar at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, before serving as assistant organist of Christ Church Cathedral. Ennis joined the Royal College of Organists in 1978. She was a trustee of the RCO from 2012 to 2016 and vice president from 2015, and was also a diploma examiner. She served as artistic director of the RCO Summer Course for Organists in 2017.

Ennis served as consultant for four new organs in London, including organs by Rieger in St. Marylebone Parish Church (1987), Klais in St. Lawrence Jewry (2001), William Drake for Trinity College of Music (2003), and the Queen’s Organ in the Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey, built by Mander. She also founded the London Organ Concerts Guide and was president of the Incorporated Association of Organists from 2003 to 2005.

In 2006 Ennis initiated (with Barbara Hill) the John Hill Organ Series, which showcased emerging young talented organists in a series of recitals in London each May. Most recently she became a patron of the Society of Women Organists.

Concert engagements in recent years included Christ Church Spitalfields, Westminster Cathedral, and Royal Festival Hall. Ennis recorded works by Bach, Reubke, Guilmant, and English romantic composers, among others; her latest CD for Priory Records of works by various composers on the Peter Collins organ in St. Bartholomew’s Church, Orford, was released in October 2020 (The Organs of St. Bartholomew’s Orford, Priory PRCD 1235).

Catherine Ennis was awarded the Medal of the Royal College of Organists in 2018. The citation for the medal details her contribution to the planning and execution of the college’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2014.

An online musical remembrance occurred January 11.

Elizabeth P. Farris, 86, of Edmond, Oklahoma, died December 1, 2020. Born February 28, 1934, she was organist for First United Methodist Church of Edmond and taught at Central State University (now University of Central Oklahoma). Farris earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees summa cum laude in organ performance from University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She then began teaching organ and piano at what was then Southern State College, Magnolia, Arkansas. Later she met Howard Farris, who taught art at the college in Magnolia, and they were married in 1961. The couple had two children, Lisa in 1963, and Karl in 1965.

In 1966 the Farris family moved to Norman, Oklahoma, where Howard earned his Ph.D. degree at University of Oklahoma. Then the next year Howard was offered a teaching position at Central State College in the School of Education. In 1967, Elizabeth was appointed organist of First United Methodist Church of Edmond, serving the church until her retirement in 1999. As the longest serving staff member in the church’s history, she was named organist emeritus on her retirement. She also spent many years of substituting, playing the organ and piano during and following her years as First Church. Elizabeth Farris was active in the Oklahoma City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists for over thirty years and served in various capacities, including several terms as chapter dean. 

Elizabeth P. Farris is survived by her children Lisa and Karl, and her older sister, Drusilla Appleyard and family in Fort Smith, Arkansas.