Nunc dimittis

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.

Dominick Argento, 91, died February 20. Born October 27, 1927, he grew up in York, Pennsylvania. After high school graduation, he was drafted into the United States Army and served as a cryptographer. Following World War II, he entered the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, Maryland, to study piano, but switched to composition, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1951 and a master’s degree in 1953. He would eventually earn a doctoral degree from Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York. The recipient of Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships, Argento studied in Italy with Luigi Dallapiccola.

In 1958, he and his wife, Carolyn Bailey, moved to Minneapolis, where he began teaching composition and theory at the University of Minnesota. He soon began receiving numerous commissions, particularly for opera. Among his organ works was Prelude for Easter Dawning.

In the 1970s, Argento began composing choral works, particularly for the choir of Plymouth Congregational Church of Minneapolis. He would be the recipient of commissions for choral music by Plymouth Church, the Cathedral of St. Mark, Minneapolis, the Buffalo Schola Cantorum, Harvard and Yale glee clubs, and other organizations. After retirement from the University of Minnesota in 1997, he was named professor emeritus, and continued to live in Minneapolis.

David Gifford, 97, of Northampton, Massachusetts, died January 26. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 16, 1921, and spent his childhood in Bedford and Cambridge. He attended the Longy School of Music, Cambridge, where he studied organ with E. Power Biggs. After serving in World War II as a Military Police Escort Guide, United States Army, Gifford attended Harvard University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music.

In 1949 he married Irene Davidson, and they moved to the Oberlin, Ohio, where he studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, earning a Master of Music degree. After graduation, the Giffords returned to Massachusetts and settled in Hingham. He became organist and music director at the Old Ship Church, Hingham, and worked as a pipe maker and voicer at Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, Boston.

He eventually studied for an education degree at Lesley College and taught at Walter F. Dearborn School, Cambridge, and at the Gifford School, founded by his mother, Margaret Gifford, in Weston, Massachusetts. Upon leaving teaching, he returned to organbuilding and became a pipe maker and reed voicer for C. B. Fisk, Inc., Gloucester, Massachusetts, and served as organist at Newburyport Presbyterian Church. After retirement, the Giffords moved to Charlemont, Massachusetts, and David Gifford became organist for St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ashfield, Massachusetts. After his wife’s death in 1999, he moved to Cummington, Massachusetts, and was organist at the Village Congregational Church. Eventually Gifford retired from active organ playing and moved to Williamsburg and then to Northampton, Massachusetts.

David Gifford is survived by his son Ralph Gifford and wife Amy of Westwood, New Jersey, and daughter Anne Dodge and husband Edward of Barkhamsted, Connecticut. A memorial service was held February 16 at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Ashfield. Memorial contributions may be made to The Gifford School, 177 Boston Post Rd., Weston, MA 02493.

Robert “Robbie” Anthony Giroir, Jr., 59, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, died December 23, 2018, after a brief illness. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Louisiana State University and in 1985 became organist and director of music at St. Joseph Catholic Cathedral, Baton Rouge, as well as director of choral studies at Baton Rouge Magnet High School.

During Giroir’s tenure, the choirs at the school consistently earned superior ratings at district and state choral assessments. In the last 15 years, choirs under his direction performed in England, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, France, and Vatican City. He was named “Music Teacher of the Year” by the Baton Rouge Symphony League for 2010–2011. As director of music and organist at St. Joseph Cathedral, he oversaw the acquisition of the Reuter organ in 1993 as part of the parish’s bicentennial.

His funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Joseph Cathedral on December 27 and was televised live throughout the Diocese of Baton Rouge. His best friend and protégé, Ryan Hebert of the University of Tampa, accompanied the funeral. Members of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra provided a chamber ensemble. The choirs of the cathedral and Baton Rouge Magnet High School sang, assisted by alumni of both groups, comprising more than 130 choristers in all.

Robert Anthony Giroir, Jr., is survived by his mother, Myrtis Leblanc Giroir; sister and brother-in-law, Danette and Ronald Legendre; and nephews with their wives and children, Ladd, Abby, and Landon Legendre, and Brant, Brittney, and Harper Jane Legendre.

Noel Rawsthorne, 89, died January 28. Born December 24, 1929, he studied with Harold Dawber at Royal Manchester College of Music (now Royal Northern College of Music), after which he studied with Fernando Germani in Italy and Marcel Dupré in France.

Rawsthorne was organist of Liverpool Cathedral, UK, from 1955 until 1980, when he was named organist emeritus. From 1980 until 1984 he was also organist of St. George’s Hall, Liverpool. As a recitalist, he performed throughout the UK, Europe, and the former Soviet Republic. In 1994, the University of Liverpool awarded him an honorary doctorate of music. A memorial service was held March 3 at the cathedral of Liverpool.

Nunc Dimittis

Myrtle Groom, 86, died September 8 in Bellevue, Washington. She was organist and music director at First Congregational Church in Bellevue from 1978 until retiring in 1997. Previously, she held organist and choir director positions in Mississippi, Kansas, Bellevue, and Seattle.

Born Myrtle Jacobson on October 14, 1931, in Racine, Wisconsin, she began piano lessons at an early age. She played in church and at age thirteen won a contest sponsored by the Racine Symphony Orchestra, resulting in a concerto performance. As a junior at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, Wheaton, Illinois, she was the guest soloist at a concert of the S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. Band and Mixed Chorus in Racine, performing works of Brahms and Liszt. She received the Bachelor of Music degree from Wheaton College, with a major in piano performance and a minor in voice. Further studies were at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.

Myrtle Jacobson met fellow music student Lester H. Groom at Wheaton College. They married in 1955 and lived in Chicago, Illinois; Decatur, Georgia; Blue Mountain, Mississippi; Baldwin City, Kansas; and from 1967 in Bellevue. She supported her husband’s career in church music and university teaching, performing with him on occasion. After the birth of their first child, she took up organ study with her husband.

In addition to employment in churches, Groom taught piano and voice at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and taught piano and organ privately. She played for many weddings and memorials and remained active in retirement as a substitute organist and recitalist.

Myrtle Groom is survived by children Rebecca (John) te Velde, Vera (Mike) Liles, and Lester W. Groom, and grandchildren Vera te Velde, Brent te Velde (Jennifer Clamon), and Mary Liles. Memorials may be sent to the American Guild of Organists, Seattle Chapter, or Wheaton College organ students’ scholarships. A memorial service was held October 19 at Hope Presbyterian Church in Bellevue.

Robert A. “Bob” Luther, 75, of Coon Rapids, Minnesota, died September 21. He was born on September 22, 1942, in Sibley, Iowa, and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance and church music and a Master of Music degree in organ performance and music theory from Drake University, Des Moines. Luther also conducted study at the University of Michigan and the Eastman School of Music. His organ teachers included Marilyn Mason and Russell Saunders.

Luther served as principal organist from 1984 to 2004 at Zion Lutheran Church, Anoka, Minnesota, and continued as principal organist emeritus after his retirement. As a recitalist, he performed in the United States and in Europe, including Austria, Italy, England, Germany, France, and Spain. Luther taught at Carleton College, the University of Evansville, Drake University, and Grand View College. He was a music theory teaching assistant at the University of Michigan.

Active with the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he was also a life member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and an honorary member of Pi Kappa Lambda. He is listed in Outstanding Educators of America, Dictionary of International Biography, Who’s Who in the Midwest, and other bibliographic publications.

Robert A. Luther is survived by a brother, LaRoy (Lila) and sister-in-law, Gretchen, nieces, and nephews. A celebration of Luther’s life occurred October 11 at Zion Lutheran Church, Anoka. Memorial gifts may be made to the church, 1601 4th Avenue, Anoka, Minnesota 55331.

John Weissrock died September 9 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was born and raised in Ohio, earning a master’s degree in organ performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Wayne Fisher. He won the national organ playing competition at First Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana, at 21 years of age in 1960.

Shortly thereafter, he was selected to be organist and choirmaster for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Milwaukee, where he remained for 12 years. He made recordings at St. Paul’s of both organ and choral works with a group he founded called Outreach: Music of the Church.

Following that, for two years, Weissrock was organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Milwaukee. His last position was organist and director of music for 32 years at the Church of the Gesu on the Marquette University campus in Milwaukee. There he collaborated with members of the St. Louis Jesuit musicians to effect organ/guitar accompaniments for a number of their compositions. He gave monthly recitals as a way of raising money for the church’s organ fund, and he designed the rebuild project of the Gesu organ, originally built by W. W. Kimball, carried out by the Schantz Organ Company that ranks as one of the largest organs in the state. As a recitalist beyond the Milwaukee area, he performed at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and at St. Pierre Cathedral in Angouleme, France.

John Weissrock is survived by his sister, Rose Ellen Hehr, and her children.

Albert Laurence "Laurie" Campbell

Albert Laurence “Laurie” Campbell died April 25. He was born December 25, 1932, in San Diego, California. He began to play piano when he was three or four and played string bass and trumpet in junior high and high school.

After a semester at the University of California San Diego in 1951 Campbell volunteered in the 93rd Army Band stationed at Camp Roberts near Paso Robles, California. There he played trumpet and trombone for hundreds of new draftees on their way to Korea. He also discovered the Episcopal Church and pipe organs during weekends spent in Paso Robles, often sleeping in the recreation room of St. James Episcopal Church on Saturday nights. After being honorably discharged in 1953 Campbell attended the University of Redlands, Redlands, California, where he majored in sacred music and focused on playing piano and organ. There he met his future wife of 62 years, Marilyn Miller.

After their wedding in 1955 in Anaheim, California, the Campbells moved to Seattle, Washington, where Albert worked as an organist and completed his master’s degree in music performance at the University of Washington. In 1968 Campbell accepted a position as a music professor at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). In 1972 he entered into a partnership with one of his students, Michael McNeil, and together they built three mechanical-action pipe organs. Opus 1 was originally installed in the Campbell home; Opus 2 is a practice organ at UCSB; and Opus 3 was installed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Ventura, California.

After many years with the university, Campbell returned to church music in the late 1970s and continued to work in churches as organist and choirmaster. In 1998 the Campbells came to the bay area of California to be near their children and first grandchild. They joined All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Palo Alto, California, where Albert spent ten years as director of music. After moving to Rossmoor, California, in 2011, Campbell became music director at the Church of Our Saviour in Mill Valley, where he served until his retirement in 2019. He continued to perform concerts throughout his career.

Albert Laurence Campbell is survived by three children, KC (“Peter”), Mary, and Penny, and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be held September 16 at the Church of Our Saviour, Mill Valley. Memorial gifts may be made to Friends of Music, in memory of Albert Laurence Campbell, University Advancement, University of Redlands, 1200 East Colton Avenue, Redlands,
California 92373.

William Dudley Oakes

William Dudley Oakes, 66, died April 27 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was born January 8, 1957, in Richmond, Virginia. Oakes studied organ at the University of Richmond with Suzanne Kidd Bunting, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1979. He pursued further study at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, first with Marilyn Mason for a Master of Music degree in 1981 and then with Robert Glasgow for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1988. Oakes was a finalist in the Grand Prix de Chartres in the 1980s, and he concertized throughout the eastern United States as well as in Europe.

Throughout his life, Oakes was also a church musician. In chronological order he directed music programs at St. James Episcopal Church, Grosse Ile, Michigan; Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (interim); First Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia; St. John’s Episcopal Church, Georgetown, DC; St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC; and Grace Lutheran Church, Winchester, Virginia. He also taught at Virginia Wesleyan College, Norfolk, Virginia, and at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia.

Oakes began a long association with Fernand Létourneau and Létourneau Pipe Organs of Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada, in 1988, rising to the position of vice president for sales and marketing. He was involved in over 80 of the company’s pipe organ projects, with most of these in the United States. Upon Fernand Létourneau’s retirement in November 2019, Oakes purchased the company, and as president spent the next three years leading the firm toward its current five-year backlog.

William Dudley Oakes is survived by his husband J. Thomas Mitts as well as two older brothers and their families. Memorial services were held at St. Charles Avenue Church, New Orleans, on May 18; at Augustana Lutheran Church, Washington, DC, on May 20; and at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Winchester, Virginia, on May 21.

Stephen Rumpf

Stephen Rumpf of New York, New York, died June 3. He began his musical studies at an early age in Wabash, Indiana. As a Honeywell Scholar he attended the National Music Camp and graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, Michigan, in organ and bassoon. Further studies were at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio. He then studied in Europe under Nadia Boulanger, Annette Dieudonné, and André Marchal in Paris, France, and Hugo Ruf in Cologne, Germany. Further harpsichord studies were with Kenneth Gilbert in Montréal, Canada, and Albert Fuller in New York City. While in Cologne, he was one of the music directors of the State Theater and also held a church position. After his years in Europe, he relocated to Montréal where he was director of music and organist for St. James United Church and studied with Raymond Daveluy at McGill University. He had also studied choral conducting and voice.

Rumpf performed organ and harpsichord recitals throughout North America, France, and Germany. Several of his performances have been broadcast on American Public Media’s Pipedreams. He performed in concert venues in New York City and abroad including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Brick Church, Church of the Transfiguration, and St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University.

Rumpf served as organist and choir director for many churches and synagogues in the New York metropolitan area including the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Harlem, St. Joseph’s Church, Yorkville, Notre-Dame Catholic Church, the Hebrew Tabernacle, and for Eric Butterworth’s weekly services at Alice Tully Hall.

Rumpf taught organ, piano, and harpsichord and collaborated with a variety of instrumentalists and vocalists in concert. He was active with the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, past chair of the St. Wilfrid Club of New York City, and a member of the Organ Historical Society. He was very active in several Masonic organizations and was recently reappointed Grand Organist of Free and Accepted Masons in the State of New York. ν

Philip Klepfer Gehring, 94, died October 6, 2020, in Oak Park, Illinois. Born November 27, 1925, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Carlisle High School in 1943. He studied for one year at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, before interrupting his education for three years in the United States Navy as an ensign. Upon completion of service, he continued studies at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio, graduating with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees in 1950. During this time, he was awarded prizes in theory and organ and was a student conductor of the college choir.

From 1950 until 1952, he served as organist and choirmaster for Kimball Memorial Lutheran Church, Kannapolis, North Carolina. On August 26, 1951, in Clear Lake, Iowa, he married Betty Burns. The following year, he began graduate studies at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, where he earned a Master of Music degree in 1955. His principal organ teachers were Bernard Wert, Fenner Douglas, and Arthur Poister. Composition teachers included Herbert Elwell and Ernst Bacon. He was a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists.

Philip Gehring was assistant professor of music and college organist at Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, from 1952 to 1958. He studied organ with André Marchal in France in 1957 under a grant from Southern Fellowships. He would later study with Harold Vogel and William Porter.

In 1958, Gehring joined the faculty of Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana. The university’s Memorial Chapel, since renamed the Chapel of the Resurrection, was opened that September and dedicated the following year, along with its large Schlicker organ that would become an iconic instrument in the American Orgelbewegung movement. There he taught organ, improvisation, and other subjects and served as university organist. During leaves from the university in 1960–1961 and 1962–1963 he pursued doctoral studies at Syracuse University with a grant from Danforth Teacher Study Grants, earning the Doctor of Philosophy degree in humanities in 1963 with a dissertation, “Improvisation in Contemporary Organ Playing.” In 1985, Gehring was named the first Frederick A. and Maize N. Reddel Professor of Music at Valparaiso University. That same year, he was elected an honorary alumnus of the institution. In 2010, the Institute of Liturgical Studies at the university awarded Gehring its second Christus Rex Award for significant contributions to Lutheran liturgical scholarship and renewal.

In 1970, Gehring won the national improvisation competition of the AGO, and the following year he participated by invitation in the International Organ Improvisation Competition in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

Gehring served on the national council of the AGO, was president of the Lutheran Society for Music, Worship, and the Arts, a predecessor to the Institute of Liturgical Studies, and vice president of the international Lutheran church music organization, Ecclesia Cantans. His research was published in various journals, particularly on the subjects of performance practice in the organ works of Bach and on contemporary organ literature. As a composer, his organ and choral works were published by Concordia Publishing House, Augsburg-Fortress, MorningStar, Hinshaw, Brodt, and E. C. Schirmer.

Philip Gehring performed organ recitals and presented lectures and hymn festivals across the United States, including performances at three conventions of the AGO, as well as in Canada and Europe. He was represented by Phyllis Stringham Concert Management for many years. In 1982, he was a recitalist and judge for the Manchester (England) International Organ Competition. He frequently appeared in performance with his wife, Betty, a violinist who also served on the faculty of Valparaiso University. Philip Gehring recorded two LPs: one on the Reddel Memorial Schlicker organ in the Valparaiso University chapel with works by Schumann, Pachelbel, Barber, and Read; and An organ recital by Philip Gehring honoring Dr. Eugene Megerle, recorded on the Link organ in the Stadtkirche of Schorndorf, Germany, and featuring works by Lübeck, Bach, Pepping, and Mendelssohn.

After retirement from Valparaiso University in 1989, he remained active as a composer and performer. From 1993 until 1996, he served as founding editor of CrossAccent, the journal of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. Annual Christmas letters from the Gehrings included a freshly composed canon on a Christmas text. He and his wife Betty would move to Oak Park, Illinois, to be near children and grandchildren.

Philip Klepfer Gehring is survived by his wife, Betty; three children, Kristin Gehring and husband Walter Miller, Thomas Gehring, and Martin Gehring and wife Ruth Gehring; seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. A memorial service will be held at a later date at First United Church, Oak Park, Illinois.

Allen Jay Sever, 91, died in Minneapolis on September 29. Born in Kansas City, Kansas, he graduated from the conservatory at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, in 1951 with a double major in piano and organ. After serving in the Air Force, completing a Master of Sacred Music degree at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, and studying on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Royal School of Church Music in England, Sever played the organ and directed the choir at West End Collegiate Church, New York, New York, for more than fifty years. He also played at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue for more than forty years and taught at the Manhattan School of Music and at Hebrew Union College. He was preceded in death by his wife Kathryn Cozine Sever. 

Allen Jay Sever is survived by his two children, Alicia (Eric Johnson) Cozine and Kirk (Elizabeth Short) Cozine of Minneapolis, and two grandchildren, Owen and McLean. A celebration of his life will be held in Minneapolis in September 2021.

Edward Brewer, 82, died April 3 in Leonia, New Jersey. Born in 1938 in Erie, Pennsylvania, his talent for music was revealed at an early age.

Brewer majored in organ at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio. As a graduate student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Brewer received a Fulbright Fellowship to continue his studies with organist Helmut Walcha in Frankfurt, Germany. His harpsichord studies continued with Maria Jaeger.

Edward Brewer’s school days ended in New York City in 1963 where he served in the Domestic Peace Corps until 1964, when he became organist and choir director at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. As a continuo player he served Amor Artis, Oratorio Society of New York, and New York Choral Society, as well as New York Philharmonic, New York Collegium, Orpheus, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Philharmonia Virtuosi. He participated in the Madeira Bach Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, and North Country Chamber Players summer festival. He was founding director of the Soclair Music Festival, a role he filled for 30 years. As founder and director of the Brewer Chamber Orchestra, he participated in a series of first-time recordings of operas by George Frederick Handel for MMG, Nonesuch, Delos, and ESS.A.Y.

Edward Brewer also provided portable pipe organs and harpsichords in European styles of the 18th century for New York musical organizations involved in the performance of Baroque music. This service continues as Baroque Keyboards, LLC, under the management of his son and daughter.

Edward Brewer is survived by his wife of 51 years, oboist Virginia Brewer; his son Barry and wife Tomoko and their daughters Miako and Emiko; and daughter Hazzan Diana Brewer and wife Sara Brewer and their daughter Camilla.

Kenneth Gilbert, 88, harpsichordist, organist, musicologist, and teacher, died April 16. He was born December 16, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He studied organ with Conrad Letendre, piano with Yvonne Hubert, and harmony and counterpoint with Gabriel Cusson. Gilbert won the Prix d’Europe for organ in 1953 and studied for two years with Nadia Boulanger (composition), Gaston Litaize and Maurice Duruflé (organ), and Sylvie Spicket and Ruggero Gerlin (harpsichord). While he was on leave for these studies, he remained the organist and music director at Queen Mary Road United Church, Montreal, between 1952 and 1967. In 1959, he designed and oversaw the installation at Queen Mary Road Church of the first major modern mechanical-action organ in Canada, an instrument built by Rudolf von Beckerath of Hamburg, Germany. Gilbert was a leader in the formation of the Ars Organi society, which influenced organ performance standards in eastern Canada. He received an honorary doctorate degree in music from McGill University in 1981.

While in Paris in 1965 on a Quebec government grant doing research on Couperin in preparation for a CBC series of performances of the composer’s complete works for harpsichord, Gilbert undertook work for a new edition for the Couperin tercentenary in 1968. (He subsequently recorded the Couperin works for RCI, released on Harmonia Mundi in France, RCA in England, Musical Heritage Society in the United States, and other labels in Italy and Japan.) Heugel would publish Gilbert’s four volumes of Couperin works as part of its early-music series, Le Pupitre, between 1969 and 1972. Gilbert prepared a new edition from existing editions of the 555 sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti; eleven volumes were published by Heugel between 1971 and 1984. He prepared a facsimile edition of the complete harpsichord works of Couperin, published by Broude in 1973, and edited the complete harpsichord works of d’Anglebert, printed by Heugel in 1975. He also prepared new editions of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for Salabert in 1979, Frescobaldi’s first and second books of toccatas for Zanibon in 1979 and 1980, and Rameau’s complete harpsichord works for Heugel 1979. In 1980, he began to prepare a reissue of Couperin’s complete works for L’Oiseau-Lyre of Monaco. With Élizabeth Gallat-Morin, he produced an annotated edition of Livre d’orgue de Montréal, published in three volumes by Éditions Jacques Ostiguy in 1985, 1987, and 1988.

Gilbert’s performances were devoted primarily to the harpsichord. In 1968, he gave his first recital in London and commenced an international career of concerts, broadcasts, and recordings. He was a soloist with several Canadian and American orchestras.

Gilbert taught at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal 1957–1974, at McGill University 1964–1972, at Laval University 1969–1976, and at the Royal Flemish Conservatory, Antwerp, Belgium, 1971–1974. In 1988, he began to teach at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and he became professor of harpsichord at the Conservatoire de Paris. For some years, he taught at Accademia Chigiana, Siena, Italy. Furthermore, he presented masterclasses throughout North America and Europe.

In 1978, the Canadian Music Council named Gilbert Artist of the Year. He was honored with the Prix de musique Calixa-Lavallée in 1981. In 1986, he was named an officer of the Order of Canada and in 1988 was elected to the Royal Society of Canada. He was an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music and Officier de l’Ordre des arts et lettres de France.

John Benjamin Hadley, 92, died January 5 in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Born July 1, 1927, in Iowa Falls, Iowa, he began playing organ in local churches at age 13 and received a Bachelor of Music degree from Iowa Falls Conservatory of Music in 1946.

After additional study in boy choir training and organ under John Dexter in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he entered the London School of Church Music, London, Ontario, where he spent three years under the tutelage of Ernest White and Raymond Wicher. While in London, he met and married Dorothy Helen Gallop with whom he would spend 52 years, while raising two daughters, Vicki and Kim.

The Hadleys moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1951 where they would remain until the late 1980s. His first position was at St. Clement’s Catholic Church, Chicago, as organist and choirmaster, followed by Grace Episcopal Church, Hinsdale, and then Church of the Ascension, Episcopal, Chicago. In 1955, Hadley began assisting S. E. Gruenstein in his duties as editorial director and publisher of The Diapason. Upon the death of Gruenstein in December 1958, Hadley and Frank Cunkle were named associate editors of the journal. Hadley became publisher in August 1958 and left the staff of The Diapason September 1, 1959, for his duties at the Church of the Ascension. During his time in Chicago, he was a sales representative for the Schlicker Organ Company and held several positions with the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America.

Hadley became an editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. He made several trips to China in the 1980s as the editorial liaison for the Chinese edition of the encyclopaedia. Additionally, he was a senior editor of Compton’s Encyclopedia and executive editor for The Britannica Book of Music as well as The Britannica Book of English Usage. It was during this time that he became an entrepreneur, and along with the vision of wife Dorothy, they opened a British import store in Door County, Wisconsin, where they had a second home.

In 1993 the Hadleys moved to Hendersonville, North Carolina, to be closer to the Brevard Music Festival. He became passionate about the program, choosing to bequeath the majority of his estate for the continuing funding of its work. In his retirement he served as organist of Hendersonville’s First United Methodist Church and finally St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Asheville, North Carolina.

John Benjamin Hadley was preceded in death by his wife Dorothy, his partner Phyllis Hansen, and daughter Vicki Anderson. He is survived by son-in-law John Anderson, grandson Matt Anderson, and daughter Kim Parr.

Edmund Shay died April 21 in Woodbury, New Jersey. He was born in the Bronx, New York City, and attended the High School for Music and Art in Manhattan, followed by The Juilliard School, New York City, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In 1962 he was awarded a Fulbright fellowship allowing him to study in Germany with Helmut Walcha. He later earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in performance and music theory from the University of Cincinnati.

Shay’s career as concert organist, teacher, and composer included teaching at the University of the Pacific, Beloit College, Pembroke State University, Madison College (now known as James Madison University), and Columbia College, Columbia, South Carolina. He maintained an active recital schedule while teaching and wrote articles for The American Organist and The Diapason. From 1986 through 1991 he wrote organ music reviews for The Diapason. For fourteen years, Shay directed a summer seminar for organists called “Bach Week,” sponsored by Columbia College. Upon his retirement in 2003, Shay relocated to a winter home in Washington, D.C., with a summer home in Vermont. In 2014 he began to battle dementia, and in 2017, he moved to Friends Village in Woodstown, New Jersey, and subsequently to Merion Gardens Assisted Living in Carney’s Point, New Jersey.

Edmund Shay was predeceased by his life partner of over 35 years, Raymond Harris; he is survived by his adopted nephew and niece, Dale and DeeAnn Harris of Salem, New Jersey. Memorial gifts in Shay’s name may be given Alzheimer’s research or your local animal shelter.

Nicholas Temperley, professor emeritus of the School of Music, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, died April 8. Born and educated in England, Temperley came to the University of Illinois in 1959 as a postdoctoral fellow, and he joined the faculty in 1967. He taught classes in the School of Music, supervised over fifty dissertations and theses, and served on dozens of doctoral committees. His publications include The Music of the English Parish Church (1979), Hymn Tune Index (1998), editions of music (including volumes for the Musica Britannica series and an edition of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique), and Bound for America: Three British Composers (2003), as well as several edited essay collections and scores of book chapters and journal articles.

After retiring in 1996, Temperley continued to be a researcher, writer, and editor. He also went on to guide the establishment of the North American British Music Studies Association [NABMSA] (2003) and serve as its first president, and he endowed prizes for student research: the Nicholas Temperley Dissertation Prize (later the Nicholas Temperley Musicology Research Scholarship, University of Illinois) and the Nicholas Temperley Student Paper Prize (NABMSA). In 1977, he was one of the co-founders of the Midwest Victorian Studies Association [MSVA], a group that sought to promote the interdisciplinary study of Victorian culture.

In 2012, a festschrift in his honor (Music and Performance Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain, ed. Bennett Zon) was published. In April 2019, MVSA presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in bringing music into the purview of Victorianists.

A memorial service will be planned for a later date. Memorial gifts may be sent to the Evelyn Burnett Underwood fund at the Urbana School District, which provides musical instruments to students who cannot afford them (contact Stacey Peterik at [email protected]).

James Merle Weaver, 82, died April 16 in Rochester, New York. Born in Danville, Illinois, he began piano and organ studies there. He attended the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, during which time he gave piano and organ demonstrations and private lessons at a local music store and played Sunday church services. While on a high school field trip to Washington, D.C., Weaver saw his first harpsichords, displayed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. During his sophomore year at the U of I, he went to Amsterdam to study harpsichord and historical performance practice with Gustav Leonhardt.

Returning to Illinois, Weaver completed his bachelor’s (1961) and master’s (1963) degrees. Weaver and his young family then moved to Boston’s North End. His facility as a continuo player developed, both as a concert artist and for recordings. While in Boston, he befriended the music director of Old North Church, John T. Fesperman, who had been Leonhardt’s first American student (1955–1956). Fesperman left Boston in 1965 to take a position at the collection of musical instruments in the Smithsonian’s newly opened National Museum of History and Technology; Weaver followed him to the Smithsonian the next year, where he began a diverse career producing concert programs and exhibits, among other activities. In 1971, he worked to found the Friends of Music at the Smithsonian, which continues to support the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society.

Weaver pursued his exploration of newly restored harpsichords and forte-pianos in the Smithsonian’s collection, producing recordings. He established an ensemble in residence at the museum in 1976, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, which produced recordings through the Smithsonian Collection of Recordings, an arm of the institution’s Division of Performing Arts (DPA), which Weaver joined in the late 1970s.

In 1983, DPA’s functions were absorbed by other portions of the institution, and Weaver returned to the Division of Musical Instruments at the National Museum of American History (NMAH), as the National Museum of History and Technology had been renamed in 1980.

In addition to his Smithsonian activities, Weaver occasionally appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra and various professional choruses of the area. With the Smithsonian Chamber Players, he had a presence in the inaugural festivities for Jimmy Carter and later performed twice, including once as harpsichord soloist, at the Carter White House. He was subsequently invited to play at five inaugural luncheons, from Ronald Reagan’s second inaugural to George W. Bush’s first. Weaver taught at various times at American University, the University of Maryland, Cornell University, the Aston Magna Academy, and the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Following his move to Washington, D.C., in the 1960s, Weaver served as organist or organist/choirmaster at several churches, including Baltimore’s Mount Calvary Church, Washington’s St. Columba’s Episcopal Church and All Souls Episcopal Church, and finally at All Hallows Episcopal Church, Davidsonville, Maryland.

Following retirement from the Smithsonian, Weaver was appointed executive director (later chief executive officer) of the Organ Historical Society. During the last years of his tenure at the OHS, he supervised the relocation of its headquarters and archives to “Stoneleigh” in Villanova, Pennsylvania. He also expanded the E. Power Biggs Fellowship program.

James Merle Weaver is survived by husband/partner Samuel Baker; son Evan (Jill), three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by wife Patricia Estell and long-time former partner Eugene Behlen. Memorial gifts may be given to the Biggs Fellowship Program of the Organ Historical Society, 330 N. Spring Mill Road, Villanova, PA 19085; or the Friends of Music at the Smithsonian, P. O.
Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012 (https://www.smithsonianchambermusic.org/donate).