Dorothy Young Riess, M.D., to play 75th birthday recital

Rudolf von Beckerath Orgelbau, Hamburg, Germany
Maurine Jackson Smith Memorial Organ, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Doc Rando Recital Hall

The public perception of Las Vegas is hardly one that conjures up visions of fine pipe organs. Some people who visit Las Vegas for the first time are amazed to find schools, lovely houses, and churches. At one time, Las Vegas boasted more churches per capita than any other city in the country. A recent survey counted a total of 33 pipe organs currently in Las Vegas churches, LDS chapels, and residences. Most of the church instruments tend to be relatively small. The big boom in the growth of the city (now approaching two million residents) paralleled the arrival of the mega-church, improved electronic organs, and more informal styles of worship that do not usually include the installation of organs of any kind.
It may come as a surprise that the Maurine Jackson Smith Memorial Organ, installed at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in the Beam Music Center’s new Dr. Arturo Rando-Grillot Recital Hall, though modest in size (38 stops, 53 ranks, three manuals and pedal), is the largest pipe organ in Nevada. The hall seats 300 and is acoustically supportive of the organ.
Maurine Jackson Smith was an accomplished organist in Las Vegas and conscientiously served as a long-time church musician in several local wards of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. After raising her family, Mrs. Smith entered the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to obtain her bachelor’s degree with a major in history, graduating magna cum laude. Mrs. Smith died on October 1, 1999, after a protracted and valiant fight against cancer. The UNLV organ was given in her memory to the university and the community by her family, the Edward D. Smith family. Through this magnificent gift, her lovely spirit and devotion to excellence continue to perpetuate her memory and to inspire.
When the promise of funding for the building of an organ at UNLV was made, the choice of an organbuilder was begun by a search committee, appointed by then chair of the music department, Dr. Paul Kreider. The committee included Dr. Isabelle Emerson, Ethelyn Petersen, and Dr. Paul S. Hesselink. Dr. Kreider served in an ex-officio capacity. At its first meeting in March 2000, the committee decided that the organ must be a quality mechanical-action instrument of three manuals and pedal. Subsequently, the committee considered 18 organbuilders from Germany, Italy, England, Denmark, Canada and the United States. After visiting instruments by many of these builders, the committee chose Rudolf von Beckerath Orgelbau of Hamburg, Germany to be the builder. Two members of the committee were invited to visit the workshop in Hamburg and to see and play several instruments nearby, recently completed by the company. The Beckerath instrument initially visited by the committee had been designed and voiced by Herr von Beckerath (died 1976), so there were concerns that the qualities admired in that instrument be evident in the current work of the firm.
The project was expedited by the willingness of the donor to assume responsibility for contracting and its attendant technical logistics for the building and installation of the instrument. All aspects of the contract were turned over to his business manager, who was fluent in German. Procedural red tape, which is often part of the baggage of working with a state-supported university system, was avoided. In effect, Mr. Smith contracted for the organ to be built, was granted permission to have it installed at the university, and after installation, donated the instrument to the university. The committee stayed in close contact with the von Beckerath company throughout the process; all business arrangements were conducted with Holger Redlich, manager of the firm.
The building of the organ, from the time of signing the contract to completion, took about four and a half years. The case, pipes, windchests, and mechanism were constructed piece by piece in the Hamburg factory by 14 artisans over a period of about ten months and then securely packed into three semi-trailer-sized waterproof, sealed containers. These containers were loaded on a ship in the Hamburg harbor and made the five-week sea voyage to Los Angeles. After a customs inspection, the containers were loaded on flatbed trucks and driven to Las Vegas. They arrived in Las Vegas mid-June 2004. Voicing of the instrument was done by Rolf Miehl, tonal director of the company.
The organ is approximately 25 feet high, 20 feet wide and 8 feet deep. The organ case is constructed from blond ash wood and has color accents of deep red that contrast with the silver color of the façade pipes; the university colors are red and gray. The rather plain lines of the modern hall immediately focus on the imposing organ case. People visiting for the first time are routinely heard to exclaim, “Wow!”
The organ has a sophisticated sequencer and combination action making possible 4,000 settings. This feature is especially helpful in teaching, as each student can be assigned 100 or more pistons; students can preserve the registrations chosen for the works they are studying, so that time is not wasted in resetting pistons during practice times or lessons. The stops are numbered for ease in writing down registrations.
The terraced French-style console has naturals covered in granadilla wood, and sharps covered in bone. The oversized music rack is adjustable both forward and vertically. An on/off foot piston prevents accidental use of the crescendo pedal when in the off mode. Other foot pistons provide for Plenum, Mixtures Off, Reeds Off, and Sforzando settings and the usual coupler reversibles. The sequencer can be accessed (forward and backward) from the middle (below the Positiv keyboard), from the left and right sides of the console, and a forward foot piston is conveniently located next to the crescendo pedal for forward motion through the sequencer. Ten lighted pistons (from 0–9) are located under the Positiv keyboard and function as normal general pistons within the set of ten in use. A digital read-out above the Swell manual indicates which one of the 4000 pistons is in play; a second digital read-out displays the position of the crescendo pedal (1–60), and a third digital display informs the performer of the position of the swell shades (1–9), since they cannot be seen from the organ console. Both the Swell and Positiv tremulants are adjustable from the console.
Even though the organ was to fill the role of a concert instrument for the community, it was to be above all a teaching instrument at the university. The committee felt that the instrument needed to be “eclectic” in the best sense of the word, so that it could handle a wide variety of styles of the organ literature. It was paramount that Baroque literature could be performed with success, but it was also important that French Classic, Romantic, and modern literature fare equally as well. To give added flexibility to the performance of the full gamut of the literature, several non-unison couplers were included in the disposition.
Fittingly, the new instrument was heard for the first time in a Smith family celebration on October 1, 2004, marking to the day the fifth anniversary of Mrs. Smith’s death. Two hundred invited guests heard tributes to Maurine Jackson Smith by members of her family; one of Mrs. Smith’s favorite hymns was sung by everyone; organ selections were performed by her daughter, a niece, and a great-niece who had studied with her, and by close friends. A 75-voice choir from the stake center where Mrs. Smith had played and accompanied for many years presented a favorite anthem with four-hand organ accompaniment. Rolf Miehl and Holger Redlich of the von Beckerath firm were present to honor the family by presenting a key to the console of the organ and an exquisitely embossed and mounted pipe, accepted on behalf of the family by Mrs. Smith’s daughter, Melanie Larkin. An elegant reception provided by the university followed. The formal public inauguration on October 4 and 5 featured Daniel Zaretsky, organist of the St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmony, in two recitals. The first recital presented a variety of works from the standard organ repertoire, and the second presented relatively unknown organ works by Russian composers.
The Southern Nevada chapter of the American Guild of Organists and the Music Department of UNLV have brought guest artists to perform recitals in Doc Rando Hall. Students and local organists have also presented recitals, and the members of the AGO chapter have presented annual Advent-Christmas recitals in early December the past three years. In January 2006, the Region IX Convention was held in Las Vegas with the von Beckerath organ being the focal instrument. This “conclave” was an unqualified success, and the versatility of the organ was demonstrated—it successfully met the challenges of an all-Emma Lou Diemer program, played by the composer; an all-Langlais program, played by Ann Labounsky; a lecture-recital on the organ works of Mozart; a violin-organ recital presented by the Murray-Lohuis Duo; a “Pipedreams Live” program (“Around Bach: Music by Sons and Students, and in the Bach Spirit”) with host Michael Barone featuring eight guest organists from many areas of region IX; and a stunning recital presented by Chelsea Chen.
—Paul S. Hesselink
Adjunct Faculty, Organ
Department of Music
University of Nevada Las Vegas

From the builder
In August 2001, our firm received a short e-mail inquiry from Dr. Paul Hesselink, member of the UNLV organ search committee, asking whether our firm was still contracting for the building of organs in the United States. Since about 1986, our company had been very successful in contracting for organs in Japan, and our company had also been engaged in restoring several Arp Schnitger instruments in Germany, as well as restoring an organ in Brazil. Because of this work, several potential U.S. customers decided to contract with other organbuilders because the waiting and delivery time would have been too long.
Certainly, we were interested in building organs in the U.S. Upon receiving our response, the Las Vegas committee asked us to prepare a proposal and cost estimate for the UNLV project. Because we knew that the committee already had in hand several proposals from other builders, and that the committee was nearing the final stages of making a decision on a builder, we worked day and night, and in two days sent a proposal to the committee. [It was fortuitous that the Beckerath proposal and cost estimate were received the day before the committee was making a trip to Southern California to see and play several instruments by builders being considered; the committee made an impromptu visit to the von Beckerath organ in the recital hall at Pomona College.—Paul Hesselink] On September 13 we received a number of questions and concerns from the UNLV committee regarding our proposal, to which we responded immediately, and on September 21 they notified us that the committee was pleased with our proposal and had decided to choose Rudolf von Beckerath Orgelbau, GmbH as the builder of the new instrument.
We made our first visit to Las Vegas the end of September 2001. We had heard much about Las Vegas and were excited to be visiting. On this trip, we were pleased to meet the donor of the funds to build the organ, Mr. Edward Smith; we also met with the architect who designed the recital hall. We showed them our proposed façade drawing. When we began designing the organ we wanted to provide a special Hamburg façade, modified to fit into the hall. The “Hamburger façade,” typical for North German organs in the 17th and 18th centuries, is a timeless architectural design, and in our modern interpretation is successful and perfect for the hall.
During this first visit we gathered on the stage of the almost-completed hall and discussed placement of the instrument, its height, width and depth and how much space on the stage could be allowed for the instrument, considering the other uses of the recital hall. Temperature and humidity requirements were evaluated, and we had a long discussion about acoustical properties of the room. We were confident about the acoustical setting because of our long and varied experience with churches and concert halls. Concerns about weight were important because we estimated that the proposed organ would weigh around eight tons.
The tonal conception of the UNLV organ was generated from the need to provide both a teaching and concert instrument. The distribution of the 38 stops, 53 ranks and 2,802 pipes into Great, Positiv, Swell and Pedal divisions was planned to give each stop its own individual and beautiful sound. Each division has its own distinctive character. Beckerath, in building all of its instruments, employs thoroughly researched and established scaling practices, uses careful methods of construction, and takes meticulous care in the voicing of each stop. Thus, the company has established a world-renowned reputation for producing organs in which individual stops function and blend impeccably in ensemble but that also produce beautiful solo sounds. These qualities provide the player with an optimum number of varied and creative registration possibilities. This makes possible artistic performance of the historic organ literature and gives the organist many choices for effective interpretation of organ compositions from the Romantic and modern literature.
Between the signing of the contract for the UNLV project in January 2001 and beginning construction of the instrument in 2003, several additional visits were made to Las Vegas to clear up questions that arose. We needed to make sure that the power supply would be compatible with the electronic components in the stop, coupler, sequencer and memory level functions. The technical plans and drawings required three months of work.
By mid-2003, 14 team members of the firm began the actual construction of the organ in our Hamburg factory. More than 7,000 man-hours would be needed to build all the thousands of parts for the organ. The builders of the case, the mechanical tracker system, the windchests, the wind channels, and the pipe makers—all of them gave their best workmanship. After the June 2004 arrival of the organ in Las Vegas, three months were needed for assembly and technical installation, and after an intensive six-week period for the voicing, the instrument was completed.
The first public hearing of the instrument on October 1, 2004, was a very exciting moment for all of us. Our finished organ was a confirmation for us to continue our path in the future as our firm has done since its beginnings: maintain the traditions of the past but let that tradition be alive in a changed shape for today and for the future. We are proud that the sound of our Beckerath organ imparts pleasure and joy to students, to performers and to listeners from the community who will hear this organ for many years to come.
—Rolf Miehl
General Organbuilding Director
Rudolf von Beckerath Orgelbau

GREAT (C to a''') 58 notes
16' Bordon
8' Principal
8' Rohrflöte
4' Octave
4' Spitzflöte
22⁄3' Quinte
2' Offenflöte
11⁄3' Mixtur V
8' Trompete
Positiv to Great
Swell to Great
Swell to Great 4'
Swell to Great 16'

POSITIV (C to a''') 58 notes
8' Holzgedackt
4' Rohrflöte
4' Principal
22⁄3'-13⁄5' Sesquialtera II
2' Waldflöte
11⁄3' Larigot
1' Scharf IV
8' Dulcian
Tremulant
Swell to Positiv

SWELL (C to a''') 58 notes
16' Flûte allemande
8' Violprincipal
8' Salicional
8' Bordon
8' Voix célèste
4' Fugara
4' Flûte octaviante
22⁄3' Nasard
2' Octavin
13⁄5' Tierce
2' Plein jeu V
16' Basson
8' Trompette harmonique
8' Hautbois
Tremulant
Swell to Swell 4'
Swell to Swell 16'

PEDAL (C to g) 32 notes
16' Principal
16' Subbass
8' Octavbass
8' Spielflöte
4' Choralbass
22⁄3' Hintersatz IV
16' Posaune
Positiv to Pedal
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
Swell to Pedal 4'

Clyde Holloway died December 18, 2013, in Houston, Texas. He was 77 years old. The Herbert S. Autrey Professor Emeritus of Organ at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, Holloway earned B.Mus. (1957) and M.Mus. (1959) degrees from the University of Oklahoma, studying with Mildred Andrews, and the S.M.D. degree in 1974 from Union Theological Seminary, studying with Robert Baker.

Holloway’s concert career began in 1964 when he won the National Young Artists Competition of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) in Philadelphia. He performed under the auspices of Karen McFarlane Artists, and was a featured artist at numerous AGO conventions, also appearing in recital in Mexico City, the West Indies, and Europe.

His doctoral dissertation, The Organ Works of Olivier Messiaen and Their Importance in His Total Oeuvre, remains an important monograph concerning this music. Holloway worked with the composer on several occasions, examined his works at the organ of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris, and performed under his supervision. As a Fulbright Scholar at the Amsterdam Conservatory, he worked with Gustav Leonhardt in the study of organ, harpsichord, and chamber music.

Clyde Holloway began his teaching career in 1965 as the youngest member of the Indiana University School of Music faculty. In 1977, he joined the faculty of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he established the organ program and served as Chairman of the Keyboard Department and Director of Graduate Studies. The school’s widely acclaimed Fisk-Rosales organ embodies his unique understanding of how numerous organ-building traditions and tonal designs are manifested in organ literature and will be considered his most profound contribution to Rice University, Houston, and the larger musical world. He also served as organist and choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral in Houston for many years; in 1993, he was named Honorary Lay Canon and Organist and Choirmaster Emeritus.

Renowned as a gifted pedagogue, Dr. Holloway served on the AGO’s Committee for Professional Education, addressed two conferences of the National Conference on Organ Pedagogy, led workshops and masterclasses, and served as a member of the jury for numerous competitions, including the Concours de Europe, the Fort Wayne Competition, the Music Teachers National Association Competition, the National Young Artists Competition of the American Guild of Organists, and the Grand Prix de Chartres. In 1994 he was invited to perform for the Bicentennial Festival of the celebrated Clicquot organ in the Cathedral of Poitiers, France, and served as a member of the jury for the international competition held at the end of the ten-day festival. 

Sylvie Poirier, 65 years old, passed away December 21, 2013 in Montréal of cancer. Born in Montréal on February 15, 1948 into a family of artists, her father was a goldsmith jeweller, and her mother, a painter and sculptor, was a pupil of the renowned painter Paul-Emile Borduas. Influenced by her parents, she began drawing and painting, and studied piano from an early age and later studied organ at l’Ecole de Musique Vincent d’Indy, Montréal. In 1970 she gained her baccalaureat in the class of Françoise Aubut and went on to study at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal with Bernard Lagacé, with whom she obtained her Premier Prix in 1975. In 1976 Poirier studied at l’Université de Montréal with the blind French organist Antoine Reboulot. From 1977–1983 she was professeur affilié at l’Ecole de Musique Vincent d’Indy, presenting private music and drawing courses around Montréal.

In 1983 she became the Founding President of “Unimusica Inc.” whose objective was to bring together the art forms of music, painting, enamels, as well as poetry and photography. At the invitation of the oncologist founder of “Vie nouvelle” at Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, Montréal, Poirier taught a course specifically designed for cancer patients entitled “Psychology of Life through Drawing” in the 1980s. 

She gave recitals in North America and Europe and broadcast many times for Radio Canada. Her organ duet career with her husband Philip Crozier spanned eighteen years, with eight commissioned and premièred works, numerous concerts in many countries, several broadcasts at home and abroad, and three CDs of original organ duets.

Sylvie Poirier also recorded Jean Langlais’ Première Symphonie, and Petr Eben’s Job and The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart; she gave the latter work’s North American première of the published version in Montréal in 2005. Poirier was also an accomplished painter and portraitist; examples of her work can be found at sylviepoirier.com.

She was predeceased by her only son Frédéric (30) in 2007. Sylvie Poirier is survived by her husband, Philip Crozier.

Phares L. Steiner died in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 14, 2013 at age 85. Born in Lima, Ohio, Steiner earned a bachelor’s degree in organ at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and a master’s degree in organ performance at the University of Michigan in 1952, where he studied with Robert Noehren and where he began his career as an organ builder, at first working with Noehren. In 1953 with Noehren as consultant, Steiner designed the prototype of an electric-action slider chest. After service in the Army he worked with Fouser Associates in Birmingham, Michigan from 1955 to 1957. He established Steiner Organs Inc. in 1959 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1962 relocated to Louisville, where he was joined in 1966 by Gottfried Reck from Kleuker in Germany. They incorporated in 1968 as Steiner Reck Inc.; Steiner was responsible for tonal matters of more than 90 organs, many of which were mechanical action. 

After retiring from Steiner Reck in 1988, he continued pipe organ work on a freelance basis, including working at Webber & Borne Organ Builders, and R.A. Daffer in the Washington, D.C. area while living in Columbia, Maryland. Phares Steiner returned to Louisville in 2003 with his family, where they became members of the Cathedral of the Assumption, home to one of his largest instruments.  

A charter member of the American Institute of Organbuilders, Steiner was also an active member of APOBA at Steiner Reck and a member of Phi Mu Alpha music fraternity. He also served as organist at several churches, including St. Louis Catholic Church in Clarkesville, Maryland, and Trinity Catholic Church, Louisville. 

Phares L. Steiner is survived by his wife Ellen Heineman Steiner, daughter Adrienne, son Paul, and brother, Donald F. Steiner M.D.

Marianne Webb, 77, of Carbondale, Illinois, died December 7, 2013, at Parkway Manor in Marion, Illinois, from metastatic breast cancer, which she had for the past 20 years. She enjoyed a lengthy and distinguished career as a recitalist and professor of music at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC).

Miss Webb was born on October 4, 1936, in Topeka, Kansas where she exhibited an early passion for organ music. While in Topeka, she began her studies with Richard M. Gayhart and continued with Jerald Hamilton at Washburn University, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, in 1958. She obtained the Master of Music degree, with highest distinction, from the University of Michigan (1959), as a scholarship student of Marilyn Mason. Further study was with Max Miller of Boston University and Robert Noehren at the University of Michigan.

After teaching organ and piano at Iowa State University for two years, she continued her studies in Paris as a Fulbright scholar with André Marchal. Further graduate study was with Arthur Poister at Syracuse University and Russell Saunders at the Eastman School of Music.

Marianne Webb taught organ and music theory and served as university organist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale from 1965 until her retirement in 2001 as professor emerita of music. She continued to serve as visiting professor and distinguished university organist for an additional 11 years. During her tenure, she built a thriving organ department and established, organized, and directed the nationally acclaimed SIUC Organ Festivals (1966–1980), the first of their kind in the country. The school’s 58-rank Reuter pipe organ she sought funding for and designed was named in her honor.

Miss Webb married David N. Bateman on October 3, 1970, in Carbondale. Together they gave the endowment that established in perpetuity the Marianne Webb and David N. Bateman Distinguished Organ Recital Series that presents each year outstanding, well-established concert organists in recital for the residents of southern Illinois.

As a concert artist, Marianne Webb toured extensively throughout the United States, performing for American Guild of Organists (AGO) chapters, churches, colleges and universities. In addition, she maintained an active schedule of workshops, master classes, and seminars for church music conferences. A member of the AGO, she served the guild as a member of the national committees on Educational Resources, Chapter Development, and Membership Development and Chapter Support. Locally, she re-established the Southern Illinois Chapter of the AGO in 1983 and served as its dean for six years. She performed recitals and presented workshops at numerous AGO national and regional conventions. For many years she concertized under the auspices of the Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists. She recorded on the ProOrgano and Pleiades labels and was featured on the nationally syndicated American Public Media program “Pipedreams.” 

Miss Webb maintained a balanced career as both performer and teacher. Her students have distinguished themselves by winning local, area, and national competitions. A sought-after adjudicator, Miss Webb was a member of the jury for many of the country’s most prestigious competitions. She also served as an organ consultant to numerous churches in the Midwest.

A special collection, which bears her name, is housed in the University Archives of Morris Library on the SIUC campus. Upon completion, this collection will include all of her professional books, music, recordings, and papers. Her “Collection of Sacred Music” has been appraised as “one of the largest private gatherings of sacred music in the world with a particular emphasis on the pipe organ.”

Among numerous honors during her long and distinguished career, Miss Webb has received the Distinguished Service Award from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, life membership in the Fulbright Association, the AGO’s Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award recognizing her outstanding leadership in the Guild, and the St. Louis AGO Chapter’s Avis Blewett Award, given for outstanding contributions to the field of organ and/or sacred music. From the Theta Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota at Washburn University she received the Sword of Honor and the Honor Certificate.

Miss Webb is survived by her twin sister, Peggy Westlund; a niece, Allison Langford; a nephew, Todd Westlund; a godson, R. Kurt Barnhardt, PhD; and her former husband, Dr. David N. Bateman.

Throughout her lifetime Miss Webb was confronted with great adversities, which she overcame to become a nationally recognized organ teacher and recitalist. She leaves an impressive legacy of students holding positions of prominence in colleges and churches throughout the United States. She will be remembered not only for her musical artistry and excellence in teaching, but as a woman of quiet strength, courage, and abiding faith. In gratitude to God for her lifelong career, she established the St. Cecilia Recital Endowment in 2007 to present world-renowned concert organists in recital during the biennial national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

At a later date, a memorial organ recital played by Paul Jacobs will take place in Shryock Auditorium, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Memorials may be sent to SIU Foundation to benefit the Distinguished Organ Recital Series Endowment. 

—Dennis C. Wendell