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CONCORA Summer Festival

CONCORA’s (Connecticut Choral Artists) Summer Festival 2015 will be held July 19–25 in Bethany Covenant Church, Berlin, Connecticut, with conductor Joseph D’Eugenio. D’Eugenio has been director of the Greater Middleton Chorale for 16 years and is director of music for the First Congregational Church of Cheshire, Connecticut.

Highlights of the festival include Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, A Red, Red Rose by James Mulholland, and Come, Let Us Sound with Melody by Connecticut composer Peter Niedmann. For information: concora.org.

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Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival Twelfth Anniversary

David Spicer

David Spicer began as Minister of Music and the Arts at First Church of Christ in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1986. In 1996 he and Harold Robles founded the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival. Spicer is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Alexander McCurdy, and is a graduate of the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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It hardly seems possible that twelve years have gone by since we began the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival! We have experienced outstanding applicants, who reflected wonderful, superb teaching, outstanding adjudicators, and a remarkable and consistently high level of music making.
Beautiful New England weather gave an idyllic setting for the festival. On Friday evening, September 10, our traditional opening concert was held. The service/choral portions were played by the writer:

Prelude: Benedictus, op. 59, no. 9, Max Reger (played also at the first annual festival)
Psalm 150, César Franck
Hymn: Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation (tune: Christ Church), Richard W. Dirksen
Kyrie (from Messe Solennelle, op. 16), Louis Vierne
He Comes to Us (text by Albert Schweitzer), Jane Marshall
Go Ye into All the World, Robert Wetzler
Hymn: Let Heaven Rejoice (tune: Rock Harbor) (text by Hal M. Helms), Alan MacMillan

The three judges were each invited to play a selection of their own choosing. The artists’ playing from the balcony was projected onto a screen downstairs in the historic Meetinghouse. Frederick Hohman played his arrangement of Arioso (Suite No. 3 in D) by J. S. Bach. Wilma Jensen played Méditation à Ste. Clothilde by Philip James. John Weaver then played Chorale Prelude on Ellers followed by Fantasy on Sine Nomine, both his own compositions.
Saturday morning, from 9 to noon, the three high school division finalists played the required repertoire. At 2 pm the young professional division finalists were heard. The combined repertoire of these six finalists included hymn tunes: St. Thomas (Williams), Coronation, Ein’ Feste Burg, Diademata, Slane, and Veni Creator; Bach: Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542, Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543, Prelude and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 539, Trio Sonata No. 1 in E-flat Major, BWV 525, and Trio Sonata No. 5 in C Major, BWV 529; Widor: Cantabile (from Symphony No. 6 in G Minor), Andante Cantabile (from Symphony No. 4 in F), and Andante Sostenuto (from Symphonie Gothique); Franck: Choral No. 2 in B Minor and Choral No. 3 in A Minor; Eben: Moto Ostinato (from Sunday Music); Jongen: Sonata Eroïca, op. 94; Jehan Alain: Aria; Duruflé: Scherzo, op. 2; Messiaen: Dieu parmi nous (Nativité du Seigneur, IX).
Immediately afterwards, all finalists and judges had a chance for interaction and discussion over a delicious meal provided by Dana Spicer at Mainly Tea, directly across the street from the Meetinghouse.
On Sunday, September 12, all finalists played portions of the 8, 9:15, and 11 am worship services. At 1:30 pm, a masterclass with the three judges was held. Many important topics were covered, and awards were presented.

The judges’ decisions
High School Division: first place, Bryan Anderson from Stockbridge, Georgia, a student of Sarah L. Martin; second place, Deniz Uz from Longwood, Florida, a student of Terry Yount and currently with Thomas Bara at the Interlochen Arts Academy; third place, Clarence Chaisson from South Lancaster, Massachusetts, a student of Christa Rakich.
Young Professional Division: first place, Adam Pajan from New Haven, Connecticut, formerly a student of Charles Boyd Tompkins at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina and currently with Martin Jean at Yale University; second place, Clayton Roberts from Houston, Texas, a student of Robert Bates at the University of Houston; third place: Jonathan Hehn from South Bend, Indiana, a student of Craig Cramer at the University of Notre Dame.
We are very grateful to Charles Callahan for serving as the screening judge for initial recorded examples of these organists and other applicants.
We are also grateful to Leigh and Betty Standish for the $2000 award for first prize in the high school division. The young professional division first prize of $3500 was given by Robert Bausmith and Jill Peters-Gee, M.D. Thanks go to John Gorton and Richard Pilch for providing $750 for the David Spicer Hymn Playing Award, which was awarded to high school division finalist Bryan Anderson. Other prizes and gifts toward the festival—including the high school division second prize of $1000 and the young professional division second prize of $1500—came from Austin Organs, Inc., Marilyn Austin & the Austin family, and several individuals in the First Church family. We also thank Dr. Paul Bender for his gift to this festival.
Special thanks go to Bon Smith of Austin Organ Service Company of Avon, Connecticut, who was on hand throughout the Saturday competition to offer assistance, should the organ need it, as well as his gracious gift of tuning and maintenance for this festival. Austin Organ Service Company is the regular curator of this instrument, serviced by Alex Belair and Michael Tanguay.
Our thanks to William Dean, music committee chair; Andrea Volpe, ASOF chair; and Linda Henderson, assistant, for so ably performing the organizational work that made the festival run smoothly and efficiently.
Churches that allowed their instruments to be used for additional practice include Trinity Episcopal Church, Wethersfield, Bruce Henley, organist-choirmaster; St. John’s Episcopal Church, West Hartford, Ralph Valentine, organist-choirmaster; St. James’ Episcopal Church, also in West Hartford, Jason Roberts, organist-choirmaster; First Church of Christ, Glastonbury, Angela Salcedo, director of music ministries; Cathedral of St. Joseph, Hartford, Ezequiel Menéndez, music director; and Bethany Covenant Church, Berlin, Olga Ljungholm, minister of music.
The 2009 first-place winners, Bryan Anderson and Adam Pajan, will perform in recital on Sunday, June 13, 2010, at 7 pm at the First Church of Christ, Wethersfield, Connecticut.
The 2010 Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival will have the following judges for the competition: Joyce Jones, Charles Callahan, and Frederick Hohman. Plans are underway to feature these organists in the opening concert of the festival on Friday evening, September 10, at 7:30 pm. The ASOF committee is hoping to invite six qualified young organists to compete in the two divisions on Saturday, September 11. Information about the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival and current requirements for the competition are available by telephone at 860/529-1575 ext. 209, by e-mail at [email protected], or by viewing the ASOF website: www.firstchurch.org/ASOF. 

 

Nunc Dimittis

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Ruth Ann Hofstad Ferguson died March 23 in Northfield, Minnesota, after a prolonged struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 71. She attended Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, majoring in music education, with a minor in religion. While at Concordia, she studied organ and served churches as a substitute organist. Upon graduation, she taught elementary music in Hawley, Minnesota, and in summers continued her organ studies with Arthur Poister at Syracuse University. Ferguson obtained a master’s degree in organ performance at the Eastman School of Music, studying with Russell Saunders.
 
It was at Eastman that she met John Ferguson; they married in August 1971, moving to Kent, Ohio, where she worked as an adjunct faculty member at Kent State University and served as associate organist at the Kent United Church of Christ. In 1978, the family moved to Minneapolis, where John was appointed organist and director of music at Central Lutheran Church and Ruth as assistant organist. The family moved to Northfield in 1983, where Ruth Ferguson served as organist at St. John’s Lutheran Church for 25 years, and later was their music coordinator. She also taught organ for fifteen years at St. Olaf College as an adjunct faculty member.
 
Ruth Ann Hofstad Ferguson is survived by her husband, John; son, Christopher (Sarah) of Auburn, Alabama; granddaughter, Lucy; sister, Ardis Braaton (David) of Grand Forks; and brother, Philip Hofstad (Carole) of Bemidji; several nieces and nephews, and other relatives and friends.
 
William A. Goodwin passed away December 7, 2013, at the age of 83. A native of Elgin, Illinois, he studied at Knox College in Galesburg. While in service in the United States Army from 1952 to 1954 in Maryland, he studied organ on weekend leaves. He worked for Baird Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts, until he founded his own firm, Keyword Associates, which designed and installed recording systems in courtrooms around the nation.
 
For more than thirty years, he served as organist and music director for the First Congregational Church of Woburn, Massachusetts, where he played the 1860 E. & G. G. Hook Opus 283. Goodwin established an organ restoration fund to maintain the historic instrument there. A memorial concert was presented at the church on May 4.
 
Paul Salamunovich, Grammy-nominated conductor who was music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1991 to 2001, died April 3. He was 86. He also served as director of music at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, California, from 1949 to 2009, and taught at Loyola Marymount University, Mount St. Mary’s College, and USC Thornton School of Music. Early in his career he sang for movies and TV shows. Salamunovich never formally studied choral music but sang in a boys’ choir at St. James Elementary School in Redondo Beach. He enlisted in the Navy during World War II and following his discharge in 1946, joined the Los Angeles Concert Youth Chorus, which later became the Roger Wagner Chorale. Wagner named Salamunovich assistant conductor in 1953. When Wagner created the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1964, Salamunovich served as assistant conductor until 1977; he returned to the group as music director in 1991. His work with composer Morten Lauridsen led to a Grammy nomination for their 1998 recording of “Lux Aeterna,” which Lauridsen wrote for the Master Chorale.
 
Paul Salamunovich is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Dottie; sons John, Stephen, Joseph, and Thomas; 11 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and his brother Joseph. A daughter, Nanette, then 23, died in 1977.
 
William Henry Sprigg, Jr., age 94, died on April 3 in Frederick, Maryland. Born March 7, 1920, in Manchester, New Hampshire, he earned a Bachelor’s degree, majoring in organ and music theory, a Master of Music degree in composition, and a Performer’s Certificate in organ from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, and did additional graduate work at Harvard, Boston University, the Organ Institute, and the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. In the 1950s he won first prize for the symphonic tone poem “Maryland Portraits in Contrast: Edgar Allen Poe and Charles Carroll” in a competition sponsored by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Association; the orchestra performed it several times. Sprigg played many recitals nationwide, and recorded and engineered two LP recordings for the Orion label. For more than forty years Sprigg was professor of organ and music theory at Hood College, where he was instrumental in restoring Brodbeck Music Hall and designing the Coblentz Memorial Organ in Coffman Chapel. He served as organist-choir director at Evangelical Lutheran Church in Frederick, where he designed the organs in 1950 and again in 1981. William Henry Sprigg, Jr. is survived by four nieces and a nephew. 
 
Greg Vey, 51, passed away July 26, 2013, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He directed musical theater productions in the Fort Wayne area, served the University of St. Francis in the music technology program, and was director of music and organist at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, music director for the Fort Wayne Männerchor/Damenchor, and director of operations for the Heartland Chamber Chorale. Dean of the Fort Wayne AGO chapter, Vey was a regular contributor to the Sänger Zeitung auf dem Nord Amerikanisher Sängerbund, the North American journal for German choral singing societies, served as associate director of choral studies at Homestead High School, and on various panels and committees including the Community Arts Council of Fort Wayne. Vey earned BA and MA degrees at Indiana University, and earned certifications to help implement emerging technologies in an arts-based business model for the 21st century. 
 
Greg Vey is survived by his wife, Kathy Vey, daughter Karra (Ian) McCormick, son Kristofer Vey, granddaughter Emma Hackett, and sister, Elaine Layland. 
 
Brett Allan Zumsteg died April 14. Born December 23, 1953, in Burlingame, California, he developed a love of music and the organ at age eight, receiving degrees in organ performance: a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California, and master’s and doctoral degrees from Northwestern University. Zumsteg held teaching positions at Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska; Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah; and Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. He became a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists in 1986. 
 
Brett Zumsteg served for many years as organist and choir director for First United Methodist Church in Park Ridge, Illinois, where he was the driving force behind the design and installation of its organ in 1996. He also accompanied the Lake Forest College Concert Choir and directed its College and Community Chorus. Gifted at improvisation, he had the ability to develop melodies and variations on the spot, even while carrying on a conversation with someone. Zumsteg worked as a senior client services analyst for the Business Information Services division of Smiths Group and John Crane, Inc. for 15 years.
 
Brett Allan Zumsteg is survived by his children, Emily (James) and Benjamin (Michael), granddaughters Zoe and Eva, and innumerable family and friends.

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