Douglas O’Neill appointment

 

Douglas O’Neill has been appointed director of sacred music at Holy Trinity and Holy Rosary Catholic Churches in Springfield, Kentucky, where he will develop a choral program and oversee liturgical music in the parishes.

O’Neill, winner of First Prize at the 1999 Dublin International Organ Competition, previously served as organist and assistant director of music at the Cathedral of the Madeleine and Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City. He holds degrees from the University of Evansville, University of Iowa, and the University of Kansas, where he completed the DMA in church music.

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The Class of 2016: 20 leaders under the age of 30

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The Diapason’s second annual “20 under 30” selections came from a field that included over 130 nominations, a response that exceeded the previous year’s. The nominees were evaluated based upon information provided in the nominations; we selected only from those who had been nominated. We looked for evidence of such things as career advancement, technical skills, and creativity and innovation; we considered a nominee’s awards and competition prizes, publications and compositions, and significant positions in the mix. Our selections were not limited merely to organists but reflect the breadth of our editorial scope, which includes the organ, harpsichord, carillon, and church music. Here we present the winners’ backgrounds and accomplishments, and then have them tell us something interesting about themselves and about their achievements, goals, and aspirations.

Since we had to decline multiple nominees for each one we chose, selecting only 20 from a field of very worthy nominees was quite a challenge. We encourage you to participate in the “20 under 30” awards next year—a person must be nominated in order to be selected.

 

Stephen Buzard

Stephen Buzard, 27, was born in Urbana, Illinois, into a family of church musicians—his father is president of the Buzard Organ Company and his mother is organist-choirmaster at the Episcopal Chapel of St. John the Divine. Stephen studied organ with Ken Cowan at Westminster Choir College and served as organ scholar for Trinity Episcopal Church, Princeton, and director of music for the Episcopal Church at Princeton University. He spent a year as senior organ scholar at Wells Cathedral in England. He earned a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music, studying organ with Thomas Murray and improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart. He served as organ scholar for Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, and as organist for Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School, and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Stephen was appointed assistant organist to John Scott at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue in New York City where he accompanied the choir of men and boys and assisted in the training of choristers. Following John Scott’s untimely death in August 2015, Stephen served as acting organist and director of music at St. Thomas Church, alongside his colleague Benjamin Sheen. 

Stephen has released a compact disc on the Delos label, In Light or Darkness. He won the 2010 Arthur Poister Competition and the 2009 Joan Lippincott Competition for Excellence in Organ Performance. Stephen plays recitals, leads choral workshops, and accompanies extensively.

An interesting fact: My wife Lieve and I first met at RSCM summer choir camp when we were 11 years old.

Proudest achievement: Maintaining the St. Thomas choral tradition in the wake of John Scott’s sudden passing and being able to minister to the boy choristers, most of whom had never experienced the loss of someone so intimately involved in their lives. John was their mentor, hero, and in many ways the largest figure in their lives. But we know that John would have wanted us to carry on just as he would have done, and he taught us that the calling to glorify God through music is greater than any one of us.

Career aspirations and goals: To do exactly what I am doing this year. I often say I have gotten my dream job, it just came to me by way of a nightmare. Regardless of where I serve in the future, I want to continue to teach children to worship God in song in the centuries-old tradition of being a chorister.

 

Alcee Chriss

Alcee Chriss, III, 23, a native of Dallas, Texas, is a doctoral student in organ at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, where he studies with Hans-Ola Ericsson. He received the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied organ with James David Christie, Olivier Latry, and Marie-Louise Langlais, and harpsichord and continuo with Webb Wiggins. He has also studied harpsichord and continuo playing with Hank Knox. In May 2015, he was the harpsichordist for Oberlin’s production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s opera Les Plaisirs de Versailles at the National Museum of American History and the Boston Early Music Festival. 

He won first and audience prizes in the Miami Organ Competition (2014), the Albert Schweitzer National Organ Competition and the Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists in 2013, and the Fort Wayne National Organ Competition in 2016, along with second prize in the 2015 Taylor National Organ Competition in Atlanta; he performed as a “Rising Star” at the 2014 national convention of the American Guild of Organists in Boston. Chriss also received a grant from Oberlin’s 1835 fund to spend January 2014 in France studying historic organs and repertoire. In June, he will compete as one of ten finalists in the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition. He has performed in such venues as the Meyerson Symphony Center (Dallas), John F. Kennedy Center, Washington National Cathedral, Caruth Auditorium, St. Olaf’s Catholic Church in Minneapolis, and at the Festival Myrelingues in Lyon, France. In addition to his organ and harpsichord studies, Alcee Chriss is active as a conductor and jazz pianist.

An interesting fact: I didn’t read music well for the longest time because I was a jazz and gospel musician first and foremost. I saw my first pipe organ at the ripe age of 15, only two years before I applied to the Oberlin Conservatory. I guess it was a stroke of luck that I’ve made it this far! 

Proudest achievement: Being accepted as one of the finalists at the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition. 

Career aspirations and goals: To be a concert organist and teacher, and perhaps one day go to law school and integrate my expertise in music and interest in intellectual property.

 

Kipp Cortez

Kipp Cortez, 27, is the Joseph F. Marsh Endowed Assistant Professor of Music at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia; he teaches studio organ and carillon and oversees the renovation of the 48-bell Marsh Family Carillon and the 1968 Casavant organ. He is using his 2015 Graduate Music Award from the Theodore Presser Foundation to research American composer Frederick Marriott (1901–89), who studied organ with Marcel Dupré and carillon with Jef Denyn. Cortez’s debut CD (in production) features Marriott’s compositions. A carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, Cortez holds the Master of Music in sacred music from the University of Michigan, where he has served as coordinator of carillon, and the Bachelor of Music in church music from Valparaiso University. While serving as acting parish musician for Grace Episcopal Church, Oak Park, Illinois, he conducted performances of Duruflé’s Requiem and Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. Kipp is a doctoral candidate in organ and sacred music at the University of Michigan, where he has studied organ with James Kibbie and Marilyn Mason. His carillon instructors include Dennis Curry of Kirk in the Hills, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. 

An interesting fact: I love to cook. I learned how mostly from watching my Dad. It is something we still do when we can. Like him, I love to cook with lots of spice and peppers. The more heat, the better.

Proudest achievement: During the summer of 2014, I coordinated a successful carillon recital series on the Charles Baird Carillon at Burton Tower in downtown Ann Arbor. Six other carillonneurs and myself gave recitals that drew many guests. For many of those who came out, they had never before seen a carillon. After each recital, I invited people to come upstairs to see the instrument. Watching them absorb what it is they were seeing was a real thrill. It remains a great joy for me to share the carillon with people. 

Career aspirations and goals: I have one goal: to use music to inspire people. That can take many forms: giving recitals on organ and carillon, teaching in the classroom, giving private lessons, or leading the song of the people on Sunday morning.

 

Monica Czausz

Monica Czausz, 22, is a fourth-year student of Ken Cowan at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, Texas, where she will complete the five-year Bachelor of Music/Master of Music program in organ performance in May 2017. She was appointed cathedral organist at Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal), Houston, Texas in September 2015 following three years serving as cathedral organ scholar. She has received first prize in the 2015 American Guild of Organists Regional Competition for Young Organists (Region VII: Southwest), the 2015 Schweitzer Competition in the Young Professionals’ Division, as well as the 2013 William C. Hall, 2012 L. Cameron Johnson, and 2011 Oklahoma City University competitions.

An increasingly sought-after recitalist, Monica was a featured performer in 2015 at the Organ Historical Society national convention in western Massachusetts, the AGO regional convention in Fort Worth, Texas, and the East Texas Organ Festival in Kilgore, Texas. She will perform at the 2016 national convention of the AGO in Houston, Texas, both as a “Rising Star” and as cathedral organist for Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral. Additionally, she will perform at the 2016 national convention of the Organ Historical Society in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, the 2017 regional convention of the AGO in Dallas, Texas, and the 2017 AGO/Royal Canadian College of Organists regional convention in Montreal. Monica’s performances have been broadcast on WRTI Philadelphia, 91.7 Houston, and KTRU Rice Radio.

An interesting fact: I enjoy swing dancing in my spare time.

Proudest achievement: I’m proud and honored to be able to make incredible music with Robert Simpson and the Cathedral Choir at Christ Church Cathedral, Houston.

Career aspirations and goals: I hope to continue to hone my skills as a musician, both solo and collaborative, in the pursuit of realizing the most nuanced interpretations of a variety of repertoire.

 

Trevor Dodd

Trevor Dodd, 27, a native of Battle Creek, Michigan, is an organbuilder and service technician for John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders in Champaign, Illinois. From a young age, Trevor has manifested extraordinary interest in and ability to work with pipe organs of all kinds. He acquired and set up two pipe organs in his home before he finished high school. A 2006 E. Power Biggs Fellow of the Organ Historical Society, he studied organ at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, while earning a bachelor’s degree in construction management. During these years, he was an active freelance organ technician with clients in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. He provided restorative services for several pipe organs played at the 2012 national convention of the Organ Historical Society and thoroughly restored an Aeolian-Hammond roll-playing organ that was exhibited as a surprise addition to this convention, the first electronic organ to be exhibited at an OHS convention. Since 2014, he has been a full-time team member of the Buzard firm, where he has successfully completed significant and challenging rebuilding and restoration projects, especially in restoration of vintage electro-pneumatic actions. 

An interesting fact: I reside in Urbana, Illinois, with my beautiful wife and two rambunctious dogs.

Proudest achievement: Restoring a Hinners Harp while working with the Buzard firm.

Career aspirations and goals: I want to continue bridging the old craft of organ building with technology to make the technician’s and organbuilder’s jobs more efficient and streamlined.

 

 Joey Fala

Joey Fala, 24, is pursuing a master’s degree in organ at Yale University, studying with Martin Jean. He is a 2015 graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, with bachelor of architecture and master of science in lighting degrees. 

A native of Hawaii, he began organ studies with Katherine Crosier at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu and later coached with Alfred Fedak and Christian Lane during his undergraduate career. Joey previously served as organist and choir director at First United Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York, and as organ scholar at Central Union Church in Honolulu. A recipient of the Robert T. Anderson Award and a Pogorzelski-Yankee Memorial Scholarship from the American Guild of Organists, Fala was a recitalist for the 2015 national convention of the Organ Historical Society. 

Joey Fala has worked as a designer with HLB Lighting in Boston, and in research at the Lighting Research Center in Troy. Aside from music he loves being in the water—surfing, swimming, and most recently playing water polo for the Yale team.

An interesting fact: I’m known for eating and making sushi. My college roommate and I built and ran a sushi bar out of our apartment that was frequented by fellow students and even some professors. If I had to choose another career, maybe I’d open a Japanese fusion cuisine restaurant.

 Proudest achievement: I shared a pretty proud moment with my first organ teacher when I told her I was admitted to the program at Yale, especially since we both thought I had ended my music career after graduating from high school and leaving for architecture school. Being in a music program for the first time, I am discovering how clueless I am about some pretty basic things people expect me to know as a musician, but my teachers and especially colleagues here at Yale have been amazingly supportive in helping me to learn the ropes.

Career aspirations and goals: While my knowledge of choral music is almost non-existent, being surrounded by the mega-talented performers and scholars of this repertoire at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music has really inspired me to delve into this uncharted territory of my musical knowledge. I would also love to perform abroad someday on some of the great legendary European organs.

 

Thomas Gaynor

Thomas Gaynor, 24, is a Doctor of Musical Arts (and Artist’s Certificate) candidate studying with David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he received a Master of Music degree and the Performer’s Certificate. Assistant director of music at Christ Episcopal Church, Pittsford, he works with a newly established youth chorister program, the adult choir, and with organist David Baskeyfield. 

Born in New Zealand, Thomas was Richard Prothero Organ Scholar at Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul and later honorary sub-organist. His teachers included Douglas Mews, Michael Fulcher, and Judith Clark. He later held the Maxwell Fernie Scholarship at St. Mary of the Angels Church in Wellington.

The winner of the Third International Bach-Liszt Organ Competition in Erfurt/Weimar, Germany, Sydney International Organ Competition, and the Fort Wayne National Organ Playing Competition, Gaynor has won prizes in the St. Albans International Organ Competition, the Miami International Organ Competition, and the Arthur Poister Scholarship Competition. In 2015 he was awarded the Dr. James B. Cochran Organ Prize, an annual award to an exceptional Eastman organ student. He recently released his first CD, recorded at Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul, New Zealand. Jamal Rossi, dean of the Eastman School of Music, picked this CD as one of five recent recordings that best represent the current Eastman School sound.

An interesting fact: In my spare time I love reading about and occasionally experimenting with molecular gastronomy.

Proudest achievement: Achieving first prizes in organ competitions in three different countries on three different continents.

Goals and aspirations: To be an organist that balances a wide variety of musical activities between academia, church music, and solo and collaborative recitals.

 

Wesley Hall

Wesley Hall, 26, is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied organ with Martin Jean and harpsichord with Arthur Haas. He holds both a master’s degree in historical performance and a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance from the Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied organ with James David Christie and harpsichord with Webb Wiggins. He has had advanced studies in improvisation with Marie-Louise Langlais and Dutch organist Sietze de Vries. Wesley has concertized in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and was the first freshman chosen to represent the organ department at the Oberlin Danenberg Honors Recital in 2009. 

An active chamber musician, he has been a featured soloist and continuo player with such ensembles as Burning River Baroque, Three Notch’d Road, Credo, the Oberlin Baroque Orchestra, and Emmanuel Music in Boston. Wesley recently completed his tenure as organ scholar at Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut, and serves as the minister of music at the First Baptist Church of Worcester, Massachusetts.

An interesting fact: I am an avid bagpiper and have marched in many a parade!

Proudest achievement: A really beloved achievement for me was riding my bicycle across the U.K. from bottom to top.

Career aspirations and goals: Among other things, I hope to learn the entire organ works of J. S. Bach . . . I’ll get back to you on that.

 

Michael Hey

Michael T. C. Hey, 25, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, graduated in 2014 from the Juilliard School in New York City, completing accelerated five-year bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ performance, studying with Paul Jacobs. Within one year of his graduation, Michael joined the Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists roster. 

He is assistant director of music for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, where he was one of two organists who played for Masses celebrated by His Holiness, Pope Francis, during his 2015 visit to New York at St. Patrick and at Madison Square Garden. Michael has performed multiple organ concertos at Lincoln Center with the Juilliard Orchestra and New York City Ballet, has played organ twice with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, has had numerous solo performances at AGO and NPM conventions, and has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, and the Esplanade (Singapore). 

An interesting fact: Wearing my flower print shirt, I showed up five minutes before a rehearsal on Carnegie Hall’s main stage. Then, on the backstage monitor, I saw a choir ascend the risers in tuxes and black dresses, and it occurred to me that I was actually grossly underdressed because it was actually a concert. So, in the blink of an eye, a stagehand threw me his XXL black long sleeve polo shirt and pushed me on stage.

 Proudest achievement: Having the opportunity to share my love of music with so many people by performing throughout the world, teaching, and playing for services at St. Patrick’s, where nearly six million people visit annually.

 Career aspirations and goals: I’d like to keep learning and sharing my music with others, whether it’s performing solo or collaboratively, playing organ in concert, or in church.

 

Amanda Mole

Amanda Mole, 29, is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in organ performance at the Eastman School of Music, where she studies with David Higgs. She earned her bachelor of music degree in organ performance with honors from Eastman, studying with William Porter, and a master of music degree from Yale University studying with Martin Jean. Prior to Eastman, Amanda studied with Larry Schipull and
Patricia Snyder. 

The first-place and audience prize winner of the 2016 Miami International Organ Competition, winner of the 2014 Arthur Poister Organ Competition and 2014 John Rodland Memorial Organ Competition, and the 2014 Peter B. Knock Award, she was a finalist in the 2015 Bach-Liszt International Organ Competition and a semifinalist in the 2014 Dublin International Organ Competition, and has been featured several times on the radio show Pipedreams LIVE!. Last year, she was a featured performer at the New Haven Regional AGO Convention. This year, Amanda will perform at the OHS Convention in Philadelphia. 

Amanda Mole serves as director of music at St. Michael’s Church in Rochester, New York, and at Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Webster, New York, where she directs the adult choirs and the handbell choir. Amanda also sings in the Schola Cantorum of Christ Church, Rochester. 

An interesting fact: I’m completely obsessed with coffee and traveling! Whenever I travel to a new place, I always scope out the third-wave coffee shops and spend all the time when I’m not practicing trying to learn more about the taste, origin, and brewing processes of different coffees. I have a favorite place in Rochester called Fuego. 

Proudest achievement: I’m probably most proud of my first-place wins at national and international competitions. Just this spring, I won my first international competition (hosted in Miami) with a unanimous vote from the judges, and received the audience prize.

 Career aspirations and goals: First and foremost, I’d like to play. The organ is an amazing instrument that’s hidden in plain sight in our society, and everyone I meet wants to know more. Their overwhelming curiosity is exciting and has convinced me of my aspirations. Whether I play in concerts, in competitions, or in church, I want to always learn new music and share it with as many people as I can reach.

 

Adam Pajan

Adam Pajan, 29, completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, in 2014, as a student of John Schwandt. There he teaches courses at several levels in organ construction, history, and design, as well as teaching students in organ performance. He earned the Master of Music degree from the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, studying with Martin Jean and Thomas Murray, and earned his undergraduate degree from Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, studying with Charles Tompkins. Pajan won the Firmin Swinnen Prize in the 2013 Longwood Gardens International Competition, as well as first prizes in the Albert Schweitzer Competition, the Arthur Poister Competition, and the Clarence Mader Competition.

 Adam Pajan’s playing has been heard at conventions of the American Institute of Organbuilders, the Organ Historical Society, and the American Guild of Organists, and he has performed across the United States and in Germany, playing in the cathedrals of Mainz, Magdeburg, Fulda, and Altenberg and other historical churches. He will return in 2016 for a subsequent tour beginning at the Jesuitenkirche in Vienna. An enthusiastic church musician, he serves as organist and choir director at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Norman, Oklahoma, and was recently appointed as artistic director and conductor of the Oklahoma Master Chorale. 

An interesting fact: When I’m not practicing, you may likely find me wildly cheering for the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team.

Proudest achievement: I am proudest of having earned my DMA and secured a university teaching position immediately after graduation.

 Career aspirations and goals: I hope to continue in teaching and earn a tenure-track position where I may continue to work in areas of performing, organbuilding, teaching, and choral and church music.

 

Nathaniel Riggle

Nathaniel A. Riggle, 27, is a freelance pipe organ builder based in Portland, Oregon. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music history and literature from the Dana School of Music of Youngstown State University, where he studied piano with Caroline Oltmanns and organ with Daniel Laginya. Originally hailing from Warren, Ohio, Nathaniel’s first experience with pipe organ building was with the A. Thompson-Allen Company’s restoration of Skinner Organ Company’s Opus 582 (1926) at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, Ohio, completed in 2011. Under the guidance of Nicholas Thompson-Allen, Nathaniel learned about the design of twentieth-century American Romantic orchestral organbuilding, as well as museum-quality conservation and restoration techniques. 

He subsequently worked under Charles Kegg of Kegg Pipe Organ Builders, and most recently, as general manager of Bond Organ Builders, Inc., in Portland, Oregon, working under the guidance of Richard Bond. Nathaniel is a member of the American Institute of Organbuilders. He resides in Lake Oswego, Oregon, with his wife, Emma Mildred, an active organist, teacher, and conductor.

An interesting fact: In addition to building and restoring pipe organs, I am actively involved in the restoration of classic American automobiles. I have restored a 1955 Pontiac Chieftain, a 1957 Buick Special, and am currently working on a 1962 Buick Invicta. 

Proudest achievement: I’m proudest of being a facilitator of harmony in a world of discord. Hearing a pipe organ for the first time never fails to awe and amaze the hearer. I feel that the greatest satisfaction in my work is experiencing with and observing the reaction of the listeners upon their first hearing of a new instrument. 

Career aspirations and goals: My greatest career aspiration is to continue to make the pipe organ accessible to people who love and appreciate its music. My goal is to promote the pipe organ in our society by continuing to build and preserve instruments that will perform for future generations through the highest level craftsmanship I can attain. “The lyf so short, the craft so longe to lerne.” (Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parlement of Foules)

 

Caroline Robinson

 Caroline Robinson, 24, serves as assistant organist at Rochester’s Third Presbyterian Church, working with Peter DuBois. A graduate of the Curtis Institute as a student of Alan Morrison, she is currently

pursuing a master’s degree in organ performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music, studying with David Higgs, and serving as executive assistant for outreach within the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI). 

Caroline will return to Eastman in the fall to pursue the doctorate of musical arts. (Caroline began her organ studies with another member of the Class of 2016, Adam Pajan.) She has performed as a featured soloist with the Kansas City Symphony in addition to giving solo performances at the Kauffman Center, the Kimmel Center, and numerous churches around the country. 

Caroline is a first-prize winner of the Schweitzer Competition and
the West Chester University Competition, and a winner of a Fulbright Grant for continuing studies in Toulouse, where she studied with Michel Bouvard,
Jan Willem Jansen, and Yasuko Uyama Bouvard. In 2015 she performed at the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival, the American Guild of Organists Region III convention, and the Organ Historical Society convention, for which she will perform again in 2016. She was part of a national Pipedreams broadcast in 2007 at Interlochen and in another Pipedreams program devoted to winners of the 2008 Albert Schweitzer Competition. 

An interesting fact: I come from a family of musicians: my father is a conductor and percussionist, and both my mother and sister are violinists. I also played violin for eight years.

Proudest achievement: I’m proud of the year I spent living in Toulouse, France, during which I not only made a deeper connection with the pipe organ, but I also developed a greater understanding of different cultures and the experiences that tie us together as humans. I feel this enriches my music-making, as well!

Career aspirations and goals: My philosophical goal in being an organist is to promote a healthy future for the pipe organ and for those who play it. In my career, I see myself teaching at a university, holding a position at a church, and performing around the country and abroad. I also have a vested interest in helping to coordinate festivals and events that bring organists together around the topic of instruments and the repertoire. 

 

Jonathan Rudy

Jonathan Rudy, 27, originally from Batavia, Illinois, is a candidate for the Doctor of Music degree in organ and sacred music from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, where he earned his Master of Music degree, studying organ with Janette Fishell and choral conducting with William Gray and Richard Tangyuk. His undergraduate study was at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, studying organ and sacred music with Lorraine Brugh and Karel Paukert. He has served as conductor for the Valparaiso University Men’s Chorus, the AGO Bloomington Choralfest Ensemble, and the choral and instrumental ensembles at his church positions. He is presently music director for the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Cookeville, Tennessee, and has served as organist at Central Presbyterian Church, Terre Haute, Indiana, and as associate instructor of music theory and aural skills at Indiana University.

Jonathan won first and audience prizes for the American Guild of Organists’ National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2014. He was also a finalist in the National Organ Playing Competition in Fort Wayne, and was awarded second prize in the Regional Competition for Young Organists (Quimby Competition) in 2011. He will perform at the AGO national convention in Houston this June. He has released a compact disc, Three Halls, on the Pro Organo label. Jonathan’s recital engagements are managed by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.

An interesting fact: I’m fascinated by airplanes and flying; one day, I’d enjoy getting my private pilot’s license.

Proudest achievement: I’m proud that I’m happily married to my beautiful wife, Katie, who is also an organist and an incredible musician. I’m also proud to be blessed with wonderful families and friends.

Career aspirations and goals: My goal is to be providing and/or teaching sacred music and organ. My home has always been in the church and its music, so I’d especially enjoy working full time as a director of music/organist. I’d also really enjoy having the opportunity to teach the next generation of aspiring organists and sacred musicians.

 

Patrick A. Scott

Patrick A. Scott, 29, is assistant organist-choirmaster at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, Georgia, where he plays for services and Evensongs, accompanies the Cathedral Choir and Schola, and leads a chorister program under the standards of the Royal School of Church Music. In 2014, Patrick won the first and audience prizes in the American Guild of Organists’ National Competition in Organ Improvisation in Boston, Massachusetts. A native of Picayune, Mississippi,
he holds a bachelor of music degree in organ performance from Birmingham-Southern College where he studied with James Cook. As a student of Judith and Gerre Hancock, Patrick earned both a master of music and a doctor of musical arts in organ performance and sacred music from the University of Texas at Austin. He has presented recitals, workshops, hymn festivals, and masterclasses for chapters and conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. An active recitalist and accompanist,
Patrick Scott has appeared in concert and with choirs throughout the United States, France, Scotland, England, and Ireland. He has previously served churches in North Carolina, Texas,
and Alabama.

An interesting fact: I like to cook and to travel.

Proudest achievement: Completing my doctorate in music. It was something that I had always wanted to do, and that took a long time to arrive at, but I am thankful everyday that I stuck it out and completed it. 

Career aspirations and goals: I love working in the church, and I love the opportunity to help mold the next generation of musicians, whether it be choristers at church or private organ students.

 

Thomas Sheehan

Thomas Sheehan, 27, is the associate university organist and choirmaster in the Memorial Church of Harvard University. Prior to this position, Sheehan served on the music staff of St. Mark’s Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Trinity Church in Princeton, New Jersey. Tom is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he received diplomas in organ and harpsichord, studying with Alan Morrison and Leon Schelhase. While at Curtis he served as assistant organist to Peter Richard Conte on the Wanamaker Organ.

He received both the Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, as a student of Ken Cowan. He has also studied improvisation with Matthew Glandorf, Ford Lallerstedt, and Bruce Neswick. In 2009 he was awarded first prize in both the Arthur Poister National Competition in Organ Playing and the AGO/Quimby Regional Competition for the Mid-Atlantic Region (Region III). In July 2010, Tom was a performer at the American Guild of Organists national convention in Washington, D. C. He has performed as an organist throughout the United States and in Europe. He served as accompanist (rehearsal and concert) for Singing City under Jeffrey Brillhart for three years and as a rehearsal accompanist/harpsichordist for Choral Arts and the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, and served as Alan Morrison’s assistant at the Philadelphia Young Artist Organ Camp, which is now in its eleventh year.

An interesting fact: While I’m from an extremely musical family, I’m the first in the family to make my living in classical music, as the rest have all been involved in rock music.

Proudest achievement: Just having been lucky enough to actually make my living making music. A part of me certainly never expected to be able to do this as a profession!

Career aspirations and goals: To be able to bring excitement about the organ to a wider audience, particularly to later generations.

 

Wyatt Smith

Wyatt Smith, 25, born in Rapid City, South Dakota, completed a Bachelor of Music degree magna cum laude at the University of South Dakota, studying organ with Larry Schou. In 2015, he earned the Master of Music degree in organ performance from the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University, where he studied with Martin Jean. Wyatt is currently a doctoral student at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studies with Carole Terry. He serves as principal organist for Calvary Lutheran Church in Bellevue, Washington. 

Wyatt has been an exceptionally prolific performer, especially for someone his age, with hundreds of performances past and on his busy calendar for the future. He performed as a “Rising Star” at the 2012 national convention of the American Guild of Organists in Nashville, Tennessee. He is also committed to commissioning and performing new compositions, including the work of David Cherwien, Carson Cooman, Emma Lou Diemer, and Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, among others. He frequently performs in partnership with mezzo-soprano Tracelyn Gesteland, his former voice professor, with whom he has recorded a soon-to-be-released compact disc, Make a Joyful Noise.

An interesting fact: Now that I live in the Pacific Northwest, I am becoming more of an outdoor person. I love going for walks in different parks in Seattle, when the sun is out. I even became a member of REI.

Proudest achievement: Performing for 2,200 people during the International Summer Organ Festival at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, in San Diego, California. 

Career aspirations and goals: Once I finish my doctorate, I want to find a job in which I can balance church work and teaching, while continuing to perform.

 

Jacob Street

Jacob Street, 28, is a graduate of Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude. He received the Master of Music degree in Historical Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied organ and harpsichord under James David Christie, Webb Wiggins, and Olivier Latry. He is now pursuing a Master of Music degree at the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University, where he studies with Thomas Murray and Arthur Haas. 

In 2013 and 2014, Street studied in Lübeck, Germany, under a Fulbright scholarship, taking lessons on the many historical instruments there and giving recitals throughout northern Germany. A prizewinner in multiple international competitions, Jacob most recently won the Prix de la ville d’Angers in the Jean-Louis Florentz International Organ Competition. He was awarded second prize in the 2012 Dieterich Buxtehude International Organ Competition in Lübeck. In 2010, he performed as a “Rising Star” in the American Guild of Organists national convention. 

He was recently appointed director of music at St. Paul’s on the Green, Norwalk, Connecticut. He is also artistic director for les soûls d’amour, ensemble in residence at Seabury Academy of Music and the Arts, Norwalk, a lively early music ensemble of singers, strings, and hurdy-gurdy. He is a frequent contributor to The American Organist magazine, interviewing young rising stars in the organ world. As a music critic, he won the inaugural Rubin Prize for Music Criticism while at Oberlin in 2012.

An interesting fact: I’ve tried several non-keyboard instruments over the years (baritone sax, tabla) without much success. Lately I’ve been attempting to learn the gamba, inspired by my wonderful former teacher Jim Christie, who would play the air gamba to demonstrate proper French Baroque articulation (TOO-tee TOO-tee).

Proudest achievement: I’ve had the chance to do a lot of amazing things as a musician, and I owe it all to the many remarkable mentors I’ve had over the years, like John Skelton, my first teacher. But I am probably proudest of training for and running a marathon just for the heck of it. I highly recommend the whole painful thing. (And thanks to the incredible Richard Webster for
the inspiration!)

Career aspirations and goals: I hope to be involved in collaborative music of all kinds—teaching, directing church choirs both amateur and professional, performing in early music ensembles, and so on. The exchange of ideas at the heart of music is the key, for me, which is one reason I love writing about it. And finally, I will (with a nod to the great Jeff Brillhart) someday improvise a spectacular fugue at a moment’s notice. But not today.

 

David von Behren

David von Behren, 21, is the first organist to receive Cleveland Institute of Music’s (CIM) prestigious Darius Milhaud Award, given each year to a student “who displays qualities of unusual talent and creativity, sensitivity, expressiveness, strong love for and dedication to the musical arts, outstanding musical accomplishment, and evidence of academic excellence.” A native of Falls City, Nebraska, David is an organ performance/music theory double major, studying with Todd Wilson at CIM. An accomplished violinist, he served as assistant concertmaster in the New York Summer Music Festival Chamber Orchestra. As a pianist, he won first prize in the 2011 Nebraska Federation of Music Clubs Piano Competition in Omaha and other awards. He currently serves as music intern at Plymouth Church, United Church of Christ in Shaker Heights, Ohio, working with James Riggs. A winner of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award on National Public Radio’s (NPR) From the Top, in 2013 David began the “Little Stars Summer Program,” a music program for children ages 3–6, in association with NPR’s From the Top and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

David has performed with the CIM orchestra at Kulas Hall and Severance Hall, and at the Oregon Bach Festival, collaborated with Grammy-winning clarinetist Franklin Cohen at the Cleveland ChamberFest Verve Gala, and joined the Harvard Organ Society tour of France and the Netherlands. The winner of the Tuesday Music Association Organ Competition in Akron, Ohio, the Henry Fusner prize for outstanding achievement in the CIM Organ Department, and the M. Louise Miller National Organ Scholarship, he holds the American Guild of Organists Colleague certificate. His website is www.davidvonbehren.com.

An interesting fact: I’m passionate about the violin and running. As a violinist, I’ve performed in orchestra festivals at Carnegie Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center. As a runner, I have a guilty pleasure for racing half marathons costumed as various superheroes. I have been recognized as Superman and Batman as of late. Captain America and Iron Man are soon to make their appearances.

Proudest achievement: I actively advocate for introducing and exciting younger audiences about classical music. In 2013, I began “The Little Stars Summer Program,” a music program for 3-11 year-old children in Falls City, in association with NPR’s From the Top and The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. In June 2015, my music program won a one-year endorsement with the National Federation of Music Clubs. Beginning May 2016, the “Little Stars Summer Music Program” will partner with First Presbyterian Church of Falls City to introduce the pipe organ to nearly fifty young children within the program’s five-day curriculum. In Cleveland, I’ve introduced “Plymouth Kids’ Koncerts,” an informal concert venue for children and youth to share their musical talents in a supportive and encouraging environment. 

Career aspirations and goals: I hope for a diverse career as a recitalist, church musician, and conservatory/university professor. Ultimately, my goal is to improve the days and lives of others through sacred music.

 

Gregory Zelek

Gregory Zelek, 24, is the first and only organist to receive Juilliard’s prestigious Kovner Fellowship, which is awarded to students whose qualifications include a “personal capacity for intellectual curiosity, commitment to the value of art in society, and potential for leadership in the field.” A native of Miami, Florida, Zelek is a graduate organ student of Paul Jacobs at the Juilliard School, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree. He will be pursuing an Artist Diploma at Juilliard in the fall of 2016. He has won first prize in numerous competitions and regularly concertizes throughout the United States.  

Greg performed Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with the Miami Symphony Orchestra in 2011 and played Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, with both the Juilliard and the MET orchestras, in Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall, respectively, in 2012. He was also the organist for five performances of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Faust, and performed with the New World Symphony in 2014. He is the music director and organist at the Episcopal Church of St. Matthew and St. Timothy in New York City and served as organ scholar at Hitchcock Presbyterian Church in Scarsdale, New York, for four years. 

An interesting fact: Although I look very American, I am half Cuban and only spoke Spanish until the age of four. I spent summers playing the organ in a village in northern Spain called Ramales de la Victoria, and now work at a bilingual church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. 

Proudest achievement: I am proudest of my collaboration with ensembles. After having performed Strauss’s Alpine Symphony with the Juilliard Orchestra, I was invited to play that work with the MET Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, and later performed Gounod’s Faust with the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, and Lukas Foss’s Phorion with the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas.  

Career aspirations and goals: I hope to broaden the audience for the organ, popularizing an instrument that is often misunderstood even by other classical musicians. I would also like to change the notion of the instrument as insular by presenting it in atypical performances and collaborating with other artists.

 

The Class of 2015: 20 leaders under the age of 30

THE DIAPASON Staff
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The Diapason’s inaugural “20 under 30” selections came from a field that included over 100 nominations, a response that surprised and delighted us. The nominees were evaluated based upon information provided in the nominations; we selected only from those who had been nominated. We looked for evidence of such things as career advancement, technical skills, and creativity and innovation; we considered a nominee’s awards and competition prizes, publications and compositions, and significant positions in the mix. Our selections were not limited merely to organists but reflect the breadth of our editorial scope, which includes the organ, harpsichord, carillon, and church music. Here we present the winners’ backgrounds and accomplishments, and then have them tell us something interesting about themselves, and about their achievements, goals, and aspirations.

Since we had to decline multiple nominees for each one we chose, selecting only 20 from a field of very worthy nominees was quite a challenge. We do urge you to participate in the “20 under 30” awards next year—a person must be nominated in order to be selected. 

Joe Balistreri, 28, a proud citizen of Detroit, Michigan, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ performance at the University of Michigan, studying with James Kibbie. His organ performances include an AGO convention, university conferences, and orchestral collaborations. 

Since 2011, Balistreri has been the director of music for the Archdiocese of Detroit, serving as a resource and community facilitator for parish musicians and clergy. He created an annual “Chant Bootcamp,” a down-to-earth crash course week that enables parish musicians to read, understand, and enjoy plainchant, and developed an annual marathon organ recital, showcasing parish organists from across Southeast Michigan in a whirlwind series of 25-minute recitals. The marathon also includes a fundraising competition, supporting the music ministries of each organist.

As Episcopal Music Director at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, Balistreri co-directs the parish adult choir, directs the Archdiocesan Chorus, and leads the Cathedral Cultural Series (CCS), a non-profit concert series of organ and choral music, which features music for two organs at least annually, showcasing the cathedral’s 1925 Casavant and 2005 Austin organs.

In his spare time, Joe Balistreri enjoys cycling, cooking, surveying architecture, Detroit politics, and composing. He is particularly proud of starting a choral program at Detroit’s Loyola High School, a school serving at-risk inner-city youth. 

Interesting fact: Seven years ago, infamously scandalous Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick planted a maple tree in front of my house before he went away to prison.

Proudest achievement: I’m most proud of restoring the Archdiocesan Chorus of Detroit as a permanent resident ensemble for the archdiocese three years ago. In early March, the chorus received an invitation to sing for Epiphany Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica with Pope Francis! Most importantly, the chorus has fostered a wonderful network of friendships and professional connections.

Goals and aspirations: I’m interested in making and promoting passionate, beautiful, spirit-lifting sacred music and have a strong interest in promoting the Gregorian propers as a transcendent pathway to God. I’d like to explore the relationship between centonization in the Gregorian repertoire (especially in graduals and alleluias) and newer African-American improvisatory idioms . . . possibilities exist for creative fusion of the two traditions in Catholic music programs. Finally, I’m very interested in developing a small choral ensemble/composer forum that focuses on early sacred music and new sacred writing.

Thomas Bowers, 26, received his bachelor’s degree in music and philosophy from Florida State University. While studying piano at FSU, he developed an interest in the harpsichord and organ and in instrument construction. In 2008, he took time away from school to complete an internship in harpsichord building at Zuckermann Harpsichords, where he focused on voicing and regulation, completing the construction of his first instrument, a copy of an Italian harpsichord originally built in 1665, in 2009.

Bowers earned a master’s degree in harpsichord performance from the Longy School of Music, where he studied with Avi Stein and participated in masterclasses with Vivian Montgomery, Martin Pearlman, David Schemer, and others. He currently serves as organist and choir director for St. Chrysostom’s Church in Quincy, Massachusetts. With artist Kendyll Hillegas, he organizes the Hive Gallery at St. Chrysostom’s, a seasonal art opening and early music concert to promote the work of young artists and musicians in the Boston area.

Thomas Bowers performs regularly in Boston as a chamber musician and soloist and works as a technician for the Harpsichord Clearing House; a founding member of the Baroque ensemble Incendium Novum, he seeks to bring early music repertoire to new audiences.

Interesting fact: I am an avid rock climber. I find this a compelling sport because it challenges both the physical and problem-solving abilities of the climber.

Proudest achievement: My greatest achievement thus far is convincing my wife, Kellie, to marry me!

Goals and aspirations: I have been working to build a career that combines performance, teaching, and instrument work. I plan to pursue a doctorate, and am interested in conducting research on the historical building practices of harpsichord and organ makers.

Joey Brink, 26, a carillonneur and engineer, began carillon studies at Yale University in 2007 with Ellen Dickinson, receiving a B.S. in mechanical engineering with a thesis on the design of realistic-touch practice carillon keyboards. He received a Belgian-American Educational Foundation (BAEF) fellowship to study with Eddy Marien, Koen Cosaert, and Geert D’hollander at the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium, where he graduated with “greatest distinction” in June 2012. Brink went on to win first prize and audience prize at the 7th International Queen Fabiola Carillon Competition in Mechelen in 2014.

Brink received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Utah in collaboration with NASA in December 2014. Since January 2015, he has been studying carillon performance and composition with Geert D’hollander at Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida, as a Bok Tower Carillon Fellow. Brink currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, carillonneur Vera Brink. The Brinks spend much of their free time immersed in the nearby Wasatch Mountains hiking, mountain biking, camping, and skiing.

An active member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America and the World Carillon Federation, Joey Brink will play more than 30 carillon concerts in seven countries in 2015; he also composes for carillon. As a mechanical engineer, he has presented research on carillons at a 2012 symposium. 

Interesting fact: Each fall I coach a FIRST Lego League team of boys that build Lego robots and compete in Lego tournaments.

Proudest achievement: I am most proud of receiving first prize at the 7th International Queen Fabiola Competition for Carillon Performance in Mechelen, Belgium. The competition hosts the highest-level upcoming carillonneurs, and in June 2014 I became the first North American to ever take the first prize.

Goals and aspirations: I aspire to continue performing worldwide on the carillon and compose for the instrument. I hope to devote much of my career to teaching carillon, as well as apply my engineering background to influence the design of future carillons and practice carillons.

Nicholas Capozzoli, 22, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a fourth-year student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying organ with James David Christie and harpsichord with Webb Wiggins. A first-place winner in several competitions, most recently the 2013 Region III American Guild of Organists/Quimby Competition, he has performed in venues including St. Paul Cathedral, Pittsburgh; St. Patrick Catholic Church, Washington, D.C.; Church of the Covenant, Cleveland; Old South Church, Boston; and the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France. Capozzoli presented recitals at the 2013 National Association of Pastoral Musicians Convention in Washington, the 2014 AGO National Convention as a “Rising Star,” and at the 2014 Piccolo Spoleto Festival “L’Organo Series” in Charleston, South Carolina. He has served as a sacred music intern at New York City’s Brick Presbyterian Church and Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Naperville, Illinois, working under the direction of Keith Tóth and Matthew Sprinkle, respectively. He currently serves as organist at Bethesda-on-the-Bay Lutheran Church in Bay Village, Ohio. Nicholas Capozzoli is also an active solo harpsichordist and continuo player, and in his fifth year at Oberlin, he will pursue a master of music degree in historical performance.

Proudest achievement: Presenting a “Rising Star” recital at the 2014 AGO Convention in Boston for a full capacity audience of organists.

Career goals: In addition to working in the field of church music, I hope to have an active performance career in both organ and harpsichord—including continuo, working with many instrumental early music ensembles.

An interesting fact: When I was little, I really wanted to be either a priest or a pirate . . . but who knows, maybe one of those career paths can still happen!

Katelyn Emerson, 23, presents concerts and masterclasses throughout the United States on interpretation, repertoire, and sacred music. She has received top prizes in such organ competitions as the 2011 Region 5 AGO/Quimby Regional Competition, the Fifth International Organ Competition “Pierre de Manchicourt” in Béthune and Saint-Omer, France, and the VIII Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition in Kaliningrad, Russia, and will make her Russian and French concert debuts in the 2015–16 season. 

Emerson graduates with high distinction this May from Oberlin College and Conservatory with double bachelor’s degrees in organ performance and French as well as minors in historical performance and music history. Her teachers have included James David Christie, Olivier Latry, Marie-Louise Langlais, Ray Cornils, and Abbey Hallberg-Siegfried. She has been sacred music intern at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City and the Church of the Advent in Boston. The recipient of a J. William Fulbright Study/Research Grant, she will study at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Toulouse, France in 2015–16 with Michel Bouvard, Jan Willem Jansen, and Yasuko Uyama-Bouvard. For more information, visit www.katelynemerson.com.

Interesting fact: A challenge I’ve had to work with is my rather small hands and short stature. Playing Franck, I constantly thumb between manuals in order to get the perfect legato. When competing and performing, I frequently struggle to reach the pedals or top manuals. While competing on the beautiful 1855 Cavaillé-Coll organ in Saint-Omer, France, I remember having to write “scoot back” in several places in my score so I would not slide forward off the bench while playing Vierne’s Impromptu on the highest manual!

Proudest achievement: One of my fondest achievements was playing the 1791 François-Henri Clicquot organ in Poitiers. Truly, French Classical music, which had never sounded terribly fascinating to me before, came to life when reunited with this instrument.

Goals and aspirations: I have always dreamed of living abroad and experiencing diverse cultures through immersion. It is through the small moments of enjoying an espresso in a corner cafe while watching passersby that I feel the true spirit of an unfamiliar surrounding. I most appreciate forging connections with people and this will comprise a large part of my future career, as I love teaching and communicating with others, be it on the subjects of church music, performance, and musicology, or even French literature, psychology, and philosophy.

Jillian Gardner, 22, is working towards her bachelor of music degree in organ at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying organ with James David Christie, as well as receiving instruction from Jack Mitchener and Marie-Louise Langlais. In Oberlin, Ohio, she serves as organist for Grace Lutheran Church.

Gardner began her study of organ at age fourteen with Stephen Best of Utica, New York. As part of her studies at Oberlin, she was able to tour the magnificent instruments in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Versailles, and Paris, France. She won the first place award in the Buffalo, New York, AGO/Quimby chapter-level competition in 2013, and first place in the 2014 Tuesday Music Club Association Scholarship competition in Akron, Ohio.

Jillian Gardner recently lived in New York City for a month, working as an organ scholar at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, gaining experience in choral accompaniment and direction, improvisation, and general service playing. She has presented recitals in such venues as Grace Episcopal Church, Utica, St. Joseph Cathedral, Buffalo, and the Cathedral of St. Joseph, Hartford, Connecticut, and at the 2014 Organ Historical Society Convention in Syracuse, New York. She looks forward to a 2016 UK concert tour. 

Interesting fact: Jillian’s dress sense reflects her colorful personality—her organ shoes are bright pink. Outside of the organ loft, Jillian enjoys daily sessions in the gym, and arts and crafts. 

Proudest achievement: Jillian originates from Lee Center, New York, population 2,500. She is proudest of getting to where she is today purely by hard work and a determination to soak up knowledge from every possible source, while still remaining a well-rounded person outside of the organ world. Through all of this, she has been encouraged by an extremely supportive family of non-musicians. 

Goals and aspirations: My goal as a performer is to make the organ accessible to people without compromising musical standards or watering down programs. I am passionate about presenting interesting concerts that are performed musically to take away the bad name the organ has inherited as being dull and mechanical, in the hope of increasing audiences and attracting younger listeners.

In my career, I would like to balance my time between a good church position and performing as a freelance recitalist. I next wish to develop my experience in choral accompaniment, which I hope my move to Baylor University will enable.

Christopher Houlihan, 27, has performed in major cities across North America and Europe, as well as at numerous conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. In 2014, he made his Disney Hall debut, performing with the principal brass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the 2015–16 season will see his debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the release of a new all-Bach organ CD. Houlihan’s “Vierne2012” tour—marathon performances of Louis Vierne’s six organ symphonies—attracted international attention and critical acclaim.

Houlihan studied with Paul Jacobs (Juilliard), John Rose (Trinity College), and Jean-Baptiste Robin (Versailles Conservatoire). His recordings on the Towerhill label include music of Duruflé, Alain, Widor, and Vierne (Symphony No. 2). He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is artist-in-residence at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. More information can be found at christopherhoulihan.com.

An interesting fact: My biggest passion outside of music is for cooking, and in my free time I’m usually busy preparing for a dinner party. My Instagram feed  is filled with a unique combination of organs and food
(@houliorganist).

Proudest achievement: I’m especially proud of my “Vierne2012” project. My goal in organizing the marathon tour was to bring some attention to the Vierne symphonies, which are obviously some of the most important compositions in the organ repertoire but are virtually unknown beyond the organ world, and even unfamiliar to some organists. It was an exhausting summer, but ultimately incredibly satisfying to see audiences and critics respond so positively to Vierne’s music.

Career aspirations and goals: I want to continue to perform, and hope to find ways to broaden the organ’s position in the world of classical music.

Simon Thomas Jacobs, 28, read music as organ scholar at Clare College, University of Cambridge. Following graduation, he moved to the United States to take up the post of associate director of music at Christ Church, Greenwich, Connecticut, and in 2011 became associate organist and choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis. He was awarded a full scholarship to the artist diploma program at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with James David Christie and was a teaching assistant for the organ department.

In 2013, Jacobs won first prize and audience prize at the St. Albans International Organ Competition, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary that same year. Under the management of Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, Jacobs has performed at venues throughout the United States and this summer will return to Europe to perform concerts in the UK and France. He will also record his debut CD on the new Richards, Fowkes and Co. instrument (Opus 18) at St. George’s, Hanover Square, London—one of only a handful of American-built organs in England, and the first by an American builder in London. His website is www.simonthomasjacobs.com.

Interesting fact: During my final semester at university I spent my Saturday mornings learning to ride a motorcycle. I passed my test and am licensed to ride any motorcycle in the UK.

Proudest achievement: Winning St. Albans. The city is not far from where I grew up, and so I was always familiar with the magnificent cathedral and the summer organ festival, not to mention the many organists I admire who were previous laureates. It had always been an ambition of mine to enter the competition but I could never have imagined that I’d actually win!

Goals and aspirations: My work as a church musician is incredibly important to me, and having taken a year to focus on my playing and work as a soloist, I would now like to lead my own music program in a large parish. As a parish musician, a great deal of one’s work is as a teacher, and this too is something I wish to build on, as well as continuing to promote the organ and its music through concerts and recordings.

Dexter Kennedy, 24, won the Grand Prix d’Interprétation at the 24th Concours International d’Orgue de Chartres. Kennedy has also won other prizes and awards, including first prize in the 2009 AGO region V Quimby competition. He is instructor of organ and harpsichord at the College of Wooster. As a result of winning the Grand Prix de Chartres, he will perform over 30 concerts in Europe, including stops in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, England, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Russia, and Iceland. He is also the assistant organist at Christ Church (Episcopal), Grosse Pointe, Michigan, where he serves as principal organist for all choral services and concerts. This summer he will perform at two regional AGO conventions and in Europe.

Kennedy has presented recitals at such venues as Washington National Cathedral, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York City, and the University of Calgary. He holds a master’s degree from the Yale University School of Music and is currently pursuing an artist diploma at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music under the guidance of James David Christie. Additional studies have been with Martin Jean, Olivier Latry, and Jeffrey Brillhart (improvisation). More information can be found at his website, www.dexterkennedy.com.

Interesting fact: I enjoy golfing and am an avid fan of the professional sports teams in Detroit, particularly the Detroit Tigers.

Proudest achievement: Being the first American organist to win the Grand Prix de Chartres since 1996. This competition has a great history of American winners during its early years in the 1970s that have gone on to have remarkably successful careers, and I hope that it is the start of similar success in my own career. It is such an honor to be distinguished on an international scale of over 60 organists from 20 different countries. I have been invited to play recitals in great venues throughout Europe, many in countries that I would never have dreamed of visiting. I’m particularly excited to visit Reykjavik, Iceland, this summer!

Goals and aspirations: I hope to have a diverse career consisting of university teaching and as much solo performing as possible. I also love high-caliber church music, and if the opportunity to serve at one of the country’s elite church programs was presented to me, I could be very happy in such a scenario.

Colin Knapp, 23, a native of Battle Creek, Michigan, is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where he studied organ performance, music theory, and performing arts management. His primary organ teachers have been Jacqueline Stilger in Battle Creek, Thomas Bara at Interlochen Arts Academy, and James Kibbie at the University of Michigan. Currently serving as director of music and organist at First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti, he is also director of the Ypsilanti Pipe Organ Festival, staff coordinator for the University of Michigan’s Annual Conference on Organ Music, and is co-sub dean of the Ann Arbor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Knapp recently moved to the downtown Detroit riverfront and is enjoying all that the city has to offer.

As director of the Ypsilanti Pipe Organ Festival, he has established himself in arts management, audience development, fund raising, and community engagement. For the festival, he has created theme programs such as for St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween, and has presented artists such as Daniel Roth and Vincent Dubois. The sponsorships and partnerships with other organizations that he has developed have underwritten the total costs of the series and generated a surplus, so that all the festival’s concerts will remain free of charge.

Interesting fact: I love the art of collaboration. For part of my senior recital, I presented Jean Langlais’ Suite Médiévale with modern dance, choreographed by Maddy Rager. 

Proudest achievement: I am most proud of my work as director of the Ypsilanti Pipe Organ Festival. Through strategic fundraising, innovative programming, and partnering with area organizations such as the Ann Arbor AGO chapter and the organ department at the University of Michigan, the Ypsilanti Pipe Organ Festival has become one of the most successful and accessible free organ series in Michigan. 

Goals and aspirations: I plan to continue my work in both church music and arts administration to share my passion and commitment to classical music, especially organ and sacred music, with the community. I plan to return to graduate school to study business and hope to one day become executive director of a large arts organization.

Nathan Laube, 26, assistant professor of organ at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, has performed on many historic European instruments, at such festivals as the Smarano Organ Academy and Torino Festival Organistico Internazionale di S. Rita (Italy); Naumburg Orgelsommer, 300th Anniversary Festival of the Silbermann organ in Freiberg Cathedral, and Dresden Music Festival (Germany); Orléans (France), and Lahti and Lapua (Finland) and at many UK cathedrals, including York, Canterbury, Exeter, Ely, Hereford, Truro, Southwark, and Southwell. Recent performances include such major venues as Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie, Dortmund Konzerthaus, Walt Disney Concert Hall (CA), Verizon Hall (PA), and the Sejong Center, Seoul (Korea).

A featured performer at numerous conventions of the OHS and AGO, Laube has recorded two new CDs: Stephen Paulus’s Grand Concerto with the Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero (NAXOS) and a solo recording made at the Stadtkirche in Nagold, Germany (Ambiente). 

Nathan Laube earned a bachelor of music degree at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying organ with Alan Morrison and piano with Susan Starr, and a master’s degree in organ from the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Germany, studying with Ludger Lohmann. A William Fulbright scholar, Laube studied with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse where he earned Prix de Spécialisé. From 2011–13, he served as artist-in-residence at the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, France. 

Interesting fact: I was born with a sixth finger on my right hand, one that was removed just shortly before I turned one year old. It was not, however, fully formed, but it certainly invites some wishful thinking of “what if?!” With relatively small hands (I can only reach a minor tenth on a good day with my right hand), each moment spent with Franck’s Prière reminds me of this long-lost digit!

Proudest achievement: I have tried to “get inside” of as many of the great traditions of instruments and repertoire-playing as possible, so as to feel equally “at home” at any instrument (be it Schnitger, Skinner, Cavaillé-Coll, or Willis), and to learn the “dialect” of each. Having started this in Philadelphia, with its early 20th-century American-Symphonic pipe organs, the next step was to go to France and Germany and surrounding countries. After much immersion in these sounds and sensations, aided by some of the great pedagogues of our time, I feel that I trust myself to get the best out of any instrument by bringing together amassed knowledge of instrument building and first-hand experience on many different historic instruments. I feel particularly blessed to work at a place like Eastman, where these questions of sound, style, and related technique are always at the front of the mind, whether we are sitting at an 18th-century Italian organ or a 1920s Skinner! 

Goals and aspirations: I had always aspired to become a church musician, and I do miss this immensely in my musical life: accompanying psalms, playing hymns, working out elaborate oratorio reductions, etc. I also look forward to increasing my teaching—a part of my musical life that brings me immense joy and ever-broader perspective. Performing and traveling is one thing, but those wonderful “epiphany moments” that occur in lessons (or in an ecstatic text message from a student who has finally “gotten it!”), are really what it’s all about!

Katie Minion, 24, won the Poister Competition in 2012 and received a Jacobs Scholar award (the highest honor given to an undergraduate in the school of music from Indiana University) in 2011. Winner of the Fox Valley AGO RCYO competition in 2013, the Indianapolis AGO Chapter RCYO in 2011, and second in the Region V competition in 2013, she has performed on Chicago classical radio station WFMT’s program, Introductions, and received the Music Institute of Chicago’s highest level certificate in organ playing, with honors, in 2010. She has been presented in recital at Central Synagogue in New York City, and at Loyola University’s Madonna Della Strada Chapel, Chicago.  Minion recently received a Fulbright research grant through the Marillonet Foundation to study organ in Toulouse in 2016 with Michel Bouvard. 

Interesting fact: I joined the fencing club at IU and competed nationally on the women’s épée team.

Proudest achievement: Winning the Arthur Poister Scholarship Competition during my first year as an undergraduate at Indiana University.

Goals and aspirations: I want to combine research and performance interests as I work towards earning a master’s and a doctorate in organ performance. After spending more time studying in both Europe and in the United States, I’m planning on a career that combines teaching and performing.

Tom Mueller, 29, is assistant professor of church music and university organist at Concordia University in Irvine, California, where he teaches organ, jazz, and composition. Mueller also serves as assistant organist at St. James’ Church in Los Angeles, where he accompanies the Choir of St. James’ under the direction of James Buonemani. In 2014, Mueller won first place in the Schoenstein Competition in Hymn-Playing, held in conjunction with the national convention of the American Guild of Organists in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mueller maintains an active performance schedule. In 2010, he performed the complete organ works of J. S. Bach in his native state of Maine. An avid composer, he has received numerous commissions for new liturgical works. He is also an accomplished guitarist and toured the country as a member of The Muellers, a family bluegrass band.

He has presented workshops, masterclasses, and lectures for numerous organizations, including several chapters of the American Guild of Organists, and has served as a faculty member for the AGO’s Pipe Organ Encounters program.

Mueller holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame (organ), and the University of Maine at Augusta (jazz composition), and earned the DMA degree at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with David Higgs. His former teachers include Craig Cramer and Alan Wingard.

Interesting fact: I was born into a family of traditional bluegrass musicians and learned several stringed instruments by ear. This is a great experience—everyone should try it!

Proudest achievement: As a young teacher, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to train a new generation of organists and church musicians. I am grateful to all of the fine teachers and musicians who have influenced me over the years, and I strive to be a good musical role model for my own students.

Career aspirations and goals: I love everything that I do—teaching and playing organ, playing jazz, composing, and doing research—and I hope that I can keep doing it all for as long as I possibly can.

Raymond Nagem, 28, is associate organist at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York, and a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at the Juilliard School, where he is a student of Paul Jacobs. Winner of the AGO/Quimby Competition in 2007, he gave a Rising Star recital at the 2008 AGO national convention in Minneapolis. His first CD, Divine Splendor (2014, Pro Organo), includes his own transcription of excerpts from Prokofiev’s Music for Children. At St. John the Divine, he has primary responsibility for service playing, and works regularly with the cathedral’s several choral ensembles. He teaches courses in organ literature at Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music.

A native of Medford, Massachusetts, Nagem began organ lessons with John Dunn while attending the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School. As the recipient of the first American Friends of Eton College Scholarship, he spent a year studying music in England with Alastair Sampson. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, where he studied with Thomas Murray, and a master of music degree from Juilliard. He has served as assistant organist at the Parish of All Saints, Ashmont, Massachusetts, organ scholar at Trinity Church, Southport, Connecticut, and organ scholar at Christ Church, New Haven. At St. John the Divine, Nagem presented recitals devoted to works of Olivier Messiaen. 

Interesting fact: My last name (from the Lebanese side of my family) is Arabic for “star.”

Proudest achievement: Performing Messiaen’s La Nativité this past fall was a highlight, as was recording a CD at St. John the Divine in 2013, but music doesn’t let you stand still—it pushes you to go further. That’s what’s exciting about it!

Career aspirations and goals: My first reaction is: to have a job in 20 years! I say that with a laugh, but it needs to be said, since artists and academics can’t necessarily make a living wage in our society, and organists our age know that we can’t take the survival of the instrument for granted. Selfish considerations aside, I’d like to increase the number of people who appreciate the organ, to show that the instrument and its repertoire are capable of real excellence in both service and recital, and to teach what I’ve learned to another generation after me.

Stephen Price, 27, is a native of Buffalo, New York, where he was appointed organ scholar at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral during his senior year of high school. He graduated from Western Connecticut State University with a bachelor of music degree in organ performance in 2009, after which he received a Fulbright grant to France and studied organ at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse where he earned the Diplôme d’Études Musicales, in addition to the Prix François Vidal from the city of Toulouse. 

In 2012, Stephen Price earned a master of music degree in organ performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music; he is currently enrolled in the DMA program, in the studio of Janette Fishell. He has also studied with Andrew Scanlon, Stephen Roberts, Michel Bouvard, and Jan Willem Jansen. Price was awarded the Robert Fuchs Prize in the Franz Schmidt 4th International Organ Competition (Austria) and advanced to the final round in the André Marchal 14th International Organ Competition (France). He will serve as a faculty member at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s 2015 Sacred Music Intensive Workshop. 

Interesting fact: In my spare time, I assist Great Dane owners with new litters and puppy sales. 

Proudest achievement: My proudest achievement is being awarded a Fulbright Grant.

Career aspirations and goals: I aspire to become an active church musician, teacher, and performer.

Andrew Schaeffer, 26, a Chicago native, holds degrees from St. Olaf College and Yale University where he studied with John Ferguson and Thomas Murray, respectively. He is currently working on a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance at the University of Oklahoma, studying with John Schwandt. In addition to his academic studies, Schaeffer is director of music at the 2,300-member First United Methodist Church of Edmond, Oklahoma, where he conducts their 40-voice choir, serves as principal organist, and plans three liturgies each Sunday. Active as a recitalist and hymn festival leader, he has presented programs throughout the United States and appeared as an accompanist for the National Lutheran Choir. In 2011 he was presented with the “Officium ad Ducere” (Leadership By Service) Alumnus of the Year award from his alma mater, Luther North College Prep in Chicago, for his contributions to Lutheran church music.

Proudest achievement: A 2014 holiday Christmas CD recorded on the 1926 Casavant (Opus 1130) at St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, which included a complete performance of Fred Hohman’s transcription of The Nutcracker.

Interesting fact: I’m an avid collector of all things Alfred Hitchcock.

Career goals and aspirations: Many of us in this profession lament the apparent decline of the importance of the pipe organ, particularly within religious contexts. While it is important to educate people on the great body of literature the organ affords and its complex and beautiful construction, I don’t think we can underestimate the power of renewed congregational song in raising awareness of the need for pipe organs.

Therefore, while I hope to maintain an active career as a performer, my primary musical passion lies in promoting and engaging people in congregational song. Following in the footsteps of two of my mentors, Paul Manz and John Ferguson, I aim to continue to develop and promote hymn festivals around the country. I also desire to be involved in developing resources for congregational song at the denominational level, all while serving as a full-time church musician.

Benjamin Straley, 29, is organist and associate director of music at Washington National Cathedral. He previously served as organ scholar at Trinity Church (Episcopal), New Haven, Connecticut, and as director of music for the Episcopal Church at Yale. After completing his undergraduate studies with Marilyn Keiser at Indiana University, he entered the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in 2008, where he studied with Martin Jean and Jeffrey Brillhart. In 2010, he became one of the few Americans in the history of the Haarlem Organ Festival invited to compete in its world-renowned contest in improvisation. He holds master’s degrees in music and divinity from Yale, as well as a certificate in Anglican studies from Berkeley Divinity School, and is now a Postulant for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Church.

Interesting fact: I really enjoy cooking, and am an avid chef and baker at home—in fact, the cathedral music staff have grown quite fond of my cranberry orange scones.

What I am most proud of achieving: I suppose I hope it is yet to come! But I will say that when the Cathedral Choristers have a particularly good Evensong, when perhaps the path there in rehearsals was a bit rocky (particularly for the younger boy choristers), then I am very proud. And any time I hear the fervor of hymn singing intensify in tandem with what I’m doing at the console, there is a deep sense of gratification.

Career aspirations and goals: I hope that I can contribute to the field of church music, and to the church in general, in some small but lasting way. When I think about what Gerre Hancock meant for church music in America, or what Erik Routley did for hymnody, I am awed by the legacy left to us, and yet am keenly aware that it is imperative that we carry on that work into the future.

Andrew Szymanski, 26, a Chicago native with a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts, works in organ restoration. His first project was the restoration of a Kimball organ he rescued from a condemned church building, which he installed in his home. He was an E. Power Biggs Fellow for the 2011 convention of the Organ Historical Society, which afforded him exposure to a number of historic instruments of various vintages and builders in the Washington, D.C., area.

Szymanski’s interest in the historic organ has led to fruitful work throughout the Chicago area. He has rediscovered several long-silent Kimball organs (built in Chicago), and has dedicated much of his time bringing them back to life. Several of these projects have won the praise of metropolitan architectural groups.

As a co-founder of City Organ Works, LLC (website: CityOrganWorks.com), he has been a leader in projects of ongoing restoration of some of the region’s notable organs, including the four-manual Wiener Bros. organ at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in Techny, Illinois, featured at the 2012 OHS Convention, and a 1924 Skinner Organ Company four-manual instrument at United Church of Hyde Park. Szymanski’s second organ purchase, a Kimball tubular-pneumatic player organ, will be brought to the Chicago region this spring, likely a one-of-a kind extant instrument.

Interesting fact: For my twentieth birthday, I purchased my first pipe organ, a historic 1938 W. W. Kimball of six ranks. For my twenty-first birthday, I bought my first 1928 Ford Model A.

Proudest achievement: Being able to travel, repair, and restore so many historic organs that were previously unplayable. Giving derelict organs a new life is something that not many people are willing to put the effort into, yet I find to be incredibly rewarding.

Aspirations and goals: To continue to make my mark in the organ world and inspire other young people to pursue their passion as their career.

Halden Toy, 21, organist and harpsichordist, has been playing the organ since age 10. He has studied with Norma Aamodt-Nelson and Douglas Cleveland. In 2009 he took first place at the American Guild of Organists Region VIII competition, and was featured in 2010 as a “Rising Star” at the American Guild of Organists National Convention in Washington, D.C. In 2014 he was awarded the Nona C. Hunter music scholarship. Currently studying organ performance at BYU-Idaho with Daniel Kerr, Toy performs frequently as an accompanist on both organ and harpsichord. Recently, he was one of eight finalists in the Fifth International Organ Competition Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, which took place at St. Bavo, Haarlem, and in the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam. Halden Toy currently serves as organist of First Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls. His website is haldentoy.com.

Interesting fact: I serve as a moderator for an online forum specializing in small Isuzu diesels and enjoy working on them in my spare time.

Proudest achievement: Making it to the final round of the Sweelinck competition this last fall. 

Aspirations and goals: I hope to become a leading expert in the performance of Dieterich Buxtehude’s music: to record the complete keyboard, choral, and chamber works utilizing authentic performance practices in all aspects from the style of playing to using period instruments including the use of the main organ in the church with the orchestra and choir. I plan to get a master’s degree in historic performance and a doctorate in organ performance.

Nicholas Wallace, 28, holds a bachelor’s degree in classical guitar performance graduating magna cum laude from the University of Southern Maine School of Music. He is currently an organ student of Harold Stover. While in college, he worked with C. B. Fisk, Inc., in Gloucester, Massachusetts, both in the shop and on the road for the installation of their Opus 130 in Costa Mesa, California.

After graduating from college, Wallace joined his father’s pipe organ building and restoration company, David E. Wallace & Co., LLC, full time. He assumed more responsibilities during the restoration and installation of the three-manual 1854 E. & G. G. Hook organ at the Church of Our Lady and St. Rochus in Boom, Belgium. He completed the major work on the three-manual 1893 Hook & Hastings organ for the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Nicholas Wallace’s work also includes the construction of new mechanical-action pipe organs for St. Paul’s Anglican Parish in Brockton, Massachusetts, and for Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He recently designed and built a traditional-style portable organ that was first displayed at the 2014 AGO convention in Boston. Wallace is a member of the American Institute of Organbuilders and the International Society of Organbuilders.

Interesting fact: I enjoy camping, backpacking, and fly fishing in some of the more remote areas of Maine and around the world. I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Australia to go hiking and backpacking in some of the national parks in Tasmania while visiting some friends. 

Proudest achievement: My favorite achievement is the restoration and installation of the 1854 E. & G. G. Hook organ in Boom, Belgium. It was a very thorough and historically sensitive restoration that, even despite the extreme distance of the relocation, went very well. The organ now serves as a shining example of 19th-century American organbuilding in Europe.

Career aspirations and goals: I plan to continue to build and restore tracker organs to the best of my ability with a focus on historically informed techniques. In my experience with older organs, I have noticed that they were most often built with a great deal of care and with excellent materials. This enduring quality of the finest old organs is one of the aspects that I hope to emulate. By studying the techniques used in older organs, I hope provide versatile new instruments and thoughtfully restored vintage instruments, as well.

 

Carillon News

by Brian Swager
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February Florida Festival

The 14th International Carillon Festival at Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida, will occur February 20-28, featuring carillonneurs Geert D'hollander, Todd Fair, Ulla Laage, Carlo van Ulft, Milford Myhre and William De Turk. Events include daily 3 pm carillon recitals, a moonlight recital  on February 27, lectures and exhibits in the new Education & Visitor Center, and several non-carillon concerts. For more information, contact Bill De Turk, Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales, FL 33853-3412; phone: 941/676-1154; fax: 941/676-6770; E-mail: <[email protected]>.

Berkeley Congress Report

The 56th Congress of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America was held at the University of California at Berkeley, 17-20 June 1998 with 126 persons in attendance. University Carillonneur Geert D'hollander was the host. Held in conjunction with the Fifth Berkeley International Carillon Festival, the 1998 meeting focused on the life and work of Emilien Allard and honored the memory of Ronald Barnes. Madeleine Allard was present as an honored guest. Also honored were Evelyn Chambers and other members of the Class of 1928, patrons of the Berkeley Carillon and its International Carillon Festival.

Recitalists for the Congress were Lisa Lonie of Philadelphia; George Gregory of San Antonio, Texas; Claude Aubin of Montréal, Québec, Canada; Gideon Bodden of The Netherlands; Andrea McCrady of Spokane, Washington; and the carillonneurs of Berkeley: Geert D'hollander, John Agraz, Jeff Davis, David Hunsberger, and Liesbeth Janssens. The Berkeley Brass Quintet conducted by David Milnes joined Geert D'hollander and Liesbeth Janssens in a special program of music arranged for bells and brass by Ms.  Janssens. D'hollander gave the premiere performances of the winning pieces in the 1998 Johan Franco Composition Competition. The first prize was awarded to Mr. D'hollander himself for his Modal Nocturne. Ennis Fruhauf's Passacaglia was awarded second prize.

John Agraz gave a workshop on basic carillon maintenance. Masterclasses were taught by John Gouwens on interpretation and by Geert D'hollander on effective ways to learn new music. Two presentations on the music of Emilien Allard were given: Milford Myhre played historic recordings from Bok Tower, and Liesbeth Janssen shared her findings based on theoretical analyses of some of Allard's pieces.

Following successful examination recitals, ten members were accorded Carillonneur status by vote of the Guild: Steven Ball of Ann Arbor, Michigan; Linda Dzuris of Ann Arbor, Michigan; Chuck Barland of Lawrence, Kansas; Andy Greene of Berkeley, California; Andrew Capule of Berkeley, California; Liesbeth Janssens of Berkeley, California; Helena Chen of Berkeley, California; Sabin Levi of Provo, Utah; Geert D'hollander of Berkeley, California;  and Lynne Tidwell  of Lawrence, Kansas.

Dr. Joseph F. Marsh, Jr., former president of Concord College, and Alicia Porter Washam and Rufus "Buddy" Porter of Highland Park United Methodist Church, Dallas, were recommended and approved for Honorary Membership. Janet Dundore was awarded the Extraordinary Service Award for her many contributions to the Guild and to the profession, most particularly her original, audience-friendly approach to recitals. Emilien Allard, Evelyn Chambers, the Class of 1928, Janet Dundore, and Karel and Linda Keldermans received Berkeley Medals. A memorial fund in the name of Ronald Barnes was established to provide scholarships for North Americans to study the North American Carillon Art in North America.

The next congress of the GCNA will be held at Iowa State University, Ames, 16-19 June 1999. Tin-shi Tan will be our host. In the year 2000, the CGNA congress will be held in the city of Frederick, Maryland as well as at the Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. John Widmann and Jim Smith will be our hosts. Also in 2000 will be a congress of the World Carillon Federation in Springfield, Illinois, hosted by Karel Keldermans.

News from Iowa State

Iowa State University Carillonneur Tin-shi Tam sends the following news.

Spring carillon festival 1998

Iowa State University (ISU) hosted the Spring Carillon Festival 1998 and the Carillon Composition Competition during the weekend of April 24-26. Guest carillonneur was Albert Gerken, Carillonneur at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. He performed a recital featuring carillon music by Gary C. White, Professor Emeritus of Composition at ISU. He also conducted a seminar on "The importance of musical considerations in building or renovating a carillon." The Festival also included a Family concert featuring ISU student carillonneurs, the Ames Children's Preparatory Choir, ISU Dance and ISU/Ames Flute Ensemble. Tin-shi Tam, ISU University Carillonneur, presented a faculty recital during the Festival that included Emilien Allard's Sonata (1968).

In conjunction with the Festival, a Carillon Composition Competition was held to encourage the writing of original carillon compositions by young composers. Contestants from all parts of the country and overseas submitted entries. No award was given this year.

In 1999, Iowa State University will celebrate  the centennial anniversary of the Stanton Memorial Carillon. ISU will host the 57th Congress of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America from June 16-19. Additional celebrations have also been planned.

Summer keyboard camp

The Sixth Annual Keyboard Exploration was hosted by Iowa State University Music Department from June 22 through 27. The summer music camp was for keyboard students who were entering grades 7-12. Participants experienced first-hand the thrill of playing various kinds of keyboard instruments including organ, harpsichord, piano and carillon. Nine students studied carillon under ISU University Carillonneur, Tin-shi Tam. Two carillon concerts were performed by students towards the end of the week.

News from Springfield

Karel Keldermans, carillonneur for the Springfield, Illinois, park district, sends the following news.

Midwest regional conference

The second Midwest Regional Conference of the GCNA was held in Springfield, Illinois, on Saturday, May 30, 1998. Participants from Kansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Illinois, and Denmark were hosted by Karel Keldermans.

John Courter of Berea College began the presentations with a description of his personal compositional style and indicated the importance of Gregorian chant in his music. He played a recording of two of his carillon fantasies, and a lively discussion ensued. Albert Gerken of the University of Kansas at Lawrence then took the podium to make the first of his two presentations for the conference. Bert gave an excellent analysis relative to the usefulness of C-sharp and D-sharp in the bass of the carillon. To this end, he gave an insightful explanation as to why Pieter Hemony several centuries ago had in fact been incorrect in asserting that C-sharp and D-sharp were "useless." With cogent examples from the  De Gruytters Carillon Book and various Van den Gheyn Preludes--music appropriate to the period under discussion--Bert then demonstrated musically why a carillon indeed needs to be fully chromatic.

Informal discussions continued as a catered lunch was served in the parlor, courtesy of the Springfield Park District. Following the lunch break, Ann-Kirstine Christiansen, a Danish carillonneur and administrator at the Scandinavian Carillon School in Løgumkloster, Denmark, gave her presentation on the formation of the School and explained how courses are set up, the number of students attending, and the number graduated. After Ann-Kirstine's presentation, the group transferred to the Rees Carillon where Bert Gerken took the second afternoon session--that of music notation. Bert has developed a unique system of handling and pedaling on his scores, and the group was very interested in his techniques as he demonstrated them at the keyboard of the Rees Carillon. The conference adjourned in the late afternoon with some of the attendees remaining in Springfield for the International Carillon Festival.

Annual Springfield festival

The 37th International Carillon Festival in Springfield, Illinois, was held at the Rees Memorial Carillon in Washington Park from May 31 through June 7, 1998. The eight days of the Festival were filled with carillon-related activities, culminating each evening in two or three recitals by guest carillonneurs.  This year's recitalists were Albert Gerken, Kansas; Ann-Kirstine Christiansen, Denmark; Ray McLellan, Michigan; Bob van Wely, The Netherlands; Gert Oldenbeuving, The Netherlands; Koen Cosaert, Belgium; Sue Jones, Illinois; and host Karel Keldermans.

The first evening of recitals featured Albert Gerken and Karel Keldermans performing original compositions and arrangements by Ronald Barnes (1927-1997). This evening of special tribute to North America's premier composer for the instrument was especially meaningful to festival audiences who had come to know Ron Barnes as a frequent participant and visitor to the Festival. During the rest of the week, Barnes' works were prominently featured in recitals by other guest carillonneurs. Huge crowds gathered Saturday evening for the traditional gala fireworks to the accompaniment of carillon music.

Prospectus: French Carillon School

The French Carillon School was established in 1971 in Tourcoing and has been associated with the Conservatoire National de Région de Douai since September, 1997. During the academic year, instruction is given at all levels: beginners, amateurs, professional, advanced, and virtuosity. Lessons are given regularly on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and are available on other days by appointment. Intensive sessions are available for those traveling from afar. Applied lessons are given alternately on practice consoles, the mobile carillon, and the belfry carillon. There is a mid-year exam, and a final exam with an international jury is held in mid-June to determine the award to be presented according to the guidelines of the National Music Conservatories: * Mentions: at the initial, preparatory, and elementary levels * Medals and Practice Diploma: at the middle level * Carillonneur Diploma: upon completion of program of study * Gold, Vermeil, Silver, and Bronze Medals: advanced level * Prizes and Certificates of Merit: superior level. (The Master Carillonneur Diploma is awarded as the Premier Prix at this level.) Since its inception, the French Carillon School has awarded twenty carillonneur diplomas (nine to foreigners) and ten Master Carillonneur Diplomas (three to foreigners). A class of virtuosity, a class for the preparation for international competitions, and a special course for the preparation for the State Diploma and Certificate of Aptitude for carillon instruction were recently established. There is an annual registration fee but no tuition. For information and registration, contact: Ecole Française de Carillon; 39, rue de l'Université; 59500 Douai; France. Phone/Fax: 33.3.27.93.58.33. Lessons are available in Tourcoing-contact Bruno Membrey; rue Paul Doumer; 59200 Tourcoing. Beginners can study in Dijon-contact M. Alain Chobert; 2 rue de Tillot; 21000 Dijon.

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