Gabriel Kney dead at 94

Nunc Dimittis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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