Jan Kraybill appointed Hymn Society director

Jan Kraybill has been appointed executive director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada (HSUSC), replacing Reverend Deborah Carlton Loftis, who retires May 1.

Kraybill has been an active member of the organization since 1998, having served on its executive committee from 2010 until 2013. She holds degrees from Kansas State University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

For the past 18 years, Kraybill has served as the principal organist for Community of Christ in Independence, Missouri. Community of Christ will house the offices for HSUSC at its headquarters in Independence, and Kraybill will continue in a reduced role for the church. She will maintain her relationship with the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, where she is Organ Conservator and will also continue her performances as a freelance organist and hymn festival leader.

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Catharine Crozier
died on Friday, September 19, 2003 in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 89. The
cause of death was a severe stroke with complications from pneumonia.

Catharine Crozier was born in Oklahoma, where she began to
study the violin, piano and organ at an early age, making her first appearance
as a pianist at the age of six. She was awarded a scholarship to the Eastman
School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she studied organ with Harold
Gleason and graduated with the Bachelor of Music degree and the
Performer's Certificate. As a graduate student, Ms. Crozier received the
Artist's Diploma and the Master of Music degree. In 1939 she was
appointed to the organ faculty of the Eastman School of Music and became head
of the organ department in 1953. Ms. Crozier received the following honorary
degrees: Doctor of Music, from Smith College, Baldwin-Wallace College, and the
University of Southern Colorado; the Doctor of Humane Letters from Illinois
College, and in October, 2000, the Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman
School of Music, University of Rochester.

Following her debut at the Washington National Cathedral,
Washington, DC, in 1941, Catharine Crozier joined the roster of the Bernard
LaBerge Concert Management (currently Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.) with which
she remained for 61 years. Dr. Crozier played recitals throughout the United
States, Canada and Europe, and was heard on national radio in many European
countries, the United States, and on Danish National Television. She was one of
three organists chosen to play the inaugural organ recital at Avery Fisher Hall
at Lincoln Center in 1962, and was engaged for a solo recital there in 1964.
She returned to Lincoln Center to perform a concerto with orchestra at the
inauguration of the Kuhn organ in Alice Tully Hall in 1976, followed by a solo
recital there one year later. In 1979 she was awarded the International
Performer of the Year Award by the New York City AGO chapter, presented to her
by Alice Tully at the conclusion of Crozier's award recital at Alice
Tully Hall. Shortly after this event, she recorded many of the pieces from that
recital for Gothic Records.

From 1955 to 1969 Dr. Crozier was organist of Knowles
Memorial Chapel at Rollins College in Florida. She conducted master classes
throughout the United States, teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New
York, the Andover Organ Institute, at Claremont College and Stanford University
in California, and Northwestern University. In addition she served as a member
of the jury at many international organ competitions, the latest being the 1994
Calgary International Organ Festival.

In addition to performing and teaching, Dr. Crozier
co-edited several editions of the Method of Organ Playing
style='font-style:normal'>, written by her husband, Harold Gleason. The first
edition of the Gleason book appeared in 1937. Following the death of Dr.
Gleason, Catharine Crozier edited the seventh edition (1987) and the eighth
edition (1995).

In 1993 Catharine Crozier moved to Portland, Oregon, where
she was artist-in-residence at Trinity Cathedral until early 2003. As
artist-in-residence, she frequently played organ voluntaries at services, gave
solo recitals and continued to teach. Her recent performances were broadcast
over Oregon Public Radio and in 2001 she was a featured artist on Oregon Public
Television's "Oregon Art Beat." Known for her definitive
playing of organ works of Ned Rorem and Leo Sowerby, two of the five Delos
International CDs she made during the last twenty years of her life included
the major organ works of these two composers.

On Dr. Crozier's 75th and 80th birthdays, she
performed solo recitals from memory at The Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove,
California; her 85th birthday recital was played at The First Congregational
Church of Los Angeles. Recently, the American Guild of Organists began to
compile a video archive series of great organists; Catharine Crozier was the
subject of The Master Series, Vol. I,
which shows her performing and teaching in her 86th year.

A memorial service/concert and reception will be held on
January 26, 2004, at Trinity Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, with the Trinity
Cathedral Choir (John Strege, director) and organists David Higgs and Frederick
Swann. Memorial donations may be sent to: Music Endowment Fund, Trinity
Cathedral, 147 NW 19th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209.

Morris Chester Queen
died on August 3. Born on September 30, 1921, he grew up in Baltimore,
Maryland, where he began music study at age 7. He became musically active at
Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church, where he and his family worshipped, and
played piano and organ for the church, sang tenor in the Senior Choir, and
directed the youth choir at age 17. During World War II, he served in the U.S.
Navy, where he directed the Great Lakes Naval Octet. In 1947 he was appointed
music director at Sharp Street Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore,
where he would serve for 55 years. That same year he entered Howard University,
where he received both the bachelor of music and bachelor of music education
degrees. In 1955, he received the master of music degree in composition and
choral conducting from Howard University. In addition to his church post, he
also founded and conducted the Morris Queen Chorale and taught at Lemmel Junior
High School and then at Walbrook Senior High School. He also directed the
Baltimore Chapel Choir, including more than 20 performances of Handel's
Messiah. During his tenure at Sharp Street Church, he served under 11 pastors
and missed only one Sunday in 55 years. On May 6, 2002, he was awarded the
Honorary Doctor of Sacred Music by the Richmond, Virginia Seminary. He is
survived by his wife, Ovella Queen, nieces, nephews, cousins, and a host of
other relatives and friends. A memorial service was held on August 9 at Sharp
Street Memorial United Methodist Church, Baltimore.

Remembering Bethel Knoche (1919-2003)

Bethel D. Knoche, 83, the first person to serve as principal
organist at the world headquarters of the Community of Christ (formerly,
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) in Independence,
Missouri, died on April 27, 2003, at her home in Independence following a long
illness. During her service to the world church, which was a period of nearly
thirty years, Bethel's ministry reached literally thousands of people
internationally, initially as organist for the church's radio broadcast
of daily morning devotions from the Stone Church and subsequently during her
years presiding at the Auditorium Organ as a participant in worship at world
conferences, recitalist, workshop leader and teacher, and as originator of the
weekly broadcast recital, "The Auditorium Organ."

A native of Arcadia, Kansas, she moved with her family to
Independence when she was eight. Following graduation from William Chrisman
High School, Bethel attended Graceland College for a year and then returned to
Independence, whereupon she began her service with the world church. In
addition to her radio work, her responsibilities included playing for many
church services, accompanying various choirs at the Stone Church, as well as
providing the organ accompaniment for the church's annual broadcast
performance of Handel's Messiah. During that time she began studying organ
with Powell Weaver, well-known Kansas City organist and composer, and completed
a bachelor of music degree in 1946 from Central Missouri State Teachers
College, Warrensburg, Missouri. She then entered a master's degree
program at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she was a
student of Harold Gleason for the next six years.

Many area organists began to recognize that there was
something quite special about Bethel's playing, and thus her career as a
teacher began. In addition to her serving on the faculties of Graceland and at
Warrensburg, she joined the faculty of the newly-formed, but short-lived,
Independence branch of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. She also served a
number of years as an adjunct instructor of organ at the University of Missouri-Kansas
City's Conservatory of Music, where she taught degree-seeking students at
the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. Following her tenure
at the Auditorium, Bethel continued to influence the lives of hundreds of children
by teaching elementary music in the Raytown, Missouri public school system
until her retirement.

In the 1940s Bethel was in a position to share the dreams
and aspirations of the church leadership of having a fine pipe organ in the
world headquarters building, which at the time was a large incomplete domed
shell. It was her association with Harold Gleason and his famous wife, organ
virtuoso Catharine Crozier, that culminated in the design and installation of
the Aeolian-Skinner organ in the Auditorium, completed in 1959, which at the
time was the largest free-standing organ in the United States. Dr. Gleason
served as organ consultant for the church, Ms. Crozier played the inaugural
recital in November 1959, and Bethel was at the organ for its dedication during
the church's world conference in April 1960.

The arrival of the organ, which was considered by many
(including Aeolian-Skinner's president, Joseph Whiteford) to be
Aeolian-Skinner's masterpiece, heralded a new era in the musical life of
the community as well as the church. From the very beginning, Bethel invited
many distinguished guest musicians from all over the United States and abroad
to perform in Independence, a tradition which continues to the present day. Not
only has the Auditorium Organ been a superb instrument for performing great
organ literature, it was designed to possess in abundance the necessary
qualities for encouraging a vast congregation to sing. A congregational hymn
with Bethel Knoche at the Auditorium Organ was a truly inspiring moment for all
present. The organ also provided a new outlet for the church's
longstanding commitment to radio ministry and eventually became one of the most
frequently heard organs on the air. "The Auditorium Organ," a
program heard for more than thirty years, originated as a 30-minute recital
featuring Bethel Knoche and broadcast weekly over an international network. The
organ also set a new standard of excellence against which all future organs in
the Midwest would be measured, and Bethel provided invaluable assistance to countless
congregations in their selection and purchase of new organs.

Sensing the need to have many people prepared to play the
new organ on a regular basis, Bethel assembled and trained a small, but very
dedicated, corps of volunteer organists to share the playing responsibilities
at the many events that would be taking place in the Auditorium. In addition to
the many services that occur in conjunction with the church's biennial
world conference, a daily listening period was instituted, for which the organ staff
would provide invaluable assistance, enabling countless visitors to the
building to experience the beauty and power of the splendid new organ. The
daily recitals have continued to the present day (daily during the summer and
weekly throughout the rest of the year), made possible by a volunteer staff
that now comprises thirty-five gifted musicians.

Bethel is survived by her husband of fifty-six years, Joseph
T. Knoche; her daughter, Anne McCracken of Jackson, Tennessee; her son, Joseph
K. Knoche of Independence; her sister, Shirley Elliott of Fremont, Nebraska;
five grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren, and a host of former students,
friends and admirers from all over the world. Plans are now being formulated
for an appropriate world church commemoration of the life and ministry of
Bethel Knoche.

--Rodney Giles

Ft. Lauderdale, FL and Cherry Grove,NY

Past Dean, Greater Kansas City AGO

Remembering John Obetz: 1933-2015

Jan Kraybill

Jan Kraybill, DMA, FAGO, is principal organist for the Dome and Spire Organ Foundation, an affiliate organization of Community of Christ headquarters in Independence, Missouri, and organ conservator at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City. Visit www.jankraybill.com for further information.

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My dad led a big, bold, beautiful life. 

 

So Peter Obetz said as he eulogized his father, John Obetz—organist, teacher, mentor, family man, and friend to so many, who passed from this life on February 12, 2015, at the age of 81. 

John Wesley Obetz was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Samuel and Hazel Obetz; he and his siblings were raised in the Chicago area. Samuel was a pastor, and John’s early experiences as a musician were in his father’s church. John went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University and a doctorate in sacred music in 1962 from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, studying organ with Vernon de Tar. He augmented his studies with trips to France for lessons with Marie-Claire Alain, and to the Netherlands to participate in the International Academy for Organists in Haarlem.

Dr. Obetz began his teaching career at Albion College in Michigan (1962–67) before being recruited to become principal organist at the headquarters of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS, now known as Community of Christ) in Independence, Missouri. He served in this position from 1967 until his retirement in 1998. His playing and commentary, featured weekly on The Auditorium Organ radio program  and broadcast nationwide for 26 years from 1967 to 1993, brought organ music to millions of listeners across the country and made him one of the United States’ best-known organists. Even today, fans continue to make pilgrimages to the Auditorium’s Aeolian-Skinner (IV/113, 1959), and they share fond memories from their formative years as musicians, when they heard John on the radio playing the familiar measures of J.S. Bach’s G-minor Fantasy, which announced the beginning of the program, and the joyful closing theme, Bach’s chorale on Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein.

In 1993 a second magnificent organ was installed at Community of Christ headquarters, much due to Obetz’s influence: the Casavant Opus 3700 (IV/102) in the dramatic architecture and generous acoustic of the church’s new Temple, located across the street from the Auditorium. At this organ’s tenth anniversary celebration, John said, “We knew that the organ for this room had to be just as effective and be a complement to the Auditorium organ, but speak with a different personality.” John played the inaugural recital for this instrument and recorded two discs there, adding to the collection of numerous LPs and CDs produced during his tenure at the church. 

Throughout his career John Obetz performed extensively in the United States, Canada, and Europe, including such venues as Westminster Abbey in London, the Duomo in Florence, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and many more. A champion of contemporary music, he commissioned and/or premiered works by Ned Rorem, Morton Feldman, Gerald Kemner, and others.

John Obetz also served as an adjunct associate professor of organ for over thirty years, beginning in 1970, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance, guiding its students as well as other musicians in the Kansas City area and beyond, fellow members of the American Guild of Organists, and his own grandchildren to learn and appreciate excellence in music-making of all kinds. He retired from the conservatory in 2005. Said his son Peter: 

 

He loved teaching and more than anything, the thing that struck me this last couple of months has been the amazing appreciation expressed by so many students: heartfelt statements of thanks for believing in them, supporting them, and coaching them to play pieces they never thought they could play, and helping shape them into the musicians they are now. The world continues to hear beautiful music that bears his influence.  

 

An ardent and active member of the American Guild of Organists, Dr. Obetz served on its national council for nineteen years, chairing several committees and accepting many volunteer and elected roles, including chapter dean, regional chair, and national treasurer. The AGO honored him in its fourth annual gala event in 2007, featuring performances by John and others at both of Community of Christ’s organs. The AGO’s online announcement of his death said, “His inspired leadership, profound wisdom, sage advice, charismatic charm, and keen sense of humor will long be remembered by the Guild.” As his son noted:

His death came only two months after a suspicious CT scan in mid-December. His cancer was aggressive and efficient in attacking its host. Fortunately his was not a long, drawn-out death. . . . He had 81 great years, a beautiful marriage of 61 years, a career that he loved and an ability to have influence on so many. His life was filled with loving, teaching, traveling and, as we all know, a lot of laughter.

In the last week of his life, John designed his own memorial service, held at his home parish, Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, on March 12, 2015. Peter Obetz explains:

 

He asked that I call certain of his students and break the bad news to them but also ask if they would be willing to come to Kansas City and play at his memorial service. . . . He selected which pieces he wanted them to play and being the teacher he was, up until the end he even had me pass along specific tips, such as don’t rush the third section of the Bach Fugue in E-flat. It is not meant to be played fast. Just let it breathe.

 

Musicians participating in the service were organists Thomas Brown (Chapel Hill, North Carolina), Jan Kraybill (Kansas City), Larry Stratemeyer (Charlotte, North Carolina), and Barry Wenger (Chicago); members of the choirs of Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral and St. John’s United Methodist Church, conducted by John Schaefer; and Joyce Steeby, soprano soloist, who sang The Lamb, composed by John Obetz for his son Peter’s baptism. The congregational singing of the many hymns included in the service was glorious.

Not only musicians, but the very instruments on which we play, form part of John Obetz’s rich legacy. The long list of organs for which he served as consultant or primary influence is a testament to his enthusiasm for the future of our art. His most recent and very significant contribution in this regard was as chair of the EPOCH (Experiencing Pipe Organs in Concert Halls) Committee, which worked together for over twenty years to ensure that Kansas City’s new concert hall, Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, would be home to a grand pipe organ. The committee selected James David Christie as the project’s organ consultant, and the result is Casavant Opus 3875 (IV/102, 2012).

Even in his eighties, John continued to be an active and essential contributor to a vibrant future for the organ world. At the time of his death he was serving on the campaign council for the Dome and Spire Organ Foundation, an affiliate organization of Community of Christ, and he was a member of the program committee for the AGO national convention to be held in Kansas City in 2018. He continued to support—through enthusiastic attendance, notes of encouragement, creative ideas, and financial contributions—a wide variety of events, individuals, and organizations in the vibrant artistic culture he had helped to form.

John Obetz is survived by his wife Grace, who for their 61 years of marriage “was his #1 fan and he was hers,” according to their son Peter. Others mourning the loss of their beloved family member are Peter’s wife Christy and daughters Taylor and Riley, John’s brother Wendell and his wife Betty, sister Janet Hofmeister, and many nieces and nephews and extended family. These close family ties were augmented by a “Kansas City family,” a network of dear friends who celebrated holidays and joined family vacations, including treasured time spent in Florida each winter.

Peter closed his eulogy on March 12 in this way:

 

We should take peace and find joy that he lives on in so many ways, through all of us here and through his vast influence on many who cannot be here. Just as the acoustics of a beautiful cathedral allow notes to reverberate and roll on, he still reverberates. He has played his last notes, but he lives on as a reverberation that all of us can enjoy and marvel at. I ask you to keep your hearts and minds open and to look for him as he lives on. Let him continue to perform, teach and love all of us. He is not gone, he just takes on another form. Listen for his reverberation. Bravo, Dad, bravo!

 

John Obetz directed that those wishing to make memorial gifts may do so in support of the Music Guild at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, P.O. Box 412048, Kansas City, MO 64141, or the Dome and Spire Organ Foundation, 1001 W. Walnut St., Independence, MO 64050, which is dedicated to the care of and programming for the Auditorium and Temple organs at Community of Christ headquarters.

May he rest in peace. Bravo.

Dedication of Casavant Opus 3875, Kauffman Center, Kansas City, Missouri

The inaugural recital weekend March 10–11, 2012 for Casavant Opus 3875 featured James David Christie performing an eighty-minute recital 

David C. Pickering

David C. Pickering is Assistant Professor of Music at Kansas State University and organist at First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, Kansas. He is an active recitalist, having performed throughout the United States and Canada. Pickering’s three recordings feature the organ music of American composers Daniel Gawthrop, Alice Jordan, and Leroy Robertson. He has also authored articles on these composers that have appeared in The American Organist and The Diapason. His degrees in organ performance (DMA, MM, BM) are from the University of Kansas and Brigham Young University.

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The opening of Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in September 2011 ended a sixteen-year search for a new location to house three of the region’s leading performing arts organizations—the Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Civic leader and philanthropist Muriel McBrien Kauffman first articulated the vision of the Kauffman Center in the mid-1990s. After her death, daughter Julia Irene Kauffman worked to bring this vision to reality. Designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie, whose work encompasses a wide variety of structures including airports, government buildings, libraries, museums, and residences, the Kauffman Center boasts two major performance spaces—the 1,800-seat proscenium-style Muriel Kauffman Theatre, home to the ballet and opera, and the 1,600-seat Helzberg Hall, which hosts a variety of local, regional, national, and international artists and performance groups, in addition to serving as the home of the Kansas City Symphony. Ground-breaking ceremonies for the Kauffman Center were held October 6, 2006, and the grand opening weekend of the Kauffman Center was held about five years later on September 16–17, 2011, capped off by a free public open house September 18, which drew an astonishing 55,000 people during a six-hour period.  

As discussions for the Kauffman Center were initiated in the 1990s, John Obetz, Principal Organist at the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now Community of Christ) in Independence, Missouri, and other area organists approached Julia Kauffman about the idea of including a pipe organ in the plans for a new concert hall. Obetz invited the people involved with the Kauffman Center’s planning to the Community of Christ Temple in nearby Independence, home to what was then a new organ by Casavant Frères Opus 3700 (1993), where he played sections from the Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, op. 78, by Camille Saint-Saëns. A tour of the organ for committee members followed, and the seeds for the new concert hall organ were sown. 

As an organ committee was formed and various organ builders considered, the committee traveled once again to the Community of Christ Temple to hear Casavant Opus 3700, demonstrated by Obetz’s successor Jan Kraybill. This eventually led the committee to select the Casavant firm to design and construct the organ for the Kauffman Center—it would be the Kansas City metropolitan area’s second large Casavant organ. James David Christie, Professor of Music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio, Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and organist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was hired to serve as the organ consultant for this new instrument, which has since been named the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ.

The inaugural recital weekend March 10–11, 2012 featured James David Christie performing an eighty-minute recital containing a varied selection of music, which included several compositions that are largely unknown to organists. Tickets for the inaugural recital sold out quickly, to the surprise and delight of many. In response to the demand for tickets, the Kauffman Center staff and Mr. Christie generously offered to provide a second recital scheduled for the following evening—which also sold out. Christie’s decision to perform two nights in a row was particularly dramatic, given the scope and difficulty of the program he presented. I attended the second performance (March 11) and was situated in the Mezzanine Left section of the hall, one level up from the main floor seating. The Julia Irene Kauffman Organ is prominently featured at the front of the Helzberg Hall, a beautiful facility awash with wood and soothing blue colors. The organ’s façade features both wooden and metal reed, principal, and string pipes angled forward and sideways. A mesh screen separates the visible façade from the other organ pipes.  

The recital opened with remarks of welcome from Jane Chu, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Kauffman Center, Julia Irene Kauffman, James David Christie, and Casavant owner Bertin Nadeau, who presented a token organ pipe to Ms. Kauffman on behalf of the company. Since the organ employs mechanical action and the console is connected directly to the instrument, closed-circuit cameras were employed so that the audience could view Christie’s pedal and manual movements on two huge screens that were posted on the stage floor. Whenever he played a pedal part that was particularly interesting for the audience to see, a small additional screen linked to a camera that was focused on Christie’s feet was displayed at the corner of each screen, thus providing further enjoyment and interest to everyone. The quality of the projected image was positively superb.  

The first half of Christie’s program, which consisted of forty minutes of music, was devoted almost solely to music of France, Germany, and Italy written during the Baroque period. Christie opened the program with Louis Mar-chand’s well-known Dialogue from his Troisième Livre, showcasing the organ’s fiery Grand jeu, the mellow 16′, 8′ and 4′ fonds d’orgue, a breathy Flûte harmonique from the Récit division, the Grand Choeur’s Cornet decomposeé and the Positif Cromorne. Those in the audience who were anxiously anticipating the entrance of the Pédale division’s 32′ Contre-Bombarde did not have to wait long—Christie engaged this stop for the final two measures, revealing a sound that was surprisingly smooth and refined. Christie’s beautifully nuanced, yet dramatic playing showed a thorough mastery of the French Classical style, which lent a magisterial air to the opening of the program that was extremely fitting.  

Dieterich Buxtehude’s Passacaglia in D Minor, BuxWV 161, followed, demonstrating the Grand Orgue’s refined 8′ Montre and the uncoupled plena of the Positif and Grand Orgue divisions, the latter accompanied by the Pédale’s principal plenum colored by the division’s smooth 16′ Basson. Christie built the organ’s registration to climax with the Pédale division’s 32′ Montre, which provided a firm underpinning to the composition’s conclusion. The next two works, Rondò in G Major by Giuseppe Gherardeschi and Ballo della Battaglia by Bernardo Storace, were unfamiliar to almost everyone. Christie charmed the audience by adding the Rossignol in the Rondò while the Storace dialogued the organ’s principal and reed choruses.

One of the program’s most sublime moments was Christie’s performance of Johann Bernhard Bach’s Ciaconna in B-flat Major, an attractive work of about ten minutes’ duration that allows the organist to explore an instrument’s varied stops and choruses. Christie both opened and closed this composition with the arresting 8′ Cor de Nuit from the Récit division. Other solo flute stops featured included the Grand Orgue and Positif 8′ Bourdons, the faint but quaint Positif 16′ Quintaton and that same division’s delightful 1′ Piccolo, a stop not often found on organs even of this size. The Positif 16′ Clarinette, a delicate string and celeste, and the Clochettes accompanied by the Positif 4′ Flûte douce each made brief appearances. Christie imbued this work with a mesmerizing dance-like spirit that demonstrated his informed musicianship and technical finesse.  

The program’s first half concluded with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. Christie dialogued the toccata’s opening statements on the Grand Orgue and Positif divisions, whose notes were immediately humbled into silence by the thundering pedal point that followed. He effectively dialogued the fugue’s middle section episodic material by ascending all four manuals in stair-step fashion, creating both an aural soundscape and visual interest for the audience. Christie unleashed the organ’s full resources for the final few measures of the fugue, creating a drama and excitement that could have engaged even the most casual listener.

Christie conveyed his love of Baroque-era music superbly by combining a thorough understanding of the performance practice traditions of different countries within this era, a freedom and spontaneity uninhibited by technical showmanship, and a warmth and sensitivity that is often missing in performance of this era’s music. His use of the organ combined informed scholarship, which those in the profession appreciated, with the ability to show a wide range of the organ’s different sounds that were obviously appreciated by the enthusiastic audience. The character and voicing of the plena and stops demonstrated in this half of the program was some of the finest this reviewer has heard from Casavant—so much so that this reviewer wishes that the organ were more present in the hall. Whether the need of greater presence is due to the full house that yielded a drier acoustic than that in which the organ was voiced, the need for more manual coupling, the organ’s dependence on higher-pressure stops to effectively convey forte and fortissimo dynamic levels, or the general need for increased wind pressures are issues that will no doubt be analyzed and hopefully rectified with more study and the passage of time. Likewise, there is much anticipation over how the instrument will perform with a full orchestra in the hall.

The program’s second half comprised forty additional minutes of music featuring primarily works of French composers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and a work by Christie himself, composed in the French idiom in the early years of the twenty-first century. I believe that the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ finally found its voice with the opening chords of Guy Ropartz’s Sortie (from his Six pièces), and it was immediately obvious that while the organ can play earlier literature competently, it is music of the French symphonic style in which this instrument feels truly at home. The organ sounded more present in this work due to the presence of the Grand Choeur division’s hooded reeds, which in this reviewer’s opinion must be engaged for the organ’s presence to adequately fill the hall. The organ chamber’s lights were turned on for this piece’s entirety to clever effect, so that the audience could have an excellent view of its pipes and expressive division shutter movements that are located behind the mesh screen. The dynamic volume of the organ’s expressive divisions increased the most when the shutters were opened the first third to half way. Unfortunately, the remaining two-thirds to half of the distance that the shutters moved produced no further dynamic contrast and the movement of some shutters was slightly spasmodic and not completely smooth. Surely, this small post-installation issue will be attended to in the coming months.

Ermend Bonnal’s La vallée du Béhorléguy, au matin from his Paysages euskariens evoked a flood of soft and meditative flute and string sounds; the Pédale 32′ Soubasse provided just the right touch as the work drew to an introspective close. Christie gave an impassioned performance of Jehan Alain’s most famous composition, Litanies, creating truly visceral excitement as he played the work’s final two pages—some of the most difficult in the organ literature. The fervent outpouring of the soul described by Alain on the work’s opening page was tangibly felt. Christie, in turn, delivered the most heartfelt playing of the evening in his own Elégie, a work composed in 2006 and dedicated to his former teachers: Sister Dolorette Recla, FSPA, and Jean Langlais. A plaintive solo flute permeates the work’s opening, and Christie created a truly ethereal effervescence by coupling many of the organ’s string and celeste stops together; the work eventually died into oblivion. The effect was magical. Christie concluded the program with the Final of Alexandre Guilmant’s Sonata No. 1 in D Minor—a piece he frequently performs. However, as was evident in this performance, he never seems to tire of it—his technical prowess was impressive and he yielded an overall exhilarating effect. The audience gave Christie a well-deserved standing ovation, and he responded with an encore—the second movement from the Guilmant Sonata (Pastorale). This piece allowed Christie to demonstrate stops he had not yet featured—the Récit Voix humaine, which beautifully conveyed the French mystical sentiment often associated with this stop. This aura was further heightened by the softly rumbling pedal accompaniment provided by the 32′ Soubasse and other soft pedal stops. The Grand Choeur Cor Anglais, which had not yet been featured in the program, dialogued nicely with the Récit division’s Hautbois with the return of the main theme in the composition’s final section. When all was said and done, the whole program clocked in right at two hours, the audience having been fed a varied feast of music from several countries and historical eras.  

Although the organ sounded more present in the hall during the second half, I still wished for more presence in the room. From where I was sitting in the hall, the sound of completely full organ adequately filled the hall, but even more sound would not have been an unwelcome guest. While the designated star of the evening’s performance was the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ, organist James David Christie deserves equal recognition for the knuckle-busting program he dispatched with such élan, especially considering that he played this recital two times in two days for sold-out audiences. Christie’s performances on the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ represent only one facet of the organ’s mission. The public will experience how this organ functions as both an orchestra member and a solo instrument with orchestra in its future performances with the Kansas City Symphony. 

The benefits that the classical music scene in Kansas City has received from the construction of the Kauffman Center have been immediate and tangible. Kudos are especially in order to Julia Irene Kauffman for her generosity and to John Obetz and the organ committee who lobbied for the organ’s inclusion in Helzberg Hall. The building of any new organ gives organists everywhere cause for celebration; the appearance of the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ is no exception. I have high hopes that Christie’s recital represents the dawning of a new chapter for the pipe organ in the Kansas City music scene that will inspire performers and audiences for years to come. n

 

 

 

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.

 

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