Michael David Ging to St. John Vianney, Houston

Michael Ging is a church musician, organist, and  entrepreneur. 

On the concert stage, Michael garners critical and audience acclaim for his virtuosic technique, sensitive interpretations, and charismatic stage presence. His performance career takes him to venues in Europe and North America, notably the Orgelkunst Series in Magdeburg (Germany) and L’Église de la Madeleine (Paris). Recent domestic recitals were performed in Dallas, Houston, Excelsior, St. Paul, Worcester, Charleston, Princeton, Austin, Washington, Spartanburg, Atlanta, Orlando, Winter Park, and Santa Fe. As an orchestral soloist, his repertoire includes Barber’s Toccata Festiva (Houston Civic Symphony), Howard Hanson’s Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Percussion (New Hope Festival Orchestra), and J. S. Bach’s concertos for multiple harpsichords (Bach Society Houston). His festival credits include appearances at the 11th International Organ and Early Music Festival (Oaxaca), the Leipzig in Houston Festival, the Houston Early Music Festival, the University of Alabama Piano and Organ Festival, and four solo recitals at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. He is an advocate for new music and has premiered compositions by Ryan Gagnon, Daniel Sigmon, Peter Mathews, Thomas J. White, and Daniel Knaggs. 

Michael is Adjunct Professor of Organ at Rollins College, where he teaches on the rebuilt Aeolian-Skinner Organ (Opus 858) housed in Knowles Memorial Chapel. His current and former students are church musicians, teachers, and performers. He has coached high school students through college applications receiving offers of admission from Yale University, Stetson University, Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music, University of Denver, Ball State University, University of Houston, among others. 

He has maintained his vocation as a liturgical musician since his appointment as Organist/Choirmaster at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church (Folly Beach, SC) at age fourteen. He currently serves as Director of Music & Parish Organist at All Saints Episcopal Church (Winter Park, FL). His previous calls include a decade of ministry at New Hope Lutheran Church (Missouri City, TX) as well as at Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal churches in South Carolina, Ohio, and Texas. 

Michael is an experienced consultant. He is currently advising St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church (Charleston, SC) through the design and installation of a four-manual French symphonic organ by R.A. Colby. Previous projects include instrument acquisitions and ministry personnel solutions for Catholic, Episcopal, Baptist, and Methodist congregations in Florida, South Carolina, and Texas. 

He is the Co-Founder/Managing Partner of Seven Eight Artists, an artist management agency specializing in the promotion of organists and their performance activities. The roster of Seven Eight Artists includes leading performers based throughout the United States, Canada, Scotland, and Germany. 

Michael is a graduate of prestigious academic institutions. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Houston where he studied organ with Robert Bates, conducting with Betsy Cook Weber, and wrote his dissertation, “Orchestrations and Transformations: Guilmant, Widor, and the Emergence of Music for Organ and Orchestra in France,” under the guidance of Matthew Dirst. He holds a Master of Music from Rice University, where he studied with Ken Cowan as the recipient of the Frederick Royal Gibbons Memorial Scholarship, generously funded by ZZ Top’s lead singer Billy Gibbons. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Jack Mitchener. Additional studies include harpsichord with Matthew Dirst and improvisation with George Baker and Sigurd Øgaard. 

Michael Ging is represented by Seven Eight Artists: SevenEightArtists.com/ging 

Jeremy David Tarrant, Organist

Jeremy David Tarrant is increasingly recognized for performances hailed as elegant, compelling, warm, communicative, and powerfully artistic. Since 2000, he has served as Organist and Choirmaster of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Episcopal) in Detroit, and from 1994–1999 he was Cathedral’s Assistant Organist.  In April of 2007 he was seated as Canon Precentor of the Cathedral in thanksgiving and recognition of his role in the liturgical and musical life of the Cathedral community.  He is the founding director of the Cathedral Choir School of Metropolitan Detroit.

Jeremy David Tarrant is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music where he earned the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance and church music in the classes of Robert Glasgow and James Kibbie. His other instructors include Betty R. Pursley and Corliss Arnold. He has had additional coaching with Lynne Davis.

Mr. Tarrant is Adjunct Professor of Organ at Oakland University.  He is in frequent demand as a teacher and clinician, and regularly serves on the faculties of the summer courses offered by the Royal School of Church Music in America, as well as the American Guild of Organists summer Pipe Organ Encounters. 

An active concert organist, Jeremy David Tarrant has performed widely in North America and France. He frequently appears with the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and has performed in regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists.  In 2008, Mr. Tarrant made his European solo debut with a recital in the Cathédrale de St. Etienne in Meaux, France, and in 2011 he played the closing recital of International Organ Week in Dijon, France. In 2012, he was a featured artist in the Pine Mountain Music Festival, presenting three solo recitals in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  Since 2015 he has been engaged in a series of concerts on important instruments in Detroit. His debut solo recording of Widor’s Symphonie VII, along with music of Litaize and Vierne, was released in early 2018 to enthusiastic critical acclaim. 

In July, 2014 Mr. Tarrant conducted the Cathedral Choir during its residency at Chichester Cathedral in England.  This tour included concerts and services in Canterbury and Southwark Cathedrals.  On the choir’s two CD releases, Nowell Sing We, and Evensong for All Saints, he is featured as organ soloist as well as conductor.

Jeremy David Tarrant is represented by Seven Eight Artists.

www.seveneightartists.com

www.jeremydavidtarrant.com

View his performance of "Mattheus-Final" by Charles-Marie Widor: https://www.thediapason.com/videos/jeremy-david-tarrant-plays-mattheus-final-charles-marie-widor

James Leslie Boeringer, born March 4, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, died January 12 of pancreatic cancer. He earned a BA in organ performance from the College of Wooster (Ohio) in 1952, an MA in musicology from Columbia University in 1954, a doctorate in sacred music from the former Union Theological Seminary in New York, New York, in 1964, and completed post-doctoral studies at New York University. Boeringer received associate certification from the American Guild of Organists in 1953. He presented recitals in organ and harpsichord in 20 of the United States, and in England and France.

Beginning with his first church position, as organist of Homewood Baptist Church in Pittsburgh in November 1947, he served churches in Ohio, New Jersey, New York City, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and London, England. He moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1992 and served as organist at Church of the Pilgrims (Presbyterian) Washington, Messiah Lutheran Church in Germantown, and Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, in Georgetown, playing his last service December 29, 2013, just two weeks before his death.  

Boeringer served as executive director of the Moravian Music Foundation in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as university organist and on the faculty at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee; at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, he was a professor and chair of the music department. A Phillips Distinguished Visitor at Haverford College, he founded the Krisheim Church Music Conference in Philadelphia, and directed the Creative Arts Festival at Susquehanna University from 1972 to 1975, and the Moravian Music Festival in 1981 and 1984.  

As a composer Boeringer wrote 23 published original works for chorus and organ, organ solo, chamber ensemble, and other combinations, including a cantata and a song cycle; and about 50 unpublished pieces, including an oratorio with full orchestra. He wrote more than 25 hymn tunes and hymn texts, some of which appear in Baptist, Lutheran, Mennonite, Moravian, and ecumenical hymnals. Selected works are available through the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) website (imslp.org).  

He authored the three-volume Organa Britannica: Organs in Great Britain, 1660–1860, as well as other books on hymnody and biographies of organists and composers of church music. His essays were published in periodicals and books. 

A widely published arts critic and scholar, he wrote numerous articles and reviews, which appeared in the Journal of Church Music; Moravian Music Journal; Music, the A.G.O. Magazine; The Organ Yearbook (Netherlands); The Musical Times (London); The New York Times; The American Organist; The Diapason; and The Tracker. He was the editor for the Society for Organ History and Preservation.  

Boeringer published fiction under a pseudonym. A member of Equity, he has a long list of theater credits in a variety of roles including actor, singer, director, music director, composer, narrator, and chorus arranger. He had an abiding interest in historic buildings and moved and restored two log cabins in his lifetime, and was an avid gardener.  

James Leslie Boeringer is survived by his wife of 58 years, Grace, and children Lisa Stocker, Greta, and Daniel, and a brother David.  

Peter Rasmussen Hallock died April 27, 2014, in Fall City, Washington; he was 89. A composer, organist, liturgist, and countertenor, among other activities, he was long associated with St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral of Seattle. Hallock began organ study with Clayton Johnson of Tacoma. He enrolled at the University of Washington, but was drafted into the United States Army, serving from June 1943 until February 1946 as chaplain’s assistant and sharpshooter in the Pacific theater during World War II. Returning to the University of Washington, he studied organ with Walter Eichinger and composition with George McKay, then studied at the College of St. Nicholas at the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) in Canterbury, England, becoming the first American choral scholar at Canterbury Cathedral, under the direction of Gerald Knight. He completed the RSCM program and received a bachelor of arts degree in music from the University of Washington in 1951 and master of arts degree in music from the same institution in 1958.

Peter Hallock became organist/choirmaster of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle, on October 28, 1951, a position he held until retirement in 1991. At St. Mark’s, he founded a chant study group in the mid 1950s that became known as the Compline Choir, which remains in the forefront of the resurgence of interest in the Office of Compline. He was instrumental in the cathedral’s acquisition of a four-manual Flentrop mechanical-action organ in 1965. At the cathedral, Hallock also introduced Advent and Good Friday processions as well as liturgical drama. He was named Canon Precentor, the first lay person in the Episcopal Church to hold this title, named an associate of the RSCM, and was honored with an honorary doctor of music degree by the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. In 1992, he became organist at St. Clement of Rome Episcopal Church, Seattle, remaining until March 2013. Hallock was also well known and respected for his countertenor concerts, with performances throughout the United States. As a composer, Peter Hallock created more than 250 works, from occasional church music to extended anthems, dramatic works (sacred and secular) to music specifically written for the Compline Choir. Among his many publications was The Ionian Psalter.

Peter Rasmussen Hallock is survived by his sisters, Matilda Ann Milbank of Los Altos, California, and Barbara Hallock of Kent, Washington, as well as several nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews. Memorial gifts may be made to the Compline Choir of St. Mark’s Cathedral or to the Cathedral Foundation of the Diocese of Olympia, Seattle.

Robert Burgess Lynn, 83 years old, passed away February 11 in Houston, Texas. A native of Colorado Springs, he studied organ and piano with Roy Harris, Frederick Boothroyd, and Joanna Harris while in high school. In 1952, he earned a BA at Colorado College (where he studied with Frederick Boothroyd and Max Lanner, and was chapel organist), and a master’s in organ from the Juilliard School of Music, received Honorable Mention in the AGO Young Artists’ Contest in Organ Playing in San Francisco, and married Elaine Steele, also a musician. In 1956, Lynn received a Fulbright Scholarship to study organ playing and construction with Finn Viderø under the auspices of the University of Copenhagen. His studies were briefly delayed when the family’s ship, the Stockholm, collided with the Andrea Doria, which subsequently sank. During his time in Copenhagen, he saw and played several great organs, including the organ at Sweden’s Malmö Museum, built in 1520, and at the Royal Chapel in Copenhagen, built in 1827. Lynn became a Fellow of the AGO in 1964, receiving the highest marks of any candidate in Section I of the FAGO examinations. 

Robert Lynn taught from 1954 to 1971 at Allegheny College as an assistant professor of music. In 1973, he received his PhD in musicology from Indiana University; his dissertation was entitled “Renaissance Organ Music for the Proper of the Mass in Continental Sources.” From 1971 to 1997, he served as professor of musicology at the University of Houston where he also directed the Collegium Musicum and the graduate studies program. His monograph, Valentin Haussmann (1565/70–Ca. 1614): A Thematic-Documentary Catalogue of His Works, was published by Pendragon Press. In 1997, he was named professor emeritus. 

Lynn also enjoyed visiting professorships at Rice University, Indiana University, and the University of Siegen. While a resident of Houston, Lynn was well known for his organ recitals in addition to his role as harpsichord soloist, playing in many concerts associated with the Houston Harpsichord Society (now Houston Early Music). From 1982 to 2004, he was the founding director of the Houston Bach Choir and Orchestra at Christ the King Lutheran Church. Lynn served as director of music and organist at St. Francis Episcopal Church for 25 years, and also as long-term interim organist at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church. Memorial contributions may be made to the Bach Society Houston, 2353 Rice Blvd, Houston, TX 77005, or to the Christ Church Cathedral Music Program, 1117 Texas Ave., Houston, TX 77002.

Fred S. Mauk died on April 7, two weeks before his 83rd birthday, after a short illness. Mauk did his undergraduate study at Stetson University and Rollins College, where he earned a degree in music, and received his master’s degree in 1958 from the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He held church music positions in Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida, his last position being director of music for 33 years at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Altamonte Springs, Florida, where he retired in 2011; at St. Mark’s he installed a pipe organ (purchased from a church in North Carolina) in the sanctuary.

An active member of the Central Florida AGO chapter, Mauk served in many chapter positions, including dean, and was instrumental in coordinating the 1993 regional AGO convention in Orlando. He was also known for his encouragement of young musicians, his sense of humor, his organizational skills, his many interests, including old cars and antique car shows, and his ability to work well with everyone. 

Mary Lou McCarthy-Artz, age 78, died at her home in Plymouth, Indiana, on May 7. Born November 18, 1935, Mary Lou Smith graduated from high school in 1953, marrying her first husband, Joseph L. Merkel, two years later. She studied piano at the Jordan Conservatory of Music, Butler University, in Indianapolis. After her husband’s death, she married Rodney Evans and moved to Covington, Indiana, where they lived for more than twenty years. It was there, while holding down a full-time job as an executive secretary, that she began working part-time as organist at nearby Catholic parishes: St. Joseph, Covington; St. Bernard, Crawfordsville; and Holy Family, Danville, Illinois. In 1993, she began full-time ministry as organist and choir director for the motherhouse of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, Ancilla Domini, in Donaldson, Indiana. A long-time member of the American Guild of Organists, she had served as chapter dean and had recently earned her CAGO certificate. Mary Lou McCarthy-Artz is survived by her husband, Donald Artz, two daughters, Nancy Merkel Starkey of Jacksonville, Florida, and Janet Evans Snyder of Georgetown, Illinois, as well as two grandchildren. ν

Herbert E. Nuechterlein passed away May 22, just days before his 90th birthday, which the family did celebrate in his honor as planned. The funeral followed on May 27 at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, where he had long served as director of music. In recognition of his loyalty to his alma mater, the University of Michigan where he received BMus, MMus, and Ph.D. degrees, the Emmanuel choir, in an otherwise traditional Lutheran funeral, sang an unexpected and exuberant performance of the Wolverine Fight Song.
He was born in Bay City (Frankenlust), Michigan on May 26, 1918, and is survived by his wife, Jeanne, three children, five grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and his twin sister. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army as a band leader in the USA and in Germany. He received a Lutheran Teacher Colloquy from Concordia Teacher’s College, River Forest, Illinois, and in addition to his degrees at Michigan he studied at Northwestern University, the Army Music School, and the Westphalian Church Music School in Herford, Germany.
Nuechterlein taught instrumental music in the Grosse Pointe, Michigan public schools from 1946–51, and from 1951–77 served as chair of the music departments at Concordia Junior College and Concordia Senior College, while also an associate professor at Indiana-Purdue, Fort Wayne. From 1952–56 he served as conductor of the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic Chorus, but throughout his years in Ft. Wayne he had a close association with the Philharmonic, using its musicians in the Vespers series he created at Concordia Senior College. Based on an expanded form of the Lutheran liturgy, the Vespers were presented in an architectural masterpiece, Kramer Chapel, designed by Eero Saarinen, with its 90-foot pitched ceiling, reverberant acoustics, and the 53-rank landmark Schlicker organ. The organ put Schlicker on the map and was one of the first instruments of its kind in the U.S. to have a more typically North European specification and voicing with a dramatic open display of pipework.
Nuechterlein’s choirs toured 42 states and Canada and were featured in the Choral Vespers four times a year, which drew capacity attendances. These performances became a vibrant focus in local church music, featuring classics of the Lutheran tradition and an ecumenical breadth of repertoire from the Renaissance to the 20th century. They included motets, settings of the Passion, and 32 Bach cantatas, many of which were first performances in Ft. Wayne. With the closing of the Senior College, the last Vespers in May 1976 featured Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the full Ft. Wayne Philharmonic.
During his tenure, many famous organists performed in Kramer Chapel, including E. Power Biggs, who played the dedicatory recital of the Schlicker organ, David Craighead, Michael Schneider, Gerre Hancock, Anton Heiller, Piet Kee, Paul Manz, Robert Noehren, Daniel Roth, and Heinz Wunderlich. Dr. Nuechterlein served as music critic for the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel from 1961–86, provided program notes for the Philharmonic’s Freimann concert series, and contributed articles to several national music and church periodicals.
He was a member of the American Guild of Organists, Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Music Critics Association (MCANA), American Musicology Society, and Music Educators National Conference. In 1993 Zion Lutheran Church in Dallas, Texas, through its “Heritage Series” honored Dr. Nuechterlein as a “vibrant churchman steadfastly supportive of the gospel and for his devoted Christian service and extensive music ministry.” He was director of music at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Ft. Wayne from 1951–96 and served as organist at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1988–2007, playing well into his 89th year.
—Joel H. Kuznik

Jerry Ray Witt died January 12 in San Diego, California, at the age of 76. Born November 3, 1931, in La Crosse, Kansas, he began piano lessons at age seven and studied voice and organ in high school. He earned a bachelor of music degree from Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, and then moved to California, where he began a 41-year career in church music in San Diego: at Christ Lutheran Church, Pacific Beach; All Hallows Catholic Church, La Jolla; and finally 28 years at St. Brigid Catholic Church in Pacific Beach before retiring in 1995. He provided funds for a 51-rank Martin Ott organ installed at St. Brigid in 1993 in memory of his mother, as well as an endowment for ongoing concerts. Witt served on the boards of the San Diego AGO chapter, the Spreckels Organ Society, and the Lyric Opera San Diego, as well as on the music and liturgy commission for the Diocese of San Diego. After retirement he sang in the parish choir at Nativity Church in Rancho Santa Fe.