Skip to main content

Tiffany Ng to the University of Michigan

Tiffany Ng has been appointed assistant professor of carillon and university carillonneur at the University of Michigan. She will teach studio carillon and other topics. An energetic advocate of contemporary music, she has premiered or revived two dozen acoustic and electroacoustic pieces by composers from Ken Ueno to Kaikhosru Sorabji, and collaboratively pioneered models for interactive “crowdsourced” carillon performances.

She has performed at UC Berkeley’s 2015 Campanile Centennial, the 23rd International Carillon Festival at Bok Tower Gardens, and the 2014 International Carillon Festival Barcelona. Previous appointments include visiting professor of music history at St. Olaf College, associate carillonist at UC Berkeley, and instructor of carillon at the University of Rochester.

Dr. Ng holds degrees in carillon, organ, musicology, new media, and English from the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn,” UC Berkeley, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University. Her former teachers include Geert D’hollander, William Porter, and Joris Verdin. At the University of Michigan she will join Department of Organ faculty members Vincent Dubois (visiting artist), Joseph Gascho (harpsichord and early music), James Kibbie (organ, chair), and Kola Owolabi (organ and sacred music).

Related Content

The University of Michigan 57th Annual Organ Conference: The Music of Louis Vierne, September 30–October 3, 2017

Linda Dzuris

A native of Michigan, Linda Dzuris is professor of music and university carillonneur at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. She is also organist at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Simpsonville, South Carolina.

Default

On the last day of September in this, the University of Michigan’s bicentennial year, a conference on the music of Louis Vierne, presented by the university in partnership with the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit, was dedicated to concert organist and pedagogue, Robert Glasgow. It was a unique opportunity to hear all six of Vierne’s organ symphonies, several of his character pieces and chamber music, plus works by Vierne’s mentors and students.

 

September 30

The conference began on the evening of September 30 with the final round of the university’s sixth annual Organ Improvisation Competition at First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor. Competitors were given two themes and required to improvise a three-movement symphonic suite on the church’s three-manual, 42-rank Schoenstein organ. 

First prize was awarded to Matt Gender, a Doctor of Musical Arts student at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, where he has studied with James Higdon and Michael Bauer. Second prize and the audience prize were awarded to Joe Balestreri, director of music for the Archdiocese of Detroit and episcopal music director at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Detroit, as well as a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2015. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ performance from the University of Michigan, where he studied with James Kibbie. Third prize was awarded to Sandor Kadar, organist at First Presbyterian Church of West Chester, Pennsylvania. In addition to studying improvisation privately with Jeffrey Brillhart, he holds degrees in organ performance, sacred music, and conducting from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria.  

The judges were Ellen Rowe, professor of jazz and contemporary improvisation, University of Michigan; Edward Maki-Schramm, director of music, Christ Church, Detroit, and conductor of the Community Chorus of Detroit; and Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, hymn festival leader, workshop clinician, and author of music literacy books for children, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sponsorship was provided by the American Center for Church Music, First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, and the Ann Arbor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. 

 

October 1

“Music of Vierne for Choir, Voice, Brass, & Organ” was the title of the opening concert on Sunday, October 1, in the historic Norman Gothic stone edifice of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. Utilizing both the church’s original 1925 three-manual, 50-rank Casavant Frères organ and its 2003 two-manual, 29-rank Austin organ, the Detroit Archdiocesan Chorus and the Cathedral Singers (Cathedral Church of St. Paul) joined their voices under the direction of Jeremy David Tarrant to present Vierne’s Messe solennelle, op. 16. Trumpets, trombones, and timpani combined with Naki Sung Kripfgans at the organ for the performance of Marche triomphale du centenaire de Napoléon I, op. 46, conducted by Elliot Tackitt. Andrew Meagher accompanied soprano Kathy Meagher in the performance of Les Angélus, op. 57. Vierne’s Tantum ergo, op. 2, and Carillon de Westminster, op. 54, no. 6, were heard before the program moved to the music of other Notre Dame musicians: Ubi caritas by Maurice Duruflé and Olivier Latry’s Salve Regina with Joe Balistreri at the organ.

Later that evening, concert attendees traveled down Woodward Avenue to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul for a gala organ recital by Martin Jean, a former student of Robert Glasgow, current professor at Yale University, and highly acclaimed American organist. Employing all the nuances available from the Opus 23 organ by D. F. Pilzecker & Company of Toledo, Ohio (with several rescaled/revoiced stops from the 1923 Austin and 1951 Casavant instruments), Dr. Jean gave eloquent performances of Widor’s Symphonie Romane, op. 73, and Vierne’s Symphonie V in A Minor, op.47.

 

October 2

Monday commenced with a full morning of presentations at First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor that were thoughtfully constructed, earnestly delivered, and well received. Of particular interest to any who knew or heard Robert Glasgow perform was the announcement of plans for making available extant recordings of past performances, many currently on reel-to-reel tape. Jeremy David Tarrant, former student of Professor Glasgow at the University of Michigan and later executor of his mentor and friend’s estate, would like to release a two-CD set that would include recordings made from a 1995 Organ Historical Society Convention recital in Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, among other select events. Another goal is to have concerts available for download on a Robert Glasgow website. 

Mr. Tarrant also presented a survey of Vierne’s Pièces de fantaisie, which included live performance of several of the pieces. Jeremy David Tarrant serves as organist and choirmaster of the Cathedral of St. Paul, Detroit, adjunct professor of organ at Oakland University, and is an active concert organist. The University of Michigan Department of Organ especially recognized him for initiating the partnership between the cathedral and the university that brought this conference concept to realization. 

Jason Alden of Alden Organ Services served on the faculty of Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois, and Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan. His performance and commentary had us take a closer look at Vierne’s 24 pièces en style libre, while later in the day he gave us a skillful rendering of the composer’s Symphonie IV in G Minor, op. 32.

“Our Vierne” was a thought-provoking session led by Lawrence Archbold, professor of music emeritus, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, that considered Louis Vierne and his output from the viewpoint of various sub-categories of old and new musicology. History and values for “Old Musicology” covered aspects of biography, score editing, musical form, genealogy, and style analysis. “New Musicology” pushed us further as we considered how music is used and issues such as feminist critique, nationalism, personal stories, and liminal spaces. Good thesis topics.

After some midday free time, the 71 conference registrants and 20 students were invited to watch Vincent Dubois, the newest appointed titular organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, teach a masterclass at Hill Auditorium on the Ann Arbor campus. Clair de lune, op. 53, no. 5; Impromptu, op. 54, no. 2; and Lied, op. 31, no.17, were played by undergraduates Julian Goods, Jennifer Shin, and Matthew Durham, respectively. Much attention was paid to the musical shaping of phrases within all pieces, and each student responded well to the animated coaching given by Monsieur Dubois.

“Gems of the Flemish Romantic with an American Interlude” filled the air around Burton Memorial Tower as the sun began to set. The Charles Baird Carillon consists of 53 bells weighing about 43 tons and was played beautifully with tremolo galore by Jeremy Chesman, university carillonist and professor of music at Missouri State University, Springfield. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he was the first person to earn a Master of Music degree in carillon performance.  

Of course, no university conference would be complete without a faculty recital, and we were not disappointed with the evening’s musical offering on the Frieze Memorial Organ, a Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner instrument, since rebuilt, in Hill Auditorium. There are 120 ranks (12 from the 1893 organ built by Farrand & Votey Company of Detroit for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago) with four additional ranks available in the Echo division. James Kibbie, the chair of the organ department and university organist, performed Vierne’s Symphonie VI in B Minor, op. 59, with a mastery of expressiveness and precision. Associate professor of organ Kola Owolabi paired the symphony with a dynamic performance of Prélude, Adagio, et Choral varié sur le thème du Veni Creator, op. 4, by Maurice Duruflé and called to mind the connection between the two musicians in his program notes.  

 

October 3

The first morning session on Tuesday was an eye- and ear-opener. Michael Barone, host of Pipedreams from American Public Media, presented an illustrated talk, “Louis Vierne: His Other Music,” accompanied by recordings of much-overlooked compositions. Vierne gave us 17 opuses for organ, but there are 45 opuses of other music. We listened to works including Largo et Canzonetta for oboe and piano written early in his career, a few of his numerous pieces for piano, excerpts from an orchestral symphony and a rhapsody for harp written a few years after his second organ symphony, a piano quintet from 1917 composed for the death of his youngest son, and Vierne’s op. 61 from 1931, La ballade du déspéré, orchestrated by Maurice Duruflé. Mr. Barone certainly proved there is a trove of worthy music by Louis Vierne besides those works written for solo organ.

Sarah Simko, a master’s student at the University of Michigan and a member of The Diapason’s 20 under 30 Class of 2017, performed Symphonie III in F-sharp Minor, op.28, in a mid-morning recital at Hill Auditorium, holding the audience captivated from beginning to end. A long line of appreciative listeners waited to praise her, as it was an exhilarating performance.

Attendees and the greater Ann Arbor community experienced the unusual treat of seeing at ground level, rather than having to ascend a tower, how a carillon is played by means of a full 48-bell (26,000 lb.) carillon attached to a flatbed of a semi truck. Tiffany Ng, assistant professor and university carillonist at Michigan, secured a bicentennial celebration grant from the university to bring the Mobile Millennium Carillon in from the Chime Master Company of Lancaster, Ohio. Three of Dr. Ng’s current carillon students performed pieces for a masterclass outside Rackham Auditorium. Jeremy Chesman, who performed a solo concert the previous evening, delivered helpful instruction while maneuvering between the small cabin housing the playing console and street level via a small ladder. Kevin Yang, Rachael Park, and Michelle Lam each quickly adjusted their playing to produce more sensitive delivery of musical passages.

Students continued in the spotlight as six studying with James Kibbie and Kola Owolabi took the stage back at Hill Auditorium. Jennifer Shin, Joe Mutone, Dean Robinson, James Renfer, Sherri Brown, and Joseph Moss each played a movement of Symphonie I in D Minor, op. 14, competently representing the strength of the organ department.

The afternoon sessions reconvened at First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor where Naki Sung Kripfgans is organist.  She is also a staff collaborative pianist for the University of Michigan string department and university choir. In her presentation on “Vierne’s Harmonic Language,” Dr. Kripfgans posed questions about impressionism and how the label may or may not work in reference to the composer’s various works. 

Then we had soup—literally. A local chef demonstrated how to make the base for a classic bouillabaisse or seafood stew from the port city of Marseilles during her presentation “A Taste of France with Christine Miller.” When it was ready, sampling for all commenced.

A sweeter treat awaited us in the sanctuary. More intimate than the other venues we had been in, the space was a good choice for pianist Nicole Keller from Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio, with the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance’s Ivalas Quartet members (violinists Anita Dumar and Reuben Kebede, violist Caleb Georges, and cellist Pedro Sánchez) and award-winning Australian cellist Richard Narroway. Mr. Narroway, who is pursuing a doctoral degree with Richard Aaron at the University of Michigan, played Cello Sonata, op. 27, written when Vierne was 40 and prior to his third organ symphony. The performance was followed by String Quartet, op. 12, written some 16 years earlier. Deeply committed to sharing string quartet repertoire both new and old, the Ivalas Quartet graciously answered questions posed by Michael Barone after their spirited performance. We learned that op. 12 is the first composition by Vierne the musicians have taken on, and that they were not familiar with any of his chamber pieces beforehand. The quartet agreed they did find it an interesting composition and they would indeed continue to hone the work to include on future programs.

The penultimate conference event was a faculty recital by Tiffany Ng. Again, the Mobile Millennium Carillon was featured as she played selections in tribute to Louis Vierne including an athletic piece that referenced the Westminster chime and an arrangement of Ravel’s impressionist-style La vallée des cloches. Dr. Ng is responsible for the commissioning of several pieces, three of which were heard Tuesday evening. An advocate of new music for carillon with a social significance, she programmed Ashti by Jung Sun Kang (b. 1983) first. The composer, a Korean immigrant, was moved by the story of an artist acquaintance, an Afghan refugee.  

Handbells and mobile carillon combined during an alumni spotlight to allow Dr. Ng to relocate to Burton Tower’s instrument. Student carillonist Michelle Lam was joined by Handbell Adventure, and was directed by Wm. Jean Randall for the performance of a recent composition by Joseph D. Daniel. Mr. Daniel is an organ department graduate, composer, and member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. He was happy to be in attendance to hear his Five Miniatures (2106) for the first time while not having to direct or play. 

At the Charles Baird Carillon, Dr. Ng gave us some special collaborative, electroacoustic music composed in 2017. The first of two commissions in this portion of the recital was The Seer by Laura Steenberge (b. 1981), who describes this scene: “High in her tower, [the Seer] weaves space and time together with the vibrations of the ringing bells.” And the second commission, Euler’s Bell by John Granzow (b. 1976), seamlessly merged live performance with pre-recorded sounds created to showcase the connection between bells and history in the following way as noted by the composer: 

 

As history tells, bells are shattered in their belfries for easy transport to military furnaces. If the bell withstands the concussion, it may rebound and spin on its mouth’s edge with ratios of wobble to rotation redolent of Euler’s Disk, a physics toy used to investigate this type of oscillation. Euler’s Bell integrates the sound of such a bell wobbling on the hard ground, a sound that might forestall, just briefly (and yet longer than you might expect) the perennial recycling of metals and history.

Dr. Granzow is an assistant professor in the University of Michigan Department of Performing Arts Technology. His resulting eerie sonance with Dr. Ng was stunning.

Recently appointed continuing guest artist at the University of Michigan, Vincent Dubois regaled us with a closing concert that completed our journey through the organ symphonies of Vierne as he expertly performed Symphony II in E Minor, op. 20, followed by Dupré’s Symphonie-Passion, op. 23. With a rousing, grand finale send-off in the form of an improvisation on the name of Louis VIERNE, it was farewell until the next annual organ conference.

The 2014 University of Michigan Organ Conference

Marcia Van Oyen
Default

The first University of Michigan Organ Conference took place in 1961, featuring Anton Heiller, and was the brainchild of Marilyn Mason. It is singular in the organ world for its longevity. Just two other schools offer comparable conferences: The Eastman School of Music initiated the EROI festival in 2002, and Indiana University started an annual conference in 2010. During its 54-year history, the U of M conference has featured a glittering array of artists and lecturers from the United States and Europe in addition to offerings by Michigan faculty and students. In 2014, this annual organ conference was held September 28–30. Due to construction at the School of Music, Theater and Dance on north campus, all events were held on the U of M’s central campus, with conference attendees circulating between Hill Auditorium, First Presbyterian and First Congregational churches. Shortened to two days rather than three a year ago to make it more accessible to attendees, the conference continues to offer a slate of strong academic content and fine performances. 

The 2014 conference not only honored Michele Johns’s 33 years of teaching but also was a natural showcase for the revamped Michigan organ department, with strong contributions by the new faculty. Following the retirements of three long-time teachers in close succession—Robert Glasgow in 2005 after 43 years, Marilyn Mason in 2013 after 66 years, and Michele Johns in 2014 after 33 years—unlike Michigan’s beleaguered football program, the organ department is transitioning smoothly into a new era. Kola Owolabi has joined the department as associate organ professor, and Joseph Gascho is the new associate professor of harpsichord. Vincent Dubois has been named permanent visiting professor, and a carillon instructor will be hired for the next academic year. James Kibbie became department chair in 2013, providing both continuity and a fresh approach. He seems genuinely excited about the department’s future. Current students come from a wide range of backgrounds, undergraduate applications have increased, and students are evenly spread between the undergraduate and graduate levels of study. The desire is to promote a culture of openness and excellence. As Dr. Kibbie is fond of saying, “There will always be a need for organists. We can’t predict what church musicians will need to do in the future, but we will continue to pursue excellence.”

The biggest change in the department was brought about by requests from students to study with all of the organ professors rather than being bound to one studio. Once a week they take part in a department-wide studio class dubbed “Common Time.” The era of specialization has been succeeded by a focus on collaboration and breadth. Early music is integrated into the organ department with Dr. Gascho’s harpsichord instruction, and the focus is on an eclectic approach to musical development to parallel the current professional landscape for church musicians and organists. Dr. Owolabi includes improvisation and church music courses among his teaching duties, offering sessions on blended worship music, different choral styles, and multi-cultural music. 

 

A Grand Night for Singing

“A Grand Night for Singing,” a gala concert put on by the choral, vocal, and theatre departments of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, offered conference attendees a great opportunity to witness the wide spectrum of vocal activity the school boasts. With over 650 students in eleven auditioned ensembles, the high caliber of Michigan music students and its excellent faculty was demonstrated by the fine performances prepared after only nineteen days of classes. Ensembles featured were the Chamber Choir, University Choir, Orpheus Singers and Orchestra, Men’s Glee Club, and Women’s Glee Club. In addition, the program included a scene from the musical Dead Man Walking and performances by voice majors. 

The concert concluded with all forces on stage for the Star Spangled Banner Medley, which had been featured previously in a football halftime show with the marching band and 500 singers in celebration of the 200th anniversary of our American flag. Before departing, the audience joined in “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Jerry Blackstone, director of choirs and creator of this fifth annual event, included this comment in the program: “We are a singing community, and I am so happy that you are here to experience this Grand Night with us. Breathe deeply! Sing from your hearts!” The energy coming from the stage was palpable, and the enthusiasm of the audience unbridled.

 

Stellar performances by Michigan faculty

The highlight of the 2014 conference was stellar performances by Michigan faculty members Joseph Gascho and Kola Owolabi, and by Karl Schrock. Though not on the faculty at present, Karl Schrock did yeoman’s work serving as interim organ professor for the 2013–14 academic year while also maintaining his teaching duties at Kalamazoo College. Schrock offered a delicately articulated and subtly nuanced performance, having selected his repertoire—which offered plenty of sonic and stylistic variety—to mesh with the disposition of the Wilhelm organ at First Congregational Church. His harmonization of the tune was judicious and carefully handled, never overpowering, and his registrant was well rehearsed and expert in manipulating stops for him. Schrock’s program included works by Bach, Clérambault, Tournemire, Langlais, and Mendelssohn. Schrock negotiated each style with ease and assurance. His performances of the Cantilène Improvisée (a transcription) by Tournemire, followed by Langlais’ Miniature (commissioned by and dedicated to Marilyn Mason) were particularly charming. It was an exquisite program and a delight for the listener.

Joseph Gascho, associate professor of harpsichord and early music, played a wonderful recital in the intimate space of Monteith Hall at the First Presbyterian Church on Tuesday afternoon. James Kibbie’s introduction of Gascho displayed his delight in having him on the department team. Gascho has much ensemble experience and hopes to expand early music opportunities, making them a more integral part of the music school. His program included works by J.S. Bach, Buxtehude, Charpentier ,and C.P.E. Bach. He was joined by viola professor Yitzhak Schotten for the Bach Sonata in G Minor, BWV 1029, playing a sweet-sounding viola from 1570. Gascho and Schotten were in perfect synch and spirit, even in the many parallel trills. Gascho is very personable and warmly communicative in his playing. His conversational remarks before each piece further enhanced his connection with the audience.

Kola Owolabi put the Hill Auditorium organ through its paces with a program including works by Bach, Parry, Bingham, Widor, and Eben. His quiet technique matches his reserved demeanor, but underlying both is great confidence and a passion for excellence. Owolabi’s unfussy articulation and tasteful acknowledgement of harmonic events in the Bach made for easy listening, while he let the organ’s sweetest sounds sing in Parry’s lyrical Chorale Prelude on ‘Martyrdom.’ Equally fine was Bingham’s Toccata on ‘Leoni.’ It is a powerful work, beginning with a harmonization of tune then launching into alternation between French-toccata style and quieter sections that display Bingham’s distinct style. The complex texture of the Widor Pastorale from Symphonie II was rendered with ease and elegance and the heroic finale was played with aplomb. Eben’s Four Biblical Dances comprised the second half of the program, preceded by clear verbal notes given by Owolabi. The Biblical passages related to each movement were read ably by current organ students. In this fascinating work, which displays Eben’s imaginative take on the Biblical stories, Owolabi’s quiet, efficient technique was particularly effective, letting the experience be all about the music and its sonorities while the performer stays out of the way. 

Joshua Boyd, who has studied with Marilyn Mason and Karl Schrock, gave his bachelor’s degree recital on Monday afternoon, performed from memory. He launched into the program with energy and confidence in the Recessional by Mathias followed by a sensitively played Drop, Drop Slow Tears by Persichetti. He appeared to be thoroughly enjoying himself throughout the Adagio from Widor’s Second Symphony. The first half closed with Digital Loom by Mason Bates, a fascinating and enjoyable piece for organ and electronica, which Boyd had played to rave reviews at the Ann Arbor POEA this past June. Bates grasped the mystery and visceral quality of the organ, successfully pairing its power with throbbing electronic sounds. The second half of his ambitious program was Dupré’s Symphonie Passion, masterfully played. Boyd’s fine performance proved that he deserved a hearing at the organ conference.

True to Michigan tradition, the evening organ concerts at Hill Auditorium were preceded by 30-minute carillon concerts. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra offered a sensitively played program on Sunday evening, complete with program notes, and Kipp Cortez, coordinator of carillon studies, played Tuesday evening. During these concerts, a handful of the organ crowd sat listening outside while students wandered by, often pausing to gaze up at the carillon tower and snap a photo with their phones.

The first organ concert of the conference was given by Jörg Abbing of Saarbrücken Conservatory of Music in Germany. His program consisted largely of twentieth-century music and made for demanding listening. Realizing he had planned a daunting program for the listener, Dr. Abbing made a late substitution of Franck’s Pièce Héroïque to open his concert. This and Reger’s Phantaisie ‘Hallelujah! Gott zu loben’ were far less than polished, but Abbing played works by Messiaen, Guillou, and André Jolivet with conviction and finesse. At eighteen minutes and fifteen minutes in length, the Guillou and Jolivet works require a real commitment from the performer not only to handle the technical demands, but also to make sense of the noisy bursts of sound alternating with slow-moving sections and silences. Mandala by Jolivet is a programmatic work, describing the seven continents and seven seas of the Jambu diagram, a “mandala” to aid Hindu meditation. Jean Guillou was one of the first to perform it in 1969 and devised the registration scheme for the published work. In contrast, Guillou’s Regard does not have a program, reflecting his preference for leaving the audience free to interpret his piece. It is interesting to note that Jolivet’s piece was composed in 1969 and was revolutionary at the time, while Guillou’s, written in 2011, does not differ from it appreciably in style.

Abbing proved to be an engaging and effective coach in a Monday morning workshop on improvising on Gregorian chant. He believes all students should be creating their own music in order to help develop a unique musical personality. He worked with several organists on harmonizing melodies, changing the tonality and paraphrasing the melody. Master’s student Ye Mee Kim and Michigan organ alums Joseph Balistreri and Dr. Naki Sung-Kripfgans were Abbing’s willing and skilled pupils.

 

A variety of lectures

Michael Barone kicked off Monday morning with “So Much Music, So Little Time,” another of his organ music appreciation sessions that have become a fixture at the Michigan organ conference. Barone always provides an enjoyable and insightful session, playing his chosen instrument—a stereo and stack of CDs. This musical tour included Bach cantata movements arranged for two organists, the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for saxophone and organ, Cameron Carpenter’s performance of a Bach solo cello work played on the pedals, and a piece for organ and harmonica, to name a few. Barone is fully immersed in the realm of organ music, always ready to listen with an open mind, and is fascinated by all sorts of organ music. He invites organists to follow suit in expanding their musical horizons. Ending the session on a wistful note with a recording of Refined Reflection by Stephen Paulus (from his unfinished Baronian Suite written in honor of “Mike”), he commented “You’ll never have enough time, but make the most of it.”

On Monday afternoon, Michigan organ alumna Joy Schroeder gave a lecture on “The Power of Theoretical Analysis upon Performance, Illustrated in Two Chorale Prelude of Bach and Brahms.” Believing there is often too much disconnection between performance and theoretical analysis, Dr. Schroeder encourages analysis as an aid to memorization and a way to discover new aspects of the score. She illustrated her analytical techniques with Bach’s chorale preludes Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt and Christe du Lamm Gottes from the Orgelbüchlein, and O Welt, ich muss dich lassen by Brahms. She noted that given the variety of opinions among theorists, discernment is required in applying analysis to interpretation. Schroeder’s points are well taken. It is all too easy to get caught up in learning the notes without a good understanding of the architecture of a piece. 

Tuesday morning, Iain Quinn of Florida State University gave a lecture on Russian organ music, providing an enlightening entrée to this little known realm of repertoire. The first organs in Russia were owned by the nobility and opportunities to compose organ music were limited because the Russian Orthodox Church suppressed the use of organs. Nevertheless, there is a small but very fine body of Russian organ literature written in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By the mid-nineteenth century, there were over two thousand organs in Russia, though many were destroyed during the Russian revolution. The first published organ works in Russia were three fugues by Glinka. Others who composed organ music are Gretchaninov, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and Glazunov, whose works are the most substantial. Dr. Quinn skillfully played several engaging pieces, closing with the Prelude and Fugue in D Minor by Glazunov, which was dedicated to Saint-Saëns. Quinn provided a list of about three dozen works currently in print, most of which are published by Bärenreiter.

Michigan Improvisation Competition

The third annual Michigan Improvisation Competition, developed by Michele Johns, took place on Tuesday afternoon at the First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor. The competition has injected new life into the organ conference, offering another event open to the public and an opportunity for another church to be involved with the conference. Judging by the attendance at the competitions, this event is an audience favorite. Contestants in the preliminary round submitted a recording of a free improvisation on a given theme and a hymn introduction and two stanzas of the tune Pleading Savior. Preliminary round judges were Dr. Gale Kramer, Dr. Joanne Vollendorf Clark, and Dr. Marcia Van Oyen. Five contestants were invited to the final round, which involved similar improvisational challenges—a free improvisation on a given theme, a free improvisation on Darwall’s 148th, and a hymn introduction and two stanzas of Darwall’s 148th with the audience singing along. Final round judges were Dr. Larry Visser, Dr. Ronald Prowse, and Dr. Jorg Abbing. 

First prize was awarded to Luke Mayernik of Pittsburgh, second to Christopher Ganza of Oklahoma City, third and audience prizes to Matthew Koraus of New York, fourth to Aaron Tan of Ann Arbor, and fifth to Bryan Sable of Pittsburgh. The prizes were sponsored by the American Center for Church Music. Once again, First Presbyterian proved to be an ideal venue for the competition with the ample resources of its Schoenstein organ (III/42) and its hospitable staff and volunteers. Following the competition, the Ann Arbor AGO provided a dinner for conference attendees.

 

Honoring Michele Johns

Festivities to celebrate and honor Michele Johns’s 33 years of teaching in the organ department began Monday evening with a catered dinner held at the First Congregational Church. Joseph Balistreri, director of music at the Archdiocese of Detroit and Michigan organ alumnus, served as master of ceremonies. Dr. Timothy Huth, Dean of the Ann Arbor AGO, Colin Knapp, organ conference coordinator, Dr. James Kibbie and Matt Greenough, former cantor at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, each offered humorous anecdotes, remembrances, and words of appreciation.

In addition to her three decades teaching church music skills and philosophy at U of M, Michele Johns is the author of Hymn Improvisation (Augsburg 1987) and a regular columnist for GIA Publications. She is co-founder and executive director of the American Center of Church Music, an Ann Arbor-based, non-profit organization through which she was producer of five interdenominational choir festivals plus concerts, hymn-playing competitions, workshops, and conferences for the enrichment of church musicians. The ACCM currently supports the Michigan Improvisation Competition. She is also the co-founder and first Dean of the Ann Arbor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

For more than twenty years, Michele Johns served as director of music at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth Michigan, developing one of the largest music ministries in the Archdiocese of Detroit. The ministry included 22 cantors, 5 handbell choirs, plus an 80-voice adult choir. Under her direction, the Plymouth Counsellors Chorale completed five European tours to ten countries and tours to churches in the United States. During her time in Ann Arbor, Dr. Johns also served at the Bethlehem United Church of Christ and the First Congregational Church. Her organ solo appearances in North America and abroad have featured music of the 18th and 20th centuries. In honor of her 30th anniversary of teaching at UM, a group of UM organ alumni created the Michele Johns Scholarship for Organ Performance and Church Music. Like her esteemed colleague and teacher, Marilyn Mason, Johns came to Ann Arbor to study organ at U of M and never left. 

Following the celebratory dinner at the conference, there was an alumni recital featuring students of Michele Johns. Performers were Dr. Christine Clewell, Dr. Brandon Spence, Stephanie Yu, Dr. Andrew Meagher, and Dr. Larry Visser. The repertoire included a variety of repertoire reflective of what Michele Johns would have covered in her church music classes—everything from a trio sonata to a congregational hymn setting. The program included the audience singing the anthem Peace I Give to You, composed by Larry Visser when he was a student, in honor of Michele Johns. The piece was later published by GIA and dedicated to Johns for her 20 years of service to Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish.

 

Songs of Thankfulness and  Praise

Perched atop stools, morning-show style, Darlene Kuperus and Larry Visser offered an upbeat and personal tribute to Michele Johns titled “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise.” They began with an overview of her career and the church music courses she taught. Her courses included liturgical practices in different denominations, hymnody, hymn improvisation, and a church music practicum, which included discussion of books on church music and issues that church musicians face. Dr. Kuperus provided a recommended reading list of books dealing with changes in the church music landscape, including Eileen Guenther’s excellent Rivals or a Team? The most entertaining portion of the presentation was the time spent on recollections of Johns’ personal characteristics and what she taught her students. Citing Johns’ warm, down to earth manner and ability to connect with people, both Kuperus and Visser said that she helped them understand that church music is relational. They applauded her emphasis on consensus and collaboration, as well as her notion that it matters how you treat people. Quotes of comments Johns is regularly known to make such as, “That idea was worth this whole meeting,” and “We do this, ja?” elicited smiles and head nods from the audience.

On a personal note, I have truly enjoyed the opportunities I’ve had to work with Michele Johns, particularly in recent years. While still at OLGC Parish, which is down the street from my church in Plymouth, she revived a Thanksgiving Choir Festival involving the choirs and bell choirs of five churches in town. I continue to organize this festival thanks to her inspiration. She is a dear soul with the ability to come up with great ideas and involve many people in implementing them. It is perhaps her collaborative spirit and kind heart that have had the greatest influence on those privileged to work with her. Thank you, Michele, for all of your contributions to the world of church music and for your friendship.

Carillon News

by Brian Swager
Default

February Florida Festival

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

Berkeley Congress Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

News from Iowa State

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

Spring carillon festival 1998

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

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

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

Summer keyboard camp

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

News from Springfield

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

Midwest regional conference

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

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

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

Annual Springfield festival

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

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

Prospectus: French Carillon School

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

55th University of Michigan Organ Conference

October 4–6, 2015

Marcia Van Oyen earned master’s and DMA degrees at the University of Michigan, studying organ with Robert Glasgow. She is currently minister of music, worship, and fine arts at First United Methodist Church in Plymouth, Michigan.

Default

The 55th annual University of Michigan Organ Conference, with the theme “Organ Music of Central Europe,” took place October 4–6, 2015. Following Michele Johns’ retirement celebration in 2014, and the Marilyn Mason fête the year before, this conference was a quieter affair, attracting mostly local Michigan alumni and current students. 

 

Renovation and expansion of the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance

Beautiful autumn weather on Monday permitted lunch outdoors, on the terrace of the new William K. and Delores S. Brehm Pavilion, part of a $29.5 million renovation and expansion of the Earl V. Moore Building, designed by Eero Saarinen and originally opened in 1964. Lack of funding when the structure was built led to compromises, and Saarinen’s original vision was not fully realized. The building was never able to accommodate the school’s full spectrum of music courses or faculty. Some of the building’s limitations were addressed in 1985 with the addition of the Margaret Dow Towsley Center, which added the McIntosh Theatre and Blanche Anderson Moore Organ Hall. 

The new Brehm Pavilion includes a rehearsal hall for large ensembles, a music technology center, a state-of-the-art lecture hall, percussion practice rooms, and new classrooms. Substantial renovations resulted in additional practice rooms, a public commons, acoustical, aesthetic, and functional improvements to existing rehearsal, performance and studio spaces, and faculty offices. 

 Sunday conference events

Sunday afternoon at Hill Auditorium, Douglas Reed played a superb concert, “A Tribute to William Albright and William Bolcom.” It was an ambitious program, to be sure, and not for the faint of heart performer, but Reed was more than up to the challenge. He began with two works of Albright’s “public” music, Carillon-Bombarde and Hymn, both published works, then provided a contrast with what Albright considered his “private” music—“Whistler (1834–1903): Three Nocturnes,” which remains in manuscript form. The nocturnes need the reference of Whistler’s three paintings in order to be appreciated, and Reed provided these, in color, in the program. Each painting portrays a scene at twilight, offering variations of light and shade, which is reflected in the music. 

Next, Reed included his own transcription of the last two sections of Bolcom’s Song for St. Cecilia’s Day (originally for SATB chorus and organ), which was composed in memory of William Albright and dedicated to his son, John. Bolcom’s miniature on Abide With Me followed, then the gospel prelude on Amazing Grace. Reed’s articulation was both precise and expressive, elucidating the subtleties of the dense scores, and he deftly negotiated their copious technical demands. 

The last section of the program returned to Albright with selections from Organbooks I and III, which are particularly representative of his works as “a new means of idiomatic expression for the organ.” Albright described them as “part of a much larger scheme implying many more pieces each of which explores other sound and style capabilities peculiar to the instrument: some simple, some complex, some even working with popular idioms; all, however, hopefully demonstrating the richness and variety of organ sound.” Again Reed proved to be more than up to the task of presenting these works in all their intricacies with precision and ease, playing “Underground Stream,” “Melisma,” “Basse de Trompette,” “Jig for the Feet (Totentanz),” “Nocturne,” and the unpublished “Chorale Prelude,” intended to be the fifth movement of Organbook I. This entertaining work served as a reminder of Albright’s penchant for injecting humor into his writing (he includes quotes from film music) and the juxtaposition of opposites. 

 

Fourth annual Michigan 

Improvisation Competition

The fourth annual Michigan Improvisation Competition took place Sunday evening at the First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, providing contestants with the ample resources of the church’s Schoenstein organ (III/42). The Ann Arbor AGO chapter provided a dinner beforehand for conference attendees. 

Preliminary round judges Joe Balistreri (a member of The Diapason’s “20 under 30” Class of 2015), Gale Kramer, and Darlene Kuperus evaluated recorded entries. Each contestant created a set of variations on a hymn tune and a free improvisation on an assigned original theme. From a field of thirteen entries, five contestants were invited to the final round, which involved similar improvisational challenges—a set of variations on the hymn tune Salzburg and a free improvisation on a given original theme. Final round judges Huw Lewis, Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, and Scott Hyslop evaluated players on thematic development, musical form, stylistic consistency, control of harmonic language, rhythmic interest, and effective use of the instrument. Having heard the final round each of the competition’s four years, I can attest to the fact that the level of playing has improved each year, rendering the judging challenging. 

First prize was awarded to Matthew Koraus of New York, second and audience prizes to Alejandro D. Consolacion, II of New Jersey, and third prize to Brennan Szafron of South Carolina. Additional finalists were Robert Wisniewski of Ohio and Benjamin Cornelius-Bates of Pennsylvania. It is interesting to note that most of the finalists are also composers. The prizes were sponsored by the American Center for Church Music. 

 

Monday lectures

The opening lecture Monday morning took place in Blanche Anderson Moore Organ Hall. Andrzej Szadejko of the Gdansk Music Academy, Poland, gave a lecture-recital, “The Less Known Pupils of Bach: Why we (don’t) care about our masters or generation changes,” sponsored in part by the Poland U. S. Campus Arts Project at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Szadejko has performed extensively in northern Europe, made nine recordings, published articles in Polish music journals, and was awarded a prize for his thesis on two pupils of Bach—Friedrich Christian Mohrheim and Johann Georg Müthel. Mohrheim, who was the copyist for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, was music director at St. Mary’s Church in Gdansk, and composed chorale preludes and trios for the organ. In contrast to the music of Bach, Mohrheim’s works are characteristic of the style galant and empfindsamer Stil. Müthel’s works are very dramatic, in the Sturm und Drang style. Szadejko played works by Volckmar, Gleimann, and Gronau to demonstrate the style prevalent in northern Europe—a mixture of north German, Italian, and new ideas—then works by Mohrheim and Müthel. Szadejko is a skillful, expressive player, and his performances were the highlight of the session. He is deeply immersed in his research, delving into all the details, and one got the feeling he would have happily shared his findings as long as he had a listener.

Joseph Gascho, assistant professor of harpsichord, gave an engaging session on playing continuo in Watkins Lecture Hall, a room outfitted with a grand piano, harpsichord, and portative organ, as well as the ability to project examples from a computer. Gascho asserted that the shape of the bass line drives a piece, referring to it as a “vertebrate being.” In his teaching, he uses singers and dance to illustrate unequal emphasis on notes, or the sense of strong and weak beats. In this session, he worked through a recitative from Messiah and Purcell’s “Lord, What Is Man” from Harmonie Sacrae with graduate student soprano Ariane Abela, demonstrating how the continuo player’s choices affect the singer’s performance and the expression of the piece. His advice to the audience was “You’ll play better with an unrealized continuo part” and “Take the challenge of finding the joy in making decisions regarding what to play.” He discussed different ways to realize continuo and their effects, soliciting feedback as to whether organ or harpsichord was better suited to the music demonstrated. Gascho’s personable approach made this an enjoyable and valuable session. 

 

Student recital and masterclass

James Kibbie and Kola Owolabi’s students played a recital Monday morning on the Fisk organ in Blanche Anderson Moore Hall, which featured repertoire celebrating the 350th birthday of Nicolaus Bruhns. The complete extant works of Bruhns (six pieces) were supplemented with works by Böhm, Buxtehude, and Tunder to fill out the program. All the student performers—Dean Robinson, Paul Giessner, Sherri Brown, Jennifer Shin, Andrew Lang, Joe Moss, Mary Zelinski, Stephanie Yu, and Phillip Radtke—played well. At least half of them had been students of Michigan organ alumni. James Kibbie made a point of thanking the alumni in his introduction to the program, crediting them with helping to increase enrollment with student recommendations and scholarship contributions. 

Three students—Joe Moss, Mary Zelinski, and Jennifer Shin—had the privilege of playing for a masterclass with Diane Meredith Belcher later the same day. Belcher encouraged the students to do research about their pieces to provide context, and to practice piston changes, treating them as another note to learn. Working with Joe Moss on David Conte’s Soliloquy, she suggested conducting your own playing, breathing with the music, and attention to details to make the music come alive. With Jennifer Shin, who played Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, she recommended “skeletal” practice—playing only the strong beats to feel comfortable and insert rest into the process. For Mary Zelinski, who played the Grave from Vierne’s Symphonie V, Belcher recommended having your physical motions match the mood of the piece, and for romantic music, pushing through long notes and dwelling on shorter notes. Belcher also spent time talking about making sure you are grounded on the organ bench, using Wilma Jensen’s maxim of being able to bend and touch your nose to the keyboard without falling forward. She also suggested applying techniques from Feldenkrais movement to organ playing.

 

Monday performances

Late Monday afternoon, we returned to Hill Auditorium to hear Andrew Earhart, a fifth-year student pursuing degrees in organ performance and naval architecture and marine engineering, perform Petr Eben’s monumental The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart, for organ and speaker. Eben’s final and largest organ work, it is a fourteen-movement musical allegory, originally improvised during an organ festival in Melbourne, Australia, in 1991. The work was inspired by a 400-year-old book, written by a Czech bishop named Comenius, which fascinated Eben. The book is a sort of Pilgrim’s Progress, relating the experiences and final redemption of a traveler encountering various people and situations. Eben says, “the whole atmosphere of the text is not an idyllic stroll through the world but a bitter, satirical, bizarre, and sometimes almost apocalyptic view of the world—and such is the character of the music.” 

Despite Eben’s description, the music is basically tonal, though certainly full of chord clusters, spiky melodies, strident reed sounds, and sharp contrasts. The fanfare-filled prologue introduces some of the work’s musical themes, which are taken from chorales from Komensky’s Amsterdam Cantional. Excellent and emotive narration by Malcolm Tulip of the theater department helped bring the story to life. At about 80 minutes in length, the work is certainly taxing for the organist. Earhart ably handled the voluminous score, truly engaged in the music, and played with conviction and passion. 

Prior to James Kibbie’s performance Monday evening, I spoke with several people who had heard him perform the same repertoire in Grand Rapids and Detroit recently, and to a person, could not wait to hear the program again. Kibbie did not disappoint. His exquisite playing, from memory, provided no obstacles to a pure musical experience, and the thrill of hearing a performer completely absorbed in the music was a true delight. Kibbie is absolutely at home with the selections of Alain and Tournemire that comprised the concert. Alain’s sonorities are refreshing and light-infused, and hearing six of his works in succession was enlightening. The program began with the Première and Deuxième Fantasies, succeeded by the Première and Deuxième Preludes Profanes. The serene Postlude pour l’office de complies was followed by a dramatic rendering of Litanies to round out the first half. Kibbie’s tempo for Litanies was torrentially fast and frantic, but clear and crisp. He achieved Marie-Claire Alain’s directive that “this piece must be played with great rush.”

As with the Alain works, it was satisfying to hear Tournemire’s Cinq Improvisations all in one sitting, offering the listener insight into Tournemire’s style and idioms as an improviser. The Petite rapsodie improvisée sparkled and the Cantilène improvisée featured the organ’s sweet flute sounds. The improvisations on the Te Deum, Ave Maris Stella, and Victimae Paschali were declamatory and heroic in contrast, with the perfectly paced Victimae Paschali the most striking of the three. Again, Kibbie proved himself at one with the music, giving an authoritative performance, absolutely assured and stunningly played.

Tuesday lectures

Tuesday morning sessions were held in the lovely Assembly Hall in the Rackham Building, which was built in 1935 in Art Deco style. Departing from his usual organ music appreciation session often peppered with sonic curiosities, Michael Barone began with an overview of the most recent Pipedreams tour—Historic Organs of Poland—which took place in June 2015. His photo travelogue also included recordings of some of the instruments the group visited. Many of the instruments have beautifully ornate organ cases with gold leaf and intricate carvings, some still housing the original instrument and some now fronting new instruments. There is a wealth of information about this tour and the instruments visited on the Pipedreams website (see pipedreams.publicradio.org, “Polish Memories”).

Following Barone’s travelogue, Brooks Grantier gave a wonderful lecture, “Cornflakes and Cornopeans: the Collaborations, Collusions, and Collisions of W. R. Kellogg and E. M. Skinner.” His talk focused on the people, personalities, and relationships involved with buying and building organs, based on correspondence from the Kellogg Foundation Archives. Grantier established the scene by relating the tale of W. K. Kellogg’s older brother, who ran a sanitarium in Battle Creek, which became world famous for promoting healthy living. W. K. was the financial manager, discovering corn flakes by accident when some wheat paste was left out overnight. Kellogg refused to market the new “cornflakes” beyond the sanitarium. Following C. W. Post’s theft of the recipe and subsequent success with Post Toasties and Grape Nuts, W. K. Kellogg started his own business, out-marketing Post selling cereal and becoming tremendously successful with the Kellogg Company. 

Having built a lovely home in Battle Creek, Kellogg—not a musician, but a faithful church attendee—sought a house organ. Professor Edwin Barnes, who lived next door, recommended E. M. Skinner to build the house organ. It was to be the finest player organ in the country, fully automatic, and one of the largest house player organs Skinner built. Kellogg also helped fund instruments for the Presbyterian and Catholic churches in Battle Creek, contingent upon them being built by Skinner. When he purchased a home in Pomona, California, Kellogg had Skinner build another house organ there. He also funded the large Aeolian-Skinner organ (four manuals, 72 ranks) in Kellogg Auditorium in Battle Creek, completed in 1933 and designed by E. M. Skinner. This project helped keep Aeolian-Skinner afloat during the Great Depression. Lively, spirited correspondence between Kellogg, William Zeuch, and E. M. Skinner provided insight into the wrangling and strong opinions that were part and parcel of the interactions among these three men. Brooks Grantier is an engaging and entertaining lecturer, and the fascinating tale of Kellogg and Skinner made for delightful listening. He closed by noting that E. M. Skinner died in financial hardship with his work repudiated, while Kellogg died in comfortable circumstances, known for his unparalleled philanthropy.

After lunch, Elizabeth McClain, graduate student in musicology, shared some of her dissertation research in the session “Messiaen’s Pre-war Organ Works: Organist, Theologian, and Non-Conformist,” illuminated through a study of L’Ascension and Les Corps Glorieux. She gave a detailed analysis of the organ works, but it was her commentary on neo-Thomism, neo-scholasticism, ressourcement, and non-conformism in Catholicism in the early twentieth century in France that provided the most insight into Messiaen’s music and world view. McClain asserted that Messiaen’s choice of style indicated his political leanings and discussed how he expressed the totality of human experience through the lens of spirituality, transcending the bounds of sacred and secular. Her rapid delivery made me long for the opportunity to read and digest her material, but her rigorous research is a great contribution to Messiaen scholarship.

Scott Hanoian, director of music and organist at Christ Church Grosse Pointe and conductor and music director of the University Musical Society Choral Union, offered a choral reading workshop at First Congregational Church. At Hanoian’s request, Cliff Hill (of Cliff Hill Music, a highly recommended and knowledgeable music supplier) selected a dozen recently published anthems, which he provided in complimentary packets for conference attendees. As Hanoian led the group in reading through the anthems, he offered suggestions on how to rehearse each piece and when it might be useful. 

Tuesday performances

Kola Owolabi played a program of interesting works on Tuesday afternoon at Hill Auditorium. He began with Fantasia on Sine Nomine by Craig Phillips, a very attractive set of continuous variations, featuring Phillips’s characteristic rhythmic gestures and irregular meters, transformation of themes, and piquant harmonies. The sixth and final variation is a fugue on the opening phrase of the tune, which morphs into toccata figuration to close the work. Bairstow’s Sonata in E-flat, the largest of his thirteen organ works, followed. It employs the full dynamic range of the organ and typically English solo sounds. The first movement has a wandering, pastoral melody, while the second, in stark contrast, is energetic with fanfare-like figures played on a solo Tuba. The third movement, a fugue, is in the form of an elevation—starting softly and calmly, increasing in energy and volume, then ebbing away.

Owolabi began the second half of the program with the rousing Concert Piece in the Form of a Polonaise by Lemare, a bombastic crowd-pleasing work. Next up was Capriccio by Polish composer Mieczyslaw Surzynski. This work is the first movement of Surzynski’s Ten Improvisations, published in 1910. It is romantic in style, with some striking harmonies. Calvin Hampton’s Three Pieces rounded out the concert. “Prayers and Alleluias” is reminiscent of Dupré’s Cortège and Litanie, employing a similar form. “In Paradisum” pays homage to Alain’s Le Jardin Suspendu, while “Pageant” takes cues from both Alain and Mathias. Owolabi’s playing throughout the program was polished and assured. He performs with nonchalance and ease, which allows the music to speak without the performer getting in the way. This was a polished, enjoyable program of refreshing and not often heard works.  

Before the evening concert, Tiffany Ng played a carillon concert consisting of works composed in the last eight years, including two world premieres. Ng has joined the Michigan faculty as assistant professor of carillon and university carillonist. Young and enthusiastic, Ng brings a strong interest in contemporary music and innovative approaches to carillon concerts. She has pioneered models for interactive “crowd-sourced” performances. While in California, she arranged for the collection of data from the Hayward seismic fault, ocean levels, and climate change, which involved hundreds of people sending in information. The data was translated into a musical score, which she sight-read for a concert. She says, “Now that we no longer need the unilateral time-keeping function of the carillon, I like to have a conversation with the audience.” She hopes to initiate collaboration with the engineering school just across north campus and adjacent to the Lurie carillon. A new outdoor gathering area surrounding the area currently under construction has the potential to provide a built-in audience for collaboration. Additional carillon music was heard the previous evening, played by Dennis Curry, carilloneur of Oakland University and Kirk in the Hills in Bloomfield Hills.

Diane Meredith Belcher’s concert attracted the largest audience of the conference events, attesting to her stature as an internationally renowned performer. She began her program with Passacaglia on a Theme by Dunstable, composed by one of her teachers, John Weaver. A powerful and well-written work on the Agincourt Hymn, Belcher played it with rhythmic tautness, seamless transitions, and passion. Belcher dedicated Franck’s Prière to victims of gun violence in the United States, particularly children and families. Her music slid to the floor as she got on the bench, and in unflappable style she quipped, “I’ll be a minute.” Though her tempo was a bit deliberate, from the outset she established a long flowing line, sometimes conducting with her arms. The Hill Auditorium organ provided the requisite beautiful sounds, and though she played with much conviction, the piece remained earthbound, lacking in ecstatic fervor at its climax. She was very much in her element in the Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor, however, playing with subtle yet crystal clear articulation, absolutely at ease.

The second half of the program included three movements from Messiaen’s Les Corps Glorieux—“Force et agilité des Corps Glorieux,” “Joie et clarté des Corps Glorieux,” and “Le Mystère de la Sainte-Trinité.” Belcher performed them with precision and clarity. She closed the program with Organ, Timbrel, and Dance by German composer Johannes Matthias Michel. “Swing Five,” based on the chorale Erhalt uns Herr, borrows rhythm from Dave Brubeck’s jazz classic Take Five, while the “Bossa Nova” (based on Wünderbarer König) is typical of that genre, although its harmonies are quite conventional. The “Afro Cuban,” using the tune In Dir Ist Freude, is largely a toccata based on rhythms borrowed from Bernstein’s “America” from West Side Story. The rhythmic gestures in these pieces, which Belcher handled well, bring them into the realm of jazz, but the tonal palette, though sprinkled with bluesy chords, is too vanilla to fully enter the style. The set of three energetic pieces made for a fun and unexpected end to an excellent concert, though, and a rousing close to the conference.

Kudos to conference administrator Colin Knapp (also a member of the “20 under 30” Class of 2015), who does an excellent job keeping on top of all the conference details, making sure things run smoothly, and thanks to the Michigan Organ Department faculty for collaborating to continue offering the conference.

Carillon News

by Brian Swager
Default

News from Iowa State University

1. Spring Carillon and Organ Festival 1997

Iowa State University hosted the Spring Carillon and Organ
Festival 1997 and the Carillon Composition Competition during the weekend of April 25-27. The Festival also celebrated the tenth anniversary of the installation and dedication of the Brombaugh organ of the Music Department. Guest artists were Brian Swager, former University Carillonneur at Indiana University, Bloomington, and David Dahl, organist from Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington. The Festival began with two recitals by the guest artists. Brian Swager performed carillon music from Belgium and America that included Johan Franco's Ames Nocturne, a work commissioned by The Stanton Memorial Carillon Foundation in 1984. David Dahl performed organ works by two women composers: Fanny Mendelssohn and Ethel Smyth, and Michel Corrette's Magnificat du 3e et 4e ton with Donald Simonson as cantor. A workshop on "Organ Works by Three 19th-century Women Composers: Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn and Ethel Smyth" was conducted by David Dahl on Saturday morning, and Brian Swager held a carillon seminar in the afternoon on "Music for the Carillon: A Distinguished Repertoire Emerges." The Festival continued with a Family Concert featuring ISU student carillonneurs, ISU Wind Ensemble, ISU Dance Tour Company, and ISU Oratorio Choir. Echo by Amy Michelle Black was premiered by Michael Tammaro at the carillon and the Oratorio Choir under the baton of Robert Molinson. The Festival concluded on Sunday with carillon music from The Netherlands performed by Tin-shi Tam, Iowa State University Carillonneur.

A  Carillon
Composition Competition was held to encourage young composers to write original
carillon music. Judges were Brian Swager, Jeffrey Prater, and
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 
Tin-shi Tam. Contestants were from all
parts of the country and overseas. The winning composition was By de dei
lâns (The Proceedings of the Day) by Klaas R. R. de Haan of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands. It was premiered by 
Tin-shi Tam during the Festival. The next Spring Carillon Festival
and  Carillon Composition
Competition  will be held from
April 24-26, 1998. Guest carillonneur will be Albert Gerken, University
Carillonneur  at University of
Kansas, Lawrence.

II. Junior High Keyboard Camp

The Fifth Annual Keyboard Explorations junior high school
summer music camp was hosted by the Iowa State University Music Department from
July 7-12, 1997. Participants had the opportunity to learn about various kinds
of keyboard instruments and had hands-on experiences in playing them. Seven
participants studied carillon under ISU Carillonneur, Tin-shi Tam. Two carillon
concerts were performed by students towards the end of the week.

III. 1998 Carillon Composition Competition

Iowa State University has announced the Carillon Composition
Competition '98. The purpose of the competition is to encourage the writing of
original carillon compositions by composers under age 35. The submitted work
shall be an original composition for four-octave carillon (tenor C to C4), with
a two-octave pedal board (tenor C to C2). The composition may be a solo, duet
for one carillon, or a work for carillon with one or more other instruments or
chorus. The submitted composition must be postmarked no later than March 31,
1998. For more information contact the University Carillonneur at Iowa State
University; Music Department; 149 Music Hall; Ames, IA 50011; phone:
515/294-2911, e-mail: tstam@iastate. edu or web-site: www.music.iastate.edu

Bell information requested

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Belgian
Carillon School, a festschrift will be published. Marc Van Bets is preparing a
paper on Mechelen bellfounders for this book. He requests reports on all
Mechelen bells that currently are, or ever have been, in
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 
North America. Such bells would have
been brought by Capuchin monks who came to North America as missionaries. All
bells are included in the scope of the paper: carillon, church, tolling,
ornamental, etc. All information is welcome, such as the function of the bell,
measurements, pitch, anecdotes, photos. Please contact Marc Van Bets; Ridder
Dessainlaan 27; 2800 Mechelen; Belgium. Phone: (0112)32.15.42.38.52. Fax:
(011)32.15.43.17.07. Email: [email protected]

1998 Queen Fabiola Competition

Since its founding in 1922 the Royal Carillon School
"Jef Denyn" in Mechelen, Belgium, has fostered a greater blossoming
of the carillon art. Toward this end, the school established the Queen Fabiola
International Carillon Competition in 1987. This competition has grown rapidly,
becoming the most important of its kind and providing a strong stimulus for the
recognition of the carillon art as a high-quality artistic expression.

The winners of the first three competitions were: Geert
D'hollander of Belgium in 1987; Boudewijn Zwart of The Netherlands, in 1990;
and Gideon Bodden of The Netherlands, in 1993.

The fourth Queen Fabiola Competition will take place August
5-9, 1998. Carillonneurs from around the world are invited to take part. There
is no age limit. After an elimination round, a maximum of six competitors will
be selected for the finals. Judging will be done by an international jury.

The candidates are required to present nine pieces of a high
virtuosic level: three baroque, three romantic, and three contemporary pieces.
The romantic and contemporary selections must be original carillon compositions
and not transcriptions. One of the baroque pieces must be a carillon prelude
written by Matthias van den Gheyn. In addition, there will be an obligatory
piece.

The school's 1997 international composition competition
brought 21 entries from seven countries: Belgium, The Netherlands, Australia,
The USA, Spain, Russia, and Sweden. Performance of the winning composition will
be required for participants in the Queen Fabiola Competition. Winners of the
composition competition will be announced once registration for the Fabiola
Competition is closed.

During the competition, the participants perform on the new
carillon in the St. Rombouts tower. This instrument was founded by Koninklijke
Eijsbouts in 1981. It is tuned in equal temperament and consists of 49 bells;
the bourdon sounds F and weighs eight tons.

The first-prize winner will receive 100,000 BF, a bronze
bell, a certificate, and a concert tour in Belgium  in 1999. Five additional prizes with cash awards will be
given. The SABAM prize of 25,000 BF will be awarded for the best interpretation
of a contemporary Flemish carillon composition, and an additional 25,000 BF
will reward the best improvisation. Participants should send their completed
applications to the Royal Carillon School "Jef Denyn"
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 
before April 30, 1998. After their
repertoire has been approved, the full list of regulations and practical
information will be sent to each competitor. The obligatory piece will be sent
to the participants two months before the beginning of the competition.
Participants are granted a per diem of 1000 BF for as long as they take part in
the competition.

For information and applications, contact
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 
the Royal Carillon School "Jef
Denyn"; Frederik de Merodestraat 63; 2800 Mechelen; Belgium. Phone:
32.15.20.47.92. Fax: 32.15.20.31.76.

McLellan appointed at MSU

Ray McLellan has been appointed University Carillonneur at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. His responsibilities include playing weekly recitals, teaching carillon and organ, coordinating and
producing the MSU Summer Carillon Recital Series. Ray studied carillon with
Margo Hal-sted at the University of Michigan and with Todd Fair at the
Netherlands Carillon School. He earned the Bachelor of
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 
Arts degree at Florida Southern College
in Lakeland and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at the
University of Michigan. He also studied on full scholarship at the
Pädagogische Hochschule in Freiburg, Germany. Besides the position at MSU,
Dr. McLellan continues in his church and temple positions.

Current Issue