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Organ world mourns the loss of Catharine Crozier

K. Holtkamp

Catharine Crozier, renowned concert organist of the 20th century, died on Friday, September 19, 2003 in Portland, Oregon at the age of 89. The cause of death was a severe stroke with complications from pneumonia.
Catharine Crozier was born in Oklahoma, where she began to study the violin, piano and organ at an early age, making her first appearance as a pianist at the age of six. She was awarded a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she studied organ with Harold Gleason and graduated with the Bachelor of Music degree and the Performer’s Certificate. As a graduate student, Ms. Crozier received the Artist’s Diploma, the highest award for performance, and the Master of Music degree. In 1939 she was appointed to the organ faculty of the Eastman School of Music and became head of the organ department in 1953.
She received the following honorary degrees: Doctor of Music, from Smith College, Baldwin-Wallace College, and the University of Southern Colorado; the Doctor of Humane Letters from Illinois College and in October, 2000, the Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music - University of Rochester.
Following her debut at the Washington National Cathedral, Washington DC, in 1942, Catharine Crozier joined the roster of the Bernard LaBerge Concert Management (currently Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.) with which she remained for 61 years. Dr. Crozier played recitals throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, and was heard on national radio in many European countries, the United States, and on Danish National Television. She was one of three organists chosen to play the inaugural organ recital at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in 1962, and was engaged for a solo recital there in 1964. She returned to Lincoln Center to perform a concerto with orchestra at the inauguration of the Kuhn organ in Alice Tully Hall in 1976, followed by a solo recital there one year later. In 1979 she was awarded the International Performer of the Year Award by the New York City chapter of The American Guild of Organists, presented to her by Alice Tully at the conclusion of Crozier’s award recital at Alice Tully Hall. Shortly after this event, she recorded many of the pieces from that recital, for Gothic Records.
From 1955 to 1969 Dr. Crozier was organist of Knowles Memorial Chapel at Rollins College in Florida, where she taught organ. As a teacher, she met with marked success, numbering among her students many distinguished organists. She conducted master classes throughout the United States, teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York, the Andover Organ Institute, at Claremont College and Stanford University in California, and Northwestern University. In addition she served as a member of the jury at many international organ competitions, the latest being the 1994 Calgary International Organ Festival.
In addition to performing and teaching, Dr. Crozier co-edited several editions of the Method of Organ Playing, written by her husband, Harold Gleason. The first edition of the Gleason book appeared in 1937 and quickly became an essential tool for teaching aspiring organists. The
“Method” gives a musical and technical foundation which includes first-rate scholarship, organ literature and historical information. Following the death of Dr. Gleason, Catharine Crozier edited the seventh edition (1987) and the eighth edition (1995).
In 1993 Catharine Crozier moved to Portland, Oregon, where she was Artist-in-Residence at Trinity Cathedral until early 2003. As Artist-in-Residence, she frequently played organ voluntaries at services, gave solo recitals and continued to teach. Her recent performances were broadcast over Oregon Public Radio and in 2001 she was a featured artist on Oregon Public Television’s “Oregon Art Beat.” Known for her definitive playing of organ works of Ned Rorem and Leo Sowerby, two of the five Delos International CDs she made during the last twenty years of her life included the major organ works of these two composers.
On Dr. Crozier’s 75th and 80th birthdays, she performed solo recitals from memory at The Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA; her 85th birthday recital was played at The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. Recently, the American Guild of Organists began to compile a video archive series of great organists; Catharine Crozier was the subject of The Master Series, Vol. I, which shows her performing and teaching in her 86th year.
A memorial service/concert and reception will be held on January 26, 2004, at Trinity Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, with the Trinity Cathedral Choir (John Strege, director) and organists David Higgs and Frederick Swann. Memorial donations may be sent to:
Music Endowment Fund, Trinity Cathedral, 147 NW 19th Avenue, Portland OR 97209

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Nunc Dimittis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remembering Bethel Knoche (1919-2003)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

--Rodney Giles

Ft. Lauderdale, FL and Cherry Grove,NY

Past Dean, Greater Kansas City AGO

In Memoriam Catharine Crozier

January 18, 1914-September 19, 2003

Tributes by Thomas Harmon, Karen McFarlane, John Strege and Frederick Swann
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Catharine Crozier died on September 19, 2003, in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 89. A complete obituary appears in the November issue of The Diapason ("Nunc Dimittis," page 10). The following tributes are presented In Memoriam.

Catharine Crozier--Paragon of our profession

A fond remembrance by Thomas Harmon

Long before I saw her or heard her play, I heard the name Catharine Crozier spoken with reverence by my boyhood organ teachers. It was not until my undergraduate years at Washington University in the late 1950s that the long awaited opportunity presented itself when she came to St. Louis to play on the university's recital series in Graham Chapel. I shall never forget seeing her walk gracefully in her stunning floor length gown to the console, front and center on the chapel dais. A radiant smile on her face, she was truly a vision of elegance and beauty as she ascended to the bench, parting the skirt of her custom-made gown and draping it in a regal train over the back of the bench. Even before she raised her hands to sound the first notes, she had me mesmerized. I was in the presence of royalty, and, as the recital unfolded from memory, piece by piece, so perfectly juxtaposed, meticulously registered, beautifully articulated and flawlessly played, I knew that I was experiencing greatness. Little did I know, when I stepped up in awe to meet her and gush my admiration following the recital, that someday she and her renowned spouse Harold Gleason would become dear personal friends during their California years.

Many times over the next four decades I was treated to a Crozier recital, and my experience was always the same--programming that was on the cutting edge in exploring both early and new music, remarkable stylistic versatility that was always historically informed and up-to-date throughout her long recital and teaching career, meticulous registration with appropriately applied artistic restraint and impeccable technique. My first opportunity to hear Catharine after that unforgettable recital in Graham Chapel came more than a decade later, after she and Harold had moved to California and I had assumed the post of university organist at UCLA. One of my first actions in that post was to oversee restoration of the 4-manual, 80-rank Skinner organ in Royce Hall, designed by Harold in consultation with G. Donald Harrison. Harrison did the tonal finishing, and Gleason played the inaugural recital in September, 1930. Thus, I had many reasons for inviting Catharine to play at Royce Hall in January, 1972. My wife and I invited Catharine and Harold to be our houseguests during her recital visit, and we spent a memorable time together getting to know each other. They kept us laughing with their favorite form of humor, limericks, at which they were both virtuosi. Harold contributed greatly to my file on the Royce Hall organ with colorful stories of his California days and his interaction with UCLA, E. M. Skinner and G. Donald Harrison. (I was later to capture this on tape in an oral history interview that I did with him in another of the Gleasons' visits with us in 1978.) Catharine enjoyed our new Hradetzky house organ and revealed her ingratiating personality and clever wit, complemented by her delightful chuckle, as well as her appreciation of fine food and an occasional glass of sherry before dinner. Her Royce Hall recital was, of course, a triumph and a special moment for Harold to whom we paid tribute as the designer of the organ.

Sue and I later enjoyed being the Gleasons' guests in Rancho Bernardo, near San Diego, and later in their second California home in Claremont. Despite their success and fame, they lived a disciplined, unpretentious life, committed to artistic and scholarly excellence. It was in their Rancho Bernardo home that I saw and heard for the first time Catharine's harpsichord and cherished house organ by Laukhuff, with its 2-manual, custom-built Aeolian-Skinner console, on which she did much of her practicing and memorization throughout her career. The organ was designed to fit comfortably in a normal 8-foot ceiling height and to be easily movable, quite fortunately, since I believe it was purchased in their Eastman days, subsequently moved with them to Rollins College in Florida, then to four different locations in southern California and finally to Portland.

The year 1980 marked the 50th anniversary of UCLA's Royce Hall organ, and I invited Catharine to re-create Harold's 1930 dedication program, an invitation that she was pleased to accept. By this time we had become dear friends, and I revelled in hearing stories about Catharine's then forty years as a major recitalist. We discovered that we had a mutual love of trains, and she told enthusiastically of her train adventures all over the country as well as her spirit of adventure in exploring, usually on foot, each new town or city in which she performed. Catharine's recital at Royce Hall on June 6, 1980, was a very special event, indeed, and in retrospect was given further poignance and meaning by the fact that Harold Gleason passed away just three weeks later. Harold's funeral in the Claremont church that the Gleasons had attended offered yet another example of Catharine's very special qualities as a human being. Her presence that day was a role model of  deep spiritual faith, personal strength and acceptance, and her decision on the music for the service was communicated by the simple printed statement that the organ would be silent this day in respect for the loss of Dr. Gleason.

Another memorable recital occurred sometime in the early 1980s, when she performed Ned Rorem's complete Quaker Reader at Whittier College Chapel, including narration by Hollywood actor Peter Mark Richman.  Rorem, a great admirer of Catharine who was a champion of his and many other composers' new music, was present. If I had to rank them, I would say that the greatest Crozier performance that I have ever heard, perhaps the greatest organ recital that I have ever experienced, was her program for the 1987 Far West Regional Convention of the AGO in San Diego. Flawlessly performed by memory on the First Presbyterian Church's superb 4-manual Casavant organ were three 20th-century works: Ned Rorem's Views from the Oldest House, Norberto Guinaldo's Lauda Sion Salvatorem, and Leo Sowerby's Symphony in G Major (a Crozier signature piece throughout her long career). Following her performance, I told Catharine that I had never heard her play with such flair and depth of expression, and in an example of her keen wit, she replied that she was just now beginning to feel in control of the instrument. A day or so after the recital, dear Catharine accepted my invitation to have lunch with me and take a cruise aboard my boat at the harbor in Oceanside, and I shall always remember her boarding the boat like a seasoned yachtsman and her delight in the sea world around us. She loved adventure.

When I made my decision in 1983 to step down from my position as organist at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica to take on the job of Chair of the UCLA Music Department, I approached Catharine, who had moved to Whittier after Harold's death, about the possibility of her serving as interim organist at the church while a search was conducted for my successor. She indicated that she might like to do this, and the end result was her decision sometime later to accept the church's hopeful invitation to stay on as the regular organist. Fortunately, she accepted, moved to the Santa Monica area and delighted the congregation with her marvelous service playing for the next nine years. I was on hand to pinch hit for her when she was away playing recitals, but she proved to be dedicated to the position and seemed to thoroughly enjoy being back on the bench playing services regularly. The choir adored her (everyone did!) and many stayed in touch with her as personal friends after she moved to Portland in 1992. At that time, I had just stepped down from the chairmanship at UCLA and accepted the church's invitation to return for what turned out to be another nine years. While she was there, Catharine had overseen the installation of new swell reeds and a new great mixture, making the organ better than ever. Typical of her exemplary pedagogical approach to playing the organ, the organ copies of the hymnal and anthems were lightly marked in pencil with her fingerings, pedallings, registration and manual changes. I learned a lot from them and respectfully left the markings for my successors.

Late memories: her stunning 80th birthday recital at the Crystal Cathedral (how could anyone but Crozier play such a huge organ with such grace and control at the age of 80?); her 85th birthday recital at the First Congregational Church on the world's largest church organ (by this time she was handicapped by the loss of vision in one eye, but she had no trouble finding her way around the maze of that immense console and tossing off the Liszt BACH as though it were easy); and, finally, her "Life Experiences" presentation at the 2001 Northwest Regional Convention of the AGO in Eugene. I noted that she had grown quite frail, as John Strege and I called for her at her hotel room to escort her to the venue for her presentation, but her radiant smile and warm greeting were not frail. Her presentation was deeply moving to me and, I am sure, to everyone present. It was the last time I saw Catharine in person, although we spoke on the phone periodically after that. I shall miss her presence and her friendship but will be nurtured for the rest of my life by happy memories and her supreme example of excellence.         

A tribute to Catharine Crozier Gleason

by Karen McFarlane

To read Catharine Crozier's recital reviews is to realize what a superb artist we have lost. "Catharine Crozier . . . may be an honored veteran among organ players . . . but she can still run rings around much of her younger competition, not only in interpretive style but in sheer technique as well." (New York Times) "At home in any style, the versatile performer captured the excitement of an accelerating fugue by Schumann, tossed off a Hindemith sonata with neat non-sentimentality and made sparks fly in a fiery virtuoso finale by . . . Milos Sokola." (The Plain Dealer) " . . . she always got to the heart of the music." (Los Angeles Times) Through the observations of music critics, we have a picture of some of the recitals she played.

Those who were in her audiences during the course of her 62-year career saw a slender, elegant woman walk "onstage" and instantly communicate a commanding presence. By her demeanor, one knew even before a note was heard, that she was an authority; as she played, the depth and range of her artistry simply confirmed it. Her discipline, her attention to detail and her high intelligence were all part of a persona "programmed" for a successful life and career as performer and teacher. In thinking over the 38 years I knew Catharine, several adjectives come to mind: elegant, shy, witty, hard-working, thoughtful, warm and yet also reserved. She was comfortable with solitude. One did not "buddy up" with Catharine Crozier, yet she had close friendships in her life which she greatly prized.

I have clear memories of Catharine. First meeting her in 1965 during a sweltering summer in New York City, I was struck by how cool and unruffled she was by the heat, how as she taught students whose fingers were nearly sliding off the keys, she seemed unaffected by a similar human malady! In my mid-twenties I had the good fortune to share some delicious and entertaining meals with Catharine, her husband Harold Gleason, and Fred Swann, three people who from my perspective were on towering pedestals. It was the first time I realized that the finest artists tend to also be marvelous people, a truism I have been interested to observe ever since. Although I remained in a certain awe of Catharine all the years I knew her, I came to see her as a human being rather than as someone out of reach.

At the opening of the Tully Hall organ, where she shared the program with E. Power Biggs and Thomas Schippers, I was thrilled by Catharine's performance of the Barber Toccata Festiva, from the moment she walked onstage till the moment she left it. I remember being riveted by her performance at The Riverside Church of "Mary Dyer did hang as a flag" (Ned Rorem's Quaker Reader), as she fiercely portrayed that condemned woman's death. Then, on her 80th birthday she played a dazzling recital (all from memory except for one piece) at the Crystal Cathedral, closing with the Widor "Toccata" as her smashing encore. Considering that she had awakened the morning of the previous day in a swaying 20th-floor hotel room during the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake, her performance was remarkable for its calm ease. She was always so well prepared and confident, that even an earthquake could not shake her performance.

One of my fondest memories is of the time Catharine, my husband Chick Holtkamp and I vacationed at Mohonk Mountain House. She would invite us to her room for sherry in the late afternoon and, beautifully attired, she would join us for dinner. Though she declined to go on strenuous hikes with us or swim in the lake, she treated us to a staid carriage ride, which was pleasantly old-world in its flavor. Her innate sense of formality in such a setting was utterly charming; she had a talent for quiet enjoyment in any place she inhabited.

I recall watching her teach a master class at Eastman during her late 80s, with her mind untouched by age in any negative way, her warmth toward the students genuine, her knowledge of the music complete. She was a total professional to the end of her life. I recall the time when I was astounded at hearing her play a certain wedding processional. When I expressed my amazement that "I never thought I would see the day when Catharine Crozier would play the Wedding March," she in turn surprised me by her retort, "It comes with the job!"

The last ten years of Catharine's life were among her happiest, mainly due to her appointment as Artist-in-Residence at Trinity Cathedral, Portland, Oregon. The high musical standards of Canon John Strege and his superb choir met her own on a happy level. I flew out to Portland on four occasions during her final decade, always dining with her in good restaurants (she had a fine time "researching" restaurants before choosing which ones we would go to) and of course going to church with her. Each time we would attend a service at Trinity Cathedral, she would lean over and quietly say "I just love it here!" The last time I heard her there in recital was the first day of April, 2001. She was, as ever, splendid.

In addition to Catharine Crozier's grace and intelligence, she was possessed of an optimistic nature. She was not immune to sadness, but she had that sturdy Oklahoma constitution that just goes forward in the face of any adversity. Even when she lost one eye in the last years of her life, she said "Well, I just go on." Indeed, after the loss of that eye, she played her 85th birthday recital at First Congregational Church, Los Angeles, to a packed church of admirers. Catharine had a funny story to relate about the eye trouble that caused her to stop driving. She started calling a local taxi company to take her to the cathedral to practice each day, then later back to her apartment. After about a week of this, the drivers stopped asking her destination and automatically took her to one place or the other! She was pleased at being such a celebrity among Portland's taxi drivers!

There are many good stories "out there" about Catharine. Upon her death, I received some touching e-mails from friends and admirers which related to first meeting her, first hearing her play, studying the organ with her, and so on. One man commented on the special quality of light which seemed to infuse her playing during her later years, and he was quite right. In the early part of her career she was well-known for her brilliant technique and effortless playing, but as she grew older she continued to build on that technique, bringing a complete artistry to her mature years. We are fortunate that she recorded several CDs during the last 20 or so years of her life, among them first-rate performances of Rorem and Sowerby. A supporter of the highest possible standards in musical performance, she remains an excellent model for today's young musicians to emulate. She would probably tell them to seek out a fine teacher, develop an infallible technique, practice diligently, learn your repertoire thoroughly, have a firm goal of becoming an artist, behave in a professional manner, and you will have a fine chance for a career. Catharine Crozier lived a full and interesting life. Her innate musical talent, her thoroughness in her work, and her consummate artistry gave us a person who was a living legend in the world of organ music. The immense regard her fellow artists the world over had for her is testimony to her great stature among them. On both a professional and personal level, our loss is deeply felt.  

Remembering Catharine Crozier

by Canon John Strege, Director of Cathedral Music, Trinity Cathedral, Portland, Oregon

Reflecting on Catharine Crozier's involvement at Trinity Cathedral as Artist-in-Residence these past ten years is a remembrance of graciousness, superb artistry, encouragement, and unbridled enthusiasm. When I was notified that Catharine was moving to Portland, the Dean of the Cathedral and I immediately wrote her asking if she would consider becoming Trinity's Artist-in-Residence. In what seemed like only hours, she quickly responded by saying that she would be most pleased to accept this position. So began my relationship with Catharine.

Catharine would practice most afternoons in preparation for occasional Sunday morning voluntaries, organ recitals, and in the first years, her out of town master classes and recitals. As we developed a friendship, I was always humbled by her enthusiasm for the music at Trinity. She embraced the magnificent Rosales organ, the liturgy, the Trinity Choir and Cathedral Chamber Singers, and the loving Trinity community.

In the later years, as we drove together, attended concerts, had lunches and dinners, I was privileged to sample her great sense of humor, her many opinions about legendary organists from the past, her reminiscences of her extraordinary career and life with Harold Gleason, and her timely words of encouragement for my work in the church. When I asked her if she could arrive a few minutes early for one of her practice sessions to hear an organ piece I was preparing, she responded with, "How about this afternoon?" With her generosity, these "brief" coaching sessions could last well over an hour. As I have frequently mentioned to my colleagues, having Catharine Crozier in the congregation on any given Sunday gave a new meaning to the preparation of organ voluntaries for the liturgy.

As Catharine lived out her final decade in our midst, her playing at Trinity evoked an unspeakable transcendence. Her life was lived in the realization of being in the moment, maintaining the integrity of purpose and spirit, and always looking ahead to new challenges and opportunities.

Of the many blessings in my life, I consider the opportunity of being with Catharine one of the greatest. I cherish our friendship and affection we had for each other. Her physical absence is a profound loss, but her spirit, musicianship and grace will remain with me for all time.              

Remembering Catharine Crozier

by Fred Swann

Many of us can identify a person who, by their influence and inspiration, has been paramount in the development of our lives and careers. Catharine Crozier was that person for me.

Although I had read about her and had heard one of her recordings, I didn't meet Catharine until the summer of 1949. I had just finished my freshman year at Northwestern University School of Music when she and her distinguished husband, Harold Gleason, came to teach and to lead a summer church music workshop at the university. I had been playing the organ since age 10 and intended to be "a good church organist," but that summer the Gleasons convinced me to commit to a career as an organist.

Catharine played a recital on the E. M. Skinner organ in St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Evanston as part of the conference. The combination of her incredible performance and that organ, one of Skinner's most remarkable and exceptional instruments, was so overwhelming that on that very evening my standards of musicianship and performance were set in stone for life. I became a Crozier "groupie"--wore out all her recordings as they came out, traveled huge distances to hear her recitals, and tried, pathetically as I look back, to emulate her playing style. In addition to the musical benefits, I was privileged to develop a cherished friendship that has lasted a lifetime.

That same summer I played the Langlais Te Deum for the Gleasons. It was then still new to most American organists, and even they had not heard it. It became one of "her pieces" and she would frequently remark about my bringing it to her attention. Despite her encouragement and interest in having me study with her at Eastman after completing degrees at Northwestern, I felt so inferior and in awe of her that I was terrified to take the Eastman audition. Fearing the humiliation of not being accepted, I chose to study at Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music in New York. Mrs. Gleason, as we called her then, became quite cross with me over this, but, as things sometimes happen, the decision to go to New York City turned out to be a fortuitous thing for my career and for our friendship.

Forgive me if I've written too much in attempting to establish the roots of my indebtedness with this wonderful lady and consummate musician. The stories and anecdotes would fill a large book, but here I want to pay homage to my mentor--for although I never formally studied with her, I have never stopped absorbing knowledge and inspiration from her.

You're reading a number of tributes in these pages, and very probably many of them have used the same words in describing Catharine. She could be stern in her expectations from students, but her compassion and humanity never stopped growing throughout her life. She was thoroughly professional and never failed to live up to the highest demands that she made upon herself. She was the personification of elegance in her playing, and just to watch her at the console was a lesson in grace and form. Posture, hand position, economy of movement and a complete involvement in the music all combined for incredible performances. She had a great thirst for continual learning that allowed her music making to remain fresh and vital whether she was playing one of the "old masters" or a contemporary work. She played in perfect style, and with the latest scholarship, everything she chose. She embraced new works of many composers, especially American. Her performances of these works was so compelling that she "sold" them to a profession and to audiences that were usually more ready to accept the latest from France and elsewhere.

A physically attractive woman who carried herself with poise and grace, she was a quiet person--but she never "missed a thing," had a wonderful, dry sense of humor, and an infectious laugh. She could often say more with a look than some people can with many words. She delighted in simple things, like being driven up and down Fifth Avenue in New York to look at all the lights at Christmas time. When young, she enjoyed fine food and fancy restaurants at times, but her own cooking abilities were limited. If she invited you to dinner the invitation often came with the question "Well, would you like the tuna casserole or the other one?"

Dr. Crozier kept performing until about a year before her death. People just wouldn't let her stop. I had to do some real arm twisting to convince her to play recitals on her 75th and 80th birthdays at the Crystal Cathedral, where I was in residence at the time. Each program was stunning despite her misgivings beforehand. When I greeted her as she left the console at the conclusion of her 80th birthday recital, she, having just finished a stellar performance of the Reubke Sonata on the 94th Psalm broke into a wide grin, cocked her head, snapped her fingers, and said "By crackey, I did it!" And she continued to "do it". Despite advancing age and physical handicaps that would cause most people to quit, she finally agreed after much cajoling to come to First Congregational in Los Angeles to play a recital on her 85th birthday--and what a wonderful time we had! Friends had come from literally around the country and even some from Europe. After that she slowed down gradually but still played Vesper recitals at Trinity Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, on the great Rosales organ she loved and recorded on so magnificently.

Because of the wonderful friendships with the cathedral staff, especially Canon John Strege and Kevin Walsh, and the loving care she was given, she almost reached her 90th birthday in a very content existence. When a handful of us gathered near the organ console in early October for a private service of blessing and commitment of her ashes, there were tears and sadness--but also enormous thanksgiving for a life that brought so much joy and inspiration to untold thousands of people over her long and distinguished career. Her influence will live on for many generations to come.  She is now at peace.  May light perpetual shine upon her.      

Memorial service for Catharine Crozier Gleason

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, Oregon

Lee Garrett

Lee Garrett is professor of music at Lewis & Clark College.

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Portland’s historic Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, where Catharine Crozier was Artist-in-Residence from 1992 until her death, was the site for a profoundly beautiful memorial service on January 26, 2004. The Trinity Choir, under the direction of Canon John Strege, provided canticles and anthems, and David Higgs and Fred Swann provided organ voluntaries. [See the obituary for Catharine Crozier (January 18, 1914-September 19, 2003), “Nunc Dimittis,” November 2003, page 10; see also “In Memoriam Catharine Crozier--Tributes by Thomas Harmon, Karen McFarlane, John Strege, and Frederick Swann,” December 2003, pages 21-23.]

Mr. Higgs, chair of the organ department at The Eastman School of Music, with which Miss Crozier and her late husband, Harold Gleason, had such a long affiliation, began the service with a stately reading of Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, followed by Song of Peace, by Jean Langlais. The Entrance Rite had the Trinity Choir process to a slow cadence of two handbells, as the cantor intoned the words “I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord,” concluding with “Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” Following the Salutation and Collect for the Dead, all joined to sing a favorite hymn of Miss Crozier’s, “Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy,” to the tune Slane.

Lee Garrett, professor of music at Lewis & Clark College, then read from Revelation 21:2-7, and the choir responded with the exultant Magnificat in D, by Leo Sowerby, with whom the Gleasons had maintained a close friendship. Mr. Swann, a former student of both Harold Gleason and Catharine Crozier, provided an authoritative organ accompaniment, as well as some personal reflections in subsequent remarks reminding us of Ms. Crozier’s high standards and impenetrable poise.

The playful first movement of Paul Hindemith’s second sonata was the first of three voluntaries then played by David Higgs. Ned Rorem, one of Miss Crozier’s many composer/admirers, was represented by the warm and reflective “There is a spirit” (from A Quaker Reader), and the first movement of Mendelssohn’s first sonata concluded the offering. All were reminders, in sound and style, of Miss Crozier’s immense musicianship and influence.

Karen McFarlane, for many years Miss Crozier’s personal representative, spoke eloquently of her stature spanning over fifty years, and shared comments by organists from throughout the U.S., the U.K. and Europe; their common theme was admiration for Miss Crozier’s consummate musicianship, continuing scholarship, and interest in promoting new music for the organ. Notable as well was an experience common to so many of us: how memorable was the first occasion when we heard Miss Crozier--where it was and what her program included.

Two motets by Ned Rorem were next, his quietly soaring Mercy and truth are met (Psalm 85:101-113), and, beautiful in its simplicity, an a cappella setting of the well-known (but sadly anonymous) hymn text, Sing, my soul, his wondrous love.

The Very Reverend William Lupfer, Dean of Trinity Cathedral, spoke on behalf of the cathedral and Catharine’s tenure as Artist-in-Residence, a position created for her through the vision of Canon Strege and then-Dean Anthony Thurston. Dean Lupfer offered prayers and The Commendation, and the choir responded with Sowerby’s exquisite Nunc Dimittis in D. Mr. Swann then played Sowerby’s “Passacaglia” (from his Symphony in G, one of Miss Crozier’s signature pieces), exploring the tonal palette of the Rosales organ--an instrument on which Miss Crozier made one of her last recordings (Things Visible and Invisible), and where she practiced almost daily until the last few months of her life. Following the Blessing and Dismissal, the large congregation rose to sing “Love divine, all loves excelling,” to the tune Hyfrydol, stirringly accompanied by Canon Strege.

The service and its music reflected the high standards for which Catharine Crozier was known throughout the organ world. Her passing was noted in the New York Times, and at a reception following the service, numerous organists from throughout the United States came to pay homage, joining with Trinity parishioners and members of the Portland community who had come to know and admire one of the most remarkable international performing artists of the twentieth century.

Nunc Dimittis

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Caroline B. (Casort) Stone died May 24 in Endicott, New York. She was 80 years old. Born in Coffeyville, Kansas, she studied organ in high school and became organist at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Coffeyville; she graduated from Coffeyville College of Arts and Science and taught public school music. Following her marriage to Darrell Stone, the couple moved to France while he served in the U.S. Army and she served as chapel organist for the 866th E.A.B. Returning to the U.S., the Stones settled in Endicott, New York, where she served as organist for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church for 30 years. She was active in several organizations, and served as dean of the Binghamton (NY) AGO chapter, and as co-chairperson of the local chapter of the National Guild of Piano Teachers. Caroline B. Stone is survived by her husband Darrell, daughter and son-in-law Mary Jane Stone-Bush and Wayne Bush; son and daughter-in-law David Stone and Donna June; four grandchildren, and sister Alice Evans.

H. Edward Tibbs died September 16 at age 77. He was professor of music at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama from 1959 until his retirement in 2002, serving also as university organist and chair of the keyboard division. After his retirement, he continued as university organist and adjunct professor. He served as organist of Southside Baptist Church from 1960 until his death, and also served as a lifetime deacon of that church. His final public performance occurred on August 31 at the opening convocation for the Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, when he was honored for his many decades of dedication to teaching and Christian service.
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music as a pupil of Catharine Crozier, and of the University of Michigan in the classes of Robert Noehren and Marilyn Mason, Tibbs was the first full-time American pupil of Jean Langlais at the Church of St. Clotilde in Paris. In 1983, he received the Palmer Christian Award from the University of Michigan. Along with activities on the boards of numerous organizations, Dr. Tibbs played numerous recitals in this country and in Europe, and was the designer of over 50 pipe organs in the South, including the Samford Memorial Organ at Southside Baptist Church.
Tibbs served in the armed forces as a chaplain’s assistant stationed at Fort Holabird, Maryland, during which time he was interim organist at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Among his numerous activities in the musical life of Birmingham, he served as president of the Birmingham Music Club, an organization he rescued from bankruptcy in the early 1980s; president of the Birmingham Chamber Music Society; and dean of the Birmingham AGO chapter. For 15 years, he was the organist for the Alabama Symphony, having designed their organ used in the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.
Dr. Tibbs was also honored by the city of Birmingham with the Silver Bowl Award for outstanding contributions to music in the Birmingham area. In the mid-1990s, he collaborated with Catharine Crozier in preparing the eleventh edition of The Method of Organ Playing by Harold Gleason. He is survived by a sister and brother, numerous nieces and nephews, and extended family. A memorial service was held at Southside Baptist Church. Memorial contributions can be made to the H. E. Tibbs Organ Concert Series at Southside Baptist Church, or to a Samford Music Scholarship for young organists at Samford University.
—Charles Kennedy

Robert Frederick Wolfersteig died June 7 in Atlanta at the age of 81. Born in Kingston, New York, he began organ study at age twelve. He completed undergraduate studies in 1950 at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying organ with Parvin Titus, and received the MMus degree in from Westminster Choir College, where he was a student of Alexander McCurdy. In 1961 Wolfersteig received a Fulbright grant and spent a year in Berlin at the Hochschule für Musik. He received the DMus from Indiana University in 1963, where he studied organ with Oswald Ragatz.
In 1965 he became professor of music at Georgia College, Milledgeville, where he taught until 1991. He served several local churches, including First Presbyterian Church, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, and Hope Lutheran Church, and was dean of the Macon AGO chapter from 1987–89. He played his last service on January 24, 2010 at St. James Episcopal Church, Clayton, Georgia, where he had served as organist since 2007. Robert Wolfersteig is survived by his wife, Eloise, daughter Patricia Albritton, and granddaughter Kendall Albritton.

A Conversation with Robert Town

Lorenz Maycher

Lorenz Maycher is organist-choirmaster at First-Trinity Presbyterian Church in Laurel, Mississippi. His interviews with William Teague, Thomas Richner, Nora Williams, and Albert Russell have also appeared in The Diapason.

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Robert Town has recently retired after more than forty years of overseeing the organ department at Wichita State University, where he established a legacy of the highest standards in organ performance with his many award-winning students, oversaw the plans and completion of a world-class concert hall and organ, and brought the great organists of the world to the Wichita community through the Bloomfield concert series. In this colorful interview he reminisces about his student life at Eastman, his encounters with eminent musicians such as the Gleasons, Arthur Poister, Marilyn Mason, Marcel Dupré, the Duruflés, Mildred Andrews, and Claire Coci, and his notable career as a teacher and recitalist.

—Brett Valliant

Director of Music, Worship and the Arts

Senior Organist, First United Methodist Church, Wichita, Kansas

Lorenz Maycher: Tell us about your early years.
Robert Town
: I am from Meridian, New York, a little village just west of Syracuse. My parents took me to church for the first time in 1940, where I heard the one-manual, six-rank 1876 Hook & Hastings organ. And that was it. I started piano lessons when I was five and took all through my school years.
I became fascinated at the age of ten with something new on the market—the Hammond organ. My mother and I had stopped into Clark Music in Syracuse, and Mr. Clark showed us a church-model Hammond, which I thought was just wonderful. The Hook & Hastings organ in our church was thought to be old and beyond repair. At my instigation, when I was ten, I raised money with other kids in town by putting on circuses, magic shows, and the like to start an organ fund. At the end of two years we had raised $50. The Ladies’ CIC from church added $50, my father $100, and the man who owned the hardware store $100. Before long, we had enough to buy the Hammond organ for the church. I played the prelude and postlude sometimes, and took Hammond organ lessons at the music store in Syracuse. I became the organist at that church at fifteen, and then at First Baptist Church in Weedsport, New York when I was fifteen, where I played a two-manual, ten-rank Steere & Turner for $5 a Sunday.
In my sophomore year of high school, Warren Scharf, who had just finished his master’s degree with Catharine Crozier at Eastman, came to Auburn, New York, to be organist at Second Presbyterian Church, which had, and still has, an E. M. Skinner organ in the gallery. I began lessons with him, and he started me right from the beginning of the Gleason book, with exercises and pieces for manuals alone. At the age of fifteen, having to start from the very beginning was demoralizing, but was the correct thing to do. I studied with him for about six months, until he was drafted into the Army, ending my organ lessons. However, I had become intent on studying with Catharine Crozier at the Eastman School. When her first records came out from Kilbourn Hall, I bought them right away, even before I had anything to play them on. When her Longview, Texas, records of American music came out in 1953, I bought those. They are still marvelous to this day.
I met and heard Miss Crozier for the first time when I was fifteen, at an AGO regional convention in Utica, and made an appointment with her the next year to see how I could best prepare to become her student. I took off two days from school and took the bus over to Rochester to meet with her. Not wanting me to develop any bad habits, she urged that I not take organ lessons until I came to study with her. She did say piano was of the utmost importance, however, and that I could not have enough of that, emphasizing scales and arpeggios.
When I went to audition for her on December 18, 1954, they neglected to tell her. So, after my ear training test and piano audition, Edward Easley, who directed the auditions, looked around for her and found that she had gone out shopping. He found Mr. Gleason in Sibley Library and had me play for him instead. Halfway through my audition, Miss Crozier walked in. I was playing the Messiaen Celestial Banquet, and got so distracted that I left out the pedal part! Afterwards, to my great surprise, she said in a very cold and unsympathetic tone of voice, “Would you do a modulation for us?” I was so shocked that I turned around and said, “You mean from key to key?”
I was devastated when, in 1955, just as I was about to graduate from high school, I learned Catharine Crozier and Harold Gleason were resigning from the Eastman School. I had already been accepted.
As a teacher, Catharine Crozier had been difficult and unsympathetic. She had too many students to suit her, wanted an assistant to take beginning students, and only wanted to teach upperclassmen. Miss Crozier was unhappy.
I think it would be safe to say they knew they were leaving Eastman by January of 1955. Robert Hufstader from Rollins College wrote Eastman asking for a recommendation for a replacement for Arden Whitacre, who had resigned, and that is how the Gleasons found out about the opening at Rollins. Over Christmas holiday, they went down, unbeknownst to anybody, and looked the job over.
I went to Eastman in the fall of 1955. David Craighead, who was 32 years old at the time, had been appointed the new organ instructor. He came to have a very successful tenure at Eastman, and was a prince of a fellow, but his teaching style was very different from Catharine Crozier’s. When Catharine was in a lesson, it isn’t an exaggeration to say the student might receive a tap on the shoulder every two measures. When Mr. Gleason gave her students lessons while she was away on tour, her students did not think he was a very good teacher because he did not stop them every two measures!
In one of my first lessons with David Craighead, I had some things from the Gleason book, and he admitted he did not agree with all the precepts of that method, saying it was too fussy, with too much to be concerned about. He did not even think it was necessary to wear organ shoes and played in his street shoes. I sat in the practice room with the Gleason book, working on pieces for manuals alone, which, after time, Mr. Craighead thought were too easy for me; so he assigned about ten chorales from the Orgelbüchlein and two of Karg-Elert’s chorale improvisations, an impossible leap from what I had been playing. The former Gleason students would sometimes come in and say, “It would be helpful if you would do it this way.”

LM: What were the practice organs and studio organs like at Eastman?
RT
: The organ in Catharine Crozier’s studio, where David Craighead first taught, was a three-manual Aeolian-Skinner of about 26 ranks. The whole instrument was installed in a chamber in the ceiling. In Norman Peterson’s studio, next door, the Great and Pedal were on the floor level (the early records of Catharine Crozier at Kilbourn Hall have a drawing of that Great and Pedal on the cover), and the Swell, Choir, and basses were located in the ceiling chamber. There were three Aeolian-Skinner practice organs that were in great demand all the time. One was called “the Trumpet Skinner”; one was “the Mixture Skinner”; and the third was a small three-manual. The other practice organs were two-manual Möllers of five ranks each, most of which were original to the school when it was built in 1921, and two three-manual Möllers in such poor working order that no one could use them.

LM: You told me an amusing story about hearing Claire Coci when you were a student at Eastman.
RT
: The year before I went to Eastman, Claire Coci played a recital at Kilbourn Hall, and some of the Eastman students sat behind the console. As things went wrong, she would curse, often loud enough for the first few rows to hear. When we found out she was to play a recital on the Holtkamp organ in Crouse Auditorium at Syracuse, two carloads of us organ students from Eastman drove over to hear her, and the Syracuse students reserved the front two rows for us.
While she was practicing for that recital, a couple of organ students were listening to her from the balcony. She noticed and called up, “Do you kids know where there is a Coke machine around here?” One of them ran downstairs and brought her up a Coke, and, in one of her enormous gestures in playing, she knocked it off the bench and the bottle shattered on the floor. When she finished practicing that piece, she got up and kicked the broken glass under the pedalboard.
For the recital, the dress she was wearing had many different layers which had to be parted to get out of the way and put over the back of the bench. She fussed and fussed, trying to find the part. She couldn’t, and finally muttered, “My God, it would take a road map to find your way in here.”

LM: From Eastman, did you go right to Syracuse to work on your master’s degree with Arthur Poister?
RT
: Yes. Arthur Poister was a great man—very sensitive, intuitive, and wise. Classes began in the fall of 1960, and lessons with Poister were a revelation, as was playing the Holtkamp organ at Crouse Auditorium. He waited about three weeks into school to comment on my playing. I had been working on the F-Major Toccata, which was one of his favorite pieces, and played it for my lesson, which certainly was not a finished performance. Beverly Blunt came in to wait for her lesson. He looked at her, and said, “Did you hear that? Wasn’t that wonderful?” He did that to encourage me, and it did. To have ANYONE say I was wonderful! I walked out of there on a cloud!
Arthur Poister taught at Crouse all morning, and had full reign of the auditorium, with his students practicing there afternoons into the evening. We each had Crouse one hour a week. I loved exploring, hearing, and getting to know that organ. I visited there this past summer for the first time since our Marcussen organ was installed here in Wichita. Curious to see how the Holtkamp in Crouse would seem to me these days, I sat down in the stifling heat and played individual stops and choruses, then finally got to full organ. When the old Roosevelt Trombone came on in the pedal, I concluded it was still magnificent.

LM: What would Arthur Poister say about a piece like the Toccata in F? Did he tap you on the shoulder every two measures?
RT
: No, no—never. He did not like articulation in Bach, and had learned and memorized all the Bach works with Marcel Dupré over the course of two years in Paris. He thought Bach should be played legato, regardless of Walcha and others on the scene at the time. He taught and used the ornaments as explained in the Dupré edition of the Bach works. If someone detached something, he would say, “You kids! You just want to break up things, when it would be so much more beautiful if you would just stop that!”
It was amazing how his students came to play the way they did, because he never said much about pedaling or fingering. In fact, I was studying the Partita on “O Gott, du frommer Gott,” and, in the last variation, I did not know what to do in one passage. He said, “You have had enough organ to be able to figure it out yourself.” Then, he threw in a little hint by saying, “It may be all thumbs.” When I look back at my Syracuse years—Calvin Hampton was there, Paul Andersen, Lawrence Jamison, who was the star of the undergraduates—when I look back on the preparation of the undergraduates, and the caliber of master’s recitals with that man, it was phenomenal. It is the mystery of Arthur Poister how it happened—how he did NOT correct fingering or pedaling, and only talked about the way it must sound. His only concern was how to communicate musically.

LM: Did you ever play for Marcel Dupré?
RT
: No, but I met and heard him July 6, 1969, on my first trip to Europe. I was with two other Americans, and we started out unsure that any of the big organists would be playing that day, it being time for their holiday, and our having made no prior arrangements to visit organ lofts. We started out at 9:00 at St. Clothilde, and Marie-Louise Jacquet came down the aisle after Mass. I inquired if Langlais was at the console, and she said, “Yes, and you may go up.” I was the first to enter. He was sitting at the console, waiting for the next Mass, and turned and said, “Yes?” I introduced myself and the two others, and said, “I bring greetings from Catharine Crozier.” He was delighted, and said, “Tell me, is she still playing that perfectly horrible Reubke piece?” He very kindly and generously went over the stops on the entire instrument. Then, he opened his Braille watch and said, “I have just enough time to play the Franck B-Minor Choral for you before the next Mass.” He seemed so delighted that someone had come up to visit him in his organ loft. We signed his guest book, and he showed us to the door before he had to pile back on for the next Mass.
We then walked to St. Sulpice, where Mass was already in progress. We walked far enough down the aisle to look back and see who was in the loft. We couldn’t see anyone, except one man standing at the rail. After a time, he noticed us looking up with great interest, and motioned for us to come up. There were 15 or 20 other people in the loft visiting that day, including Guilmant’s granddaughter. The man who had motioned to us took me by the shoulders, led me over and planted me on the left side of the console, and I listened and watched HIM—Dupré—improvise and play. We were told he had just played the Bach Passacaglia. After our arrival, it was all improvisation.

LM: Did he welcome you?
RT
: Oh, no. He was absolutely oblivious to anyone being there at all—no eye contact, no smile. His hands were deformed with arthritis, and it was most distracting for me to watch him play. The little finger on his left hand had a joint that actually pointed up, instead of down, so he had to play on a different part of that finger. It did not seem to bother him. During communion and at other times, when he wanted to see how they were making progress downstairs, he would insert a pedal point into his improvisation, stand up on the pedals, and look down the length of the nave. His improvisations were fantastic, and we were in seventh heaven. His postlude was very reminiscent of the first piece in his Fifteen Pieces—big, block chords on full organ, with the theme in the pedal. The other improvisations were very contrapuntal.
When Mass ended, apparently he had an appointment with someone, because a young man came up to him. When Dupré saw him, they went off together to a room behind the console, and were there for some time. On his way to the room, he did not take notice of anyone. When they emerged, he made his way back to the console, again without acknowledging our presence, and began the prelude for the next Mass, which was the “Grand Orgue” Mass. When the postlude of the “Grand Orgue” Mass ended, all of a sudden, he looked around and noticed there were people there. I extended my hand and introduced myself as a former pupil of Arthur Poister. If ever in my life I saw a face light up, it was at the mention of Poister’s name. His gnarled hand shot up in the air—“AH! ARTHUR!” I wish I had a picture of it. He asked me to please give Poister his best. After that Mass, we stood outside St. Sulpice and watched as Dupré came out and got into a Mercedes.

LM: Let’s get back to your student days and Syracuse.
RT
: After my master’s recital, I decided to stay on at Syracuse and work on a Ph.D. in humanities, which was the nearest thing they offered that had to do with arts and music. But I did not like it. There was no actual music, no practicing, no lessons. So, when Kirk Ridge, who was chairman of the school of music, contacted me to teach piano full-time for the spring semester 1963, as a temporary replacement, I jumped at the chance.
That semester, when I wasn’t teaching one of my 36 piano students, I was practicing and playing recitals. I had seen an ad in The Diapason announcing the Boston Symphony and AGO organ competition, so decided to enter. Even after two years with Arthur Poister, I still had thoughts that I did not measure up to others, and I did not think I stood a snowball’s chance in a hot place of placing in the Boston competition. However, I made a tape and sent it in. In the meantime, I had also decided to apply to the University of Michigan to work on a doctorate with Marilyn Mason, so I flew to Ann Arbor to audition for her.

LM: What was your first impression of Marilyn Mason?
RT
: I liked her! When I arrived at Hill Auditorium, she was practicing the Schoenberg. We went to one of the side rooms off the stage, and I auditioned for her on a 3-rank Möller. She was very nice, personable, and encouraging.
After my audition, I went back to Syracuse and received a letter from the Boston AGO saying I was a semi-finalist. I thought there was some mistake and even called the man who had written the letter and asked him if it were a mistake. He assured me it was not. The semi-finals were held in April at the Arlington Street Church on a Whiteford Aeolian-Skinner. They kept us all in the basement apart from each other, and I have no idea who the other contestants were. Two others and I were selected as the finalists.
For the finals, which were open to the public and held at Symphony Hall in May, we each had to play thirty minutes. I had gotten there four days early to practice. The combination action on the Symphony Hall organ was very unreliable, and there was an enormous setterboard in the back of the console. Even after setting pistons, some of the generals were undependable. During my practice time, I learned which ones were reliable and which ones to avoid. I never saw any evidence of either of the other two finalists practicing. We did not have scheduled practice times, and every time I walked in, I was able to get to the organ.
There was a big crowd there for the finals, and the hall was set up with round tables for the Boston Pops. We were allowed five minutes to walk onstage informally and set our pistons before playing, then had to leave the stage and reenter formally to applause. I played from memory, and all I could think was, “If I can just make it through this without making a complete fool of myself . . . ”
Afterwards, we three finalists went down into the audience and mingled. I kept myself in close proximity to the other two so I could go up and congratulate the winner. A woman came out on stage and said, “Here’s the news you’ve all been waiting for: the winner is Robert Lloyd Town.” The other two finalists looked at each other in disappointment, turned around, and left. Lawrence and Ruth Barrett Phelps both came up to me, and that was the beginning of my very long and valuable friendship with him. Larry later gave us much help on our new hall and Marcussen organ here.
As the winner, I was given a full-length recital at Symphony Hall that next February. The previous day, a blizzard paralyzed the entire city. Harry Kraut, who managed the Boston Symphony, called my hotel room and said, “Can you come back and play for us in April?” Rubenstein was to have performed with the Symphony that evening, and instead, they held it as an open rehearsal for anyone who could get there. They paid for me to come back in April to play my winner’s recital on the Symphony Hall recital series. I had heard Catharine Crozier play on that series the previous year, and stepped in on her practice, and went to lunch with them—the Gleasons.

LM: How did Catharine Crozier and Harold Gleason interact with each other in a social setting?
RT
: They were not very affectionate. Just before she went in to play a recital once here in Wichita, I saw him take her hand and give it a squeeze. That is the only sign of affection I ever saw between the two of them. Mr. Gleason had a great sense of humor. He liked stories—tawdry stories; the more so, the more he liked them. She would turn and look the other way. They were both here in 1973 for a day of masterclasses and a recital. It had just been announced that Mildred Andrews was to be married. We were driving along in my car, and I told them the news. After a moment of silence, Harold said, from the back seat, “Well, I guess she didn’t want to die wondering.”
If I could characterize their relationship, it was very much one of teacher and performer. He was an invaluable coach—another set of ears to tell her how it really sounded. As time went on, she relied on recording herself over and over, and kept a tape recorder on the bench at all times, even recording small passages to play back to herself.

LM: You were around the Duruflés a lot, too. Did they have a similar relationship?
RT
: No. Although they were 19 years apart, they interacted warmly as man and wife. She was a very loving and devoted wife to her great organist-composer husband, with little to no thought of herself. That tells you right there of the difference between the Gleasons and the Duruflés. After the accident in 1975, until his death in 1986, she went across the street to play for church, but abandoned all teaching and concertizing just to take care of him. I had a letter from her in 1984 saying he could do nothing for himself, and she had to bathe him, get him in and out of bed, and everything else. She was as devoted to him as anyone could ever be to another.
When they were here in 1969, I was dean of the Wichita AGO and responsible for showing them around, and we became good friends. She was cute and unpretentious. Over lunch, I told her I had heard about the tremendous standing ovation she had received at St. Thomas Church, October 1968, for her performance of the Liszt “Ad nos,” to which she replied, “Ah, but that was not for me, but was for my husband, who was more busy than me, pushing and pulling the stops—and for Liszt.”
The Duruflés’ manager, Lilian Murtagh, only charged us $700, and they did not come over here to make money, but for sightseeing, enjoying the people and the organs. When the place went wild after their recital, she came back out and played the D’Aquin “Cuckoo,” followed by their cute routine of taking bows: they would go into the sacristy, then he would push her back out and close the door. She would shrug, then bow so nicely. Then she would go in and they would both seem to come back out together, but she would run back in and close the door. He’d look at the door, then turn and bow. She then played the Vierne Impromptu and Dupré’s Second Sketch, during which, with the octave trills and the octaves in the pedals, I thought the organ was just going to collapse. The audience would not let her go, so she came back and played the theme and four or five variations from Variations on a Noël.
For their masterclass the next day, we arranged for them to play and discuss music. Mildred Andrews sent her entire organ class. He played the Franck A-major Fantasy and then his own Veni Creator, in which he had some registration problems, so Madame Duruflé moved him over and played it herself. She had played Tournemire’s Victimae the previous night, so she played the Ave Maris Stella, followed by the Duruflé Scherzo. He discussed each piece very nicely through a translator. I was sitting about five feet from the console when he approached me and whispered, “Would you like to terminate the class with the Liszt?” Of course, I said “Yes.” He turned to her and said, “The Liszt.” “Ah, but I am not prepared!” She set up a few pistons, and, I’m here to tell you that I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t witnessed it with my own ears and eyes. Her performance was amazing. Afterwards I asked her where else she would be playing the Liszt on the tour. She said, “Nowhere. Perhaps next spring.”
After the class, I took them out to the university to see the mighty 18-rank Casavant in the chapel. They wanted me to play, since it was my post, then they came up to the console. I asked if she would like to play. “Oh yes, with pleasure.” She sat right down, pulled some stops, and tore right into the Sinfonia from Cantata 146, transcribed by Marcel Dupré, from memory, of course. It was played with the refinement and finesse as if she had been practicing it on that organ every day of her life.
We had been talking about the French system of assigning letter names to notes, and she tried to explain it to me, although I did not understand. She figured out the notes for “T-O-W-N” and improvised a fugue on it. When she finished, she said, “It was too academic.” So she improvised another one!

LM: A few minutes ago, you mentioned Mildred Andrews. Were you close?
RT
: I loved Mildred Andrews as an “adopted” student, and we became close after she came to Wichita in 1976 to give a day of masterclasses for the AGO. Afterwards, I received a note from her saying she had conducted masterclasses from north to south, east to west, in thirty-five states, and that my students were the best she had ever heard. That sealed our friendship. Although I did not realize at the time how much proper attire meant to her, my students had shown up dressed for the occasion.
At the University of Oklahoma, Mildred Andrews had a strict dress code: the girls showed up in a dress, or they would not have a lesson; the boys showed up in shirt, tie, and jacket—no moustache or beard. I know of one occasion where a student showed up in the wrong attire, and Miss Andrews drove her back to the dormitory to change, then back to Holmberg Hall for what remained of her lesson time. There was never a “Well, it’s all right this time.” When she attended organ conventions, she would show up wearing one outfit in the morning, another in the afternoon, and in the evening, a third, usually full-length.
I was up for a promotion in 1976, and again in 1978, and she wrote wonderful letters of recommendation, saying things like, “I wouldn’t just promote him; I would do everything in my power to keep him.”
She was a character. One year an organist we were planning on having play for us in Wichita played a recital in Norman, so one of my students and I drove down to hear her. Mildred Andrews and Mary Ruth McCulley sat behind us for the recital. When the organist came out, Miss Andrews tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Tell her when she comes to Wichita not to wear that dress. It looks like something you’d wear for Halloween.” The recital opened with the Chorale and Variations from the Mendelssohn Sixth, and it did not go well at all. Mildred Andrews did not like Mendelssohn in the first place, and tapped me on the shoulder again, and said, “And for heaven’s sake, when she comes to Wichita, tell her to play something she knows!”

LM: Did Mildred Andrews study with Marcel Dupré?
RT
: Yes, at Fontainebleau. She used his organ method and used the Dupré editions. She had studied at Oklahoma University for her bachelor’s, went to Michigan for her master’s, then back to OU to teach.

LM: What was the secret to her success?
RT
: If there is a key word to Mildred Andrews’s success in teaching, it was determination—devoted determination. She would not rest, she would not stop, until she had solved a student’s technical problem, and was always looking for more effective fingering and pedaling, many times arriving at unorthodox solutions. She was devoted to her students, although there were some who did not get along with her, and did not like her.
She was very organized and demanding, outspoken and even brutal—even towards her peers. In 1971, the Duruflés gave a recital and masterclass at Boston Avenue Methodist Church in Tulsa, and I drove down to hear them. For the masterclass, that huge choir loft was full of listeners. Madame Duruflé played the Prelude and Fugue on the Name of ALAIN, and Maurice Duruflé asked “Are there questions?” Mildred Andrews shot back with “Yes! I’ve been timing this performance on my metronome, and have just found her playing a tempo other than is indicated in the score.” Madame Duruflé replied, “I played it as I felt it.” Maurice Duruflé backed up his wife and said he agreed with her performance. Mildred Andrews would not stop there and said to Madame Duruflé, “Well, I would like to know the correct metronome marking so that my students can play it the way YOU ‘feel it.’” I heard her do that numerous times. She would stand up to her peers as well as her students. That was a side of Mildred Andrews that I prefer not to think of. But, as a teacher, she was devoted and determined in every way.

LM: We keep getting sidetracked by all these hair-raising stories! Can we go back and talk about your days as a student at University of Michigan and your time with Marilyn Mason?
RT
: I loved being with Marilyn Mason—dearly loved her. I had and still hold the greatest admiration for her. She was very good to me at all times and in all ways. Jim Bain was close to her, too. The three of us used to have our own little parties together. He and I called her “The Madame.” One morning, at an unthinkably early hour, we knew she was going to be leaving from the Detroit airport to play a recital, so we got ourselves up and to the airport and waited for her arrival so we could surprise her, which we did, and had a little party right there at the gate, then saw her off.
One year Marilyn arranged for Leo Sowerby to visit for an organ conference. He had been teaching at a summer camp in Put-in-Bay, across from Port Clinton. We had two days of recitals scheduled at Hill Auditorium, one of which included Marilyn playing his Pageant. We drove down to Port Clinton and took a little commuter plane over to the island to pick him up. The plane looked as if it could fall apart at any moment. Marilyn got in, looked around, and made the sign of the cross. We drove Sowerby up to Ann Arbor and had a dinner with martinis at my apartment in Huron Towers. Marilyn made lasagna at her house and brought it over. After we had had sufficient martinis, Sowerby told us about a nun who had been taking composition lessons with him. She brought in the exposition of her composition to him, and it had a series of parallel fifths in it. He explained to her that, in the style she was writing, parallel fifths were not appropriate any more than in music of the 18th century, and they should be rewritten and corrected. When she came back the next week for her lesson, she had added more to it but had done nothing to correct the parallel fifths. He pointed them out again and tried to explain to her more clearly why they needed to be changed, asking her to please correct them. She came back the third week, and the composition had been extended further, but nothing had been done about the parallel fifths. Sowerby became impatient and spoke to her about it, whereupon she burst out, “Dr. Sowerby, I don’t care anything about your [language unbefitting a nun deleted] parallel fifths,” and walked out!

LM: Was he laughing when he told that?
RT
: No. He said it matter-of-factly.

LM: When did you come to Wichita?
RT
: In the spring of ’65, the dean of Wichita State University asked the dean of Michigan’s school of music, James Wallace, for a recommendation for an organist. I was ready for a break from school, so applied for the job, and was asked to come to Chicago, to the Sherman House Hotel, for an interview with the dean. We spoke for about an hour, and it was a very pleasant conversation. He built the school of music here—Walter J. Duerksen. As we wound down, we shook hands, and he very nicely said, “I can’t say for sure, but I feel nearly sure you are going to be the choice. You will hear from us within a couple of days.” Sure enough, his secretary sent me a contract. I was twenty-seven, and ready to get out on my own and make a living, although I did plan to finish my degree at Michigan in summer sessions.
My first fall here, I had seventeen students: six were master’s students, and I inherited a graduate teaching assistant and five beginners, and had a graduate organ class, plus two undergraduate classes. That next summer, I had so many students wanting to continue lessons that I felt duty-bound to stay here and teach. I ended up teaching every summer session, with the exception of 1969, until the 1990s, and never went back to Michigan to complete my degree.
When I came here, there were two organs on campus—a seven-rank Möller, and the Casavant in the chapel. An eight-rank Reuter was added in 1970.

LM: Was there any talk of a concert instrument at that time?
RT
: No. However, it soon became apparent that we needed one. During a period of ten to twelve years beginning in the 1970s, we had numerous finalists and winners of prestigious national competitions. Two students won Fulbrights. University administrators realized there should be some place for these people to play on campus other than the chapel. The Dean of Students, Jim Rhadigan, said to me one day, “We’ve got to have a new organ and a new hall for these kids!” and an organ recital hall was soon added to a list of university capital needs.
At this point, I should introduce Gladys Wiedemann, one of Wichita’s leading philanthropists. She belonged to a club called “Mink or Sink,” obviously for wealthy ladies, and belonged to another club called “The Organaires.” The Organaires had about twenty members who were wealthy dowagers with electronic organs in their homes. They met monthly at a different member’s home, and everyone in attendance had to sit down at that particular organ and render a selection following a very extravagant lunch. Mrs. Wiedemann had a concert-model Hammond in her home.
In 1973, the organ students and I decided to sponsor the Gleasons in a summer workshop and recital. We took out an ad in the AGO magazine, which was called “MUSIC” at that time, and I started calling people for contributions for Catharine’s recital fee. Some friends in town suggested I call Gladys Wiedemann. So, I got up the nerve and called her. Right away, she said, “Well, would $100 help you out?” The following year we sponsored Marilyn Mason, and she gave another $100. Two months later, I received a letter from Mrs. Wiedemann saying she was going to have a Christmas party for the Organaires at the Wichita Country Club, and wanted to know if I would play a program for her party on an appropriate electronic. In gratitude for what she had already done for us, I wrote back to her immediately that I would be happy to play the program gratis. We went to dinner to discuss the details of this party for the Organaires, and that was the beginning of our friendship.
I played for her party, and she invited officials from the university. She also hired a dance band, Doris Bus and Her Dance Band, and Mrs. Wiedemann danced up a storm. The next day, she called the head of the endowment association at the university, and told him she would like to make a contribution to the university. He suggested she establish an organ scholarship, and that was exactly what she wanted to hear.
In 1979, an organ recital hall was added to the long list of capital needs for the university. By 1981, it was on a priority list of five years. I thought I should acquaint myself with all the organ builders in order to be prepared to make a serious recommendation, so in the summer of 1981 I went on a European organ study tour led by Earl Miller. We visited organs in the Netherlands, and I saw and heard a Marcussen organ at St. Laurance Church in Rotterdam, where there are three Marcussens. Larry Phelps had been telling me all along, “Marcussen is the only way to go.” The following summer, I returned to hear other instruments and went to Freiburg Cathedral for a recital. The Marcussen there, in the “swallow’s nest,” is only two manuals, but we all agreed that night if we could get an organ even half as good, we wanted it. That recital was the defining moment.
Gladys Wiedemann was a woman of unimpeachable integrity. She discussed money and business matters with me as long as they did not concern me. Very rarely, however, did she mention the purchase of an organ. But, when she encountered the president of the university at social functions, she would tell him she was going to do her part when there was a building to put it in. And she considered her “part” to be one-fifth of the cost of the organ, $100,000, with four other donors giving a like amount.
The central administration asked me for a report on my students for a proposal to be submitted to Mrs. Wiedemann. As March neared in 1983, I learned the president was going to meet with Mrs. Wiedemann in her Florida home to propose that she donate $500,000 for the organ. They got along well in business matters, and I felt very comfortable letting him meet her. She had already made sizable contributions to the university through him. Unfortunately, the meeting did not go well, and he came back without an agreement for more than the $100,000 she had initially offered. So he asked me to meet with her over spring break, which put me in a very uncomfortable position.
Mrs. Wiedemann received me warmly, as if she were glad to see me. I had been fretting on the plane down and all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday about how I was going to bring up the subject of the organ. After dinner, she rounded the corner from the dining room to the living room and, with a decidedly unpleasant look on her face and the proposal in her hand, said, “Well, I suppose while you’re here you’ll want to talk something about this organ.” I was not prepared for her to bring it up, so had not prepared a response. All I could think of was, “Well, I would like to tell you something about the builder we have in mind.” She said, “Oh?” in an immediately relaxed and interested way. I did not say a thing about money, or her part in it. She sat down visibly relaxed and said, “Tell me something about these people.”
She did seem interested in what I had to say about Marcussen, and at one point she said, “Maybe I could give an organ sometime, to my church or even to WSU,” then, “Maybe I should make a trip over and see where these organs are built sometime,” and, finally, “You know, in two weeks I’ll be back in Wichita. Would you be willing to come to my house and meet with my financial advisor and tell him everything you have just told me?”
The next month, Mrs. Wiedemann called to schedule a meeting. The last student I had that day was a devout Catholic, and she brought me a scapular and told me to put it in my pocket, saying it would help. I still have it. I was received nicely and I made my pitch for the Marcussen organ. Her financial advisor seemed interested, as did she. We were in session for two hours. As the advisor got up to leave, she said to him, very upbeat, “Well, are we going to be able to do it?” Not wanting to say anything in front of me, he replied, “I will be back on Friday, and we can discuss this and other matters at that time.” She said, “Gee, I hope so!” As soon as he was out the door, she said, “You know, you make a good presentation. You ought to be the dean.”
When she finally called me the next Tuesday, she was very foxy. Supposedly she had called to talk about humorous little things that had happened at one of her clubs. After a few minutes, she said, “Well, you have to be on your way to teach, so I’ll get off the phone. We’ll talk another time.” And, just as I was about to put down the phone, she said, “OH! Yes, by the way, I suppose I should tell you I have just called up Clark Ahlberg (WSU president) and asked him to write up a pledge for $500,000 for the organ.”
At the end of the school year, I went to Denmark to visit Marcussen, and we talked about the stoplist, which had already been in the works for two years. My most notable advisor through its design was Lawrence Phelps.
After several hair-raising setbacks, we signed the contract for the organ in December of ’83, when everything seemed like it was on solid ground, until October of ’84, when the contractors’ bids on the building came in, and every one of them, even the lowest bid, exceeded the amount of money we had to spend on the building by over $100,000. I attended the meeting, and there wasn’t one of them that was even in sight of the money we had.
From 1934 to ’54, a wonderful man by the name of Sam Bloomfield and his wife lived in Wichita. He was the first airplane builder in Wichita, which is now known as the air capital of the world, and had countless patents on aeronautical devices he invented, as well as other inventions. The Bloomfields moved to California in 1954. They had been very active in the arts in Wichita, and our dean, Gordon Terwilliger, had known them both personally. So, he called up Rie Bloomfield (her name was Henrietta) and explained that the hall was in jeopardy. The good Mrs. Bloomfield came through with $150,000, which put us over the top. Construction on the hall was begun in December of ’84, and the organ was declared finished on July 9, 1986. A 5-rank Phelps practice organ was installed in my new studio.
For the inaugural series, we had Gillian Weir, Dennis Bergin, François-Henri Houbart, and Catharine Crozier, and I gave the last one in April, 1987. President Ahlberg named the hall for Gladys Wiedemann, and at the dedication ceremony for the hall and organ, she was so overcome with emotion that she just sat there and wept before the ceremony ever began. The following season I was allowed $3,000 for the University Organ Series, as it was called. It did not go very far, but we had Madame Duruflé in 1992, and Olivier Latry in 1993.
In 1994 the aforementioned Rie Bloomfield endowed the organ series in her name, which has allowed me to have four to five major recitals per season. Catharine Crozier recorded the Rorem works in 1988, and inquired about playing a vespers series here. She played again in 1989, and weekly vespers recitals in 1993, ’97, and ’99. She recorded works by Franck for Delos in 1997. The Marcussen organ here became her favorite, and she said there was not one organ in Europe or in the United States that she liked better. In twenty years, most of the world’s major organists have performed here, and many have remarked about this marvelous instrument. After forty-one years of teaching, I played a final series of vespers recitals in March, 2006, and a Robert Town Finale recital in May. The organ professorship became an endowed faculty of distinction chair in my honor in 2005.

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

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

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

 

Stephen Buzard

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

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

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

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

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

 

Alcee Chriss

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

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

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

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

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

 

Kipp Cortez

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

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

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

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

 

Monica Czausz

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

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

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

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

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

 

Trevor Dodd

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

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

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

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

 

 Joey Fala

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Thomas Gaynor

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Wesley Hall

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

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

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

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

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

 

Michael Hey

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

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

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

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

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

 

Amanda Mole

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Adam Pajan

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

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

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

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

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

 

Nathaniel Riggle

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

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

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

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

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

 

Caroline Robinson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Jonathan Rudy

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

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

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

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

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

 

Patrick A. Scott

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

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

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

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

 

Thomas Sheehan

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

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

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

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

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

 

Wyatt Smith

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

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

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

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

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

 

Jacob Street

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

David von Behren

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

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

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

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

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

 

Gregory Zelek

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

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

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

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

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

 

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