The Ruth and Clarence Mader Memorial Scholarship Fund has announced that grants for research related to organs and organ music have been awarded to Ronald Ebrecht and Stephen J. Warner.
Ronald Ebrecht, Wesleyan University Organist, whose 30 years’ interest in the work of Cavaillé-Coll has included study of and performance on the builder’s most important instruments, has re-ceived a research grant to support his investigation of the “masterpiece manqué” planned for St. Peter’s, Rome. His forthcoming book will discuss that project in the context of a late nineteenth-century trend to build the world’s largest organ: “Bigger Than Them All: Cavaillé-Coll and the project for St. Peter’s Monumental Organ.”
Stephen Warner is organist at Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church in Detroit and a staff organist at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. He graduates this spring from the University of Michigan with a dual bachelor’s degree in organ performance and in mechanical engineering; he has studied organ primarily with James Kibbie.
Mr. Warner’s research project is to create a document celebrating the 1926 E.M. Skinner Opus 475 organ at Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church, Detroit, which is in virtually original condition. The intended document, started as a research project for the College of Engineering, will serve as a case study for early 20th-century organ construction methods and as a souvenir for the members and visitors of the church.
