Masterclass on Organ Improvisation

One of today’s leading concert organists and improvisateurs, Thierry Escaich coaches class participants on the art of organ improvisation in an open-lesson format.

Thierry Escaich

Internationally renowned composer, organist, and improviser Thierry Escaich is a major figure on the contemporary musical scene. Born in 1965, he has been organist at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris since 1997, having succeeded Maurice Duruflé. He appears in recitals the world over and is known for combining works in the standard organ repertoire with his own compositions and improvisations. Having previously served as composer-in-residence with the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne, and the Orchestre National de Lyon, he is currently associate composer with the Paris Chamber Orchestra. His composition catalogue boasts more than one hundred works that have been performed by leading international orchestras and artists, and he has been honored with three Victoires de la Musique awards as Composer of the Year (2003, 2006, 2011). Since 1992, he taught composition and improvisation at the Paris Conservatoire, where, as a student, he earned Premier Prix.

Church Concert Series: A How-To Guide

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Are you establishing a concert series in your church or producing a single concert, or has your existing series been in a slump and you need new ideas? Learn proven strategies for success in this workshop, which addresses: artistic programming; ticket sales; writing musician contracts; printing programs; hosting pre- and post-concert receptions; marketing and free advertising via social media and networking; CD and media sales; fundraising; and, finally, how to attract as large an audience as possible.

Brian Bogdanowitz

Brian Bogdanowitz has been a musician since the age of twelve, studying organ, piano, electronic music, and voice. He has been music director for churches of many denominations. He is a composer, arranger, accompanist, and an accomplished theater organist. He also writes scores for silent movies. He has three CDs and a DVD to his credit, some published works on the way, and a mass written for the Catholic Church using the new text. He taught elementary through high school music for fifteen years. He has appeared on public television many times playing the theater organ; he has his FCC license, had his own radio show, and has been a champion of the organ all his life. He has directed community theater musical productions, and instituted successful concert series in the churches at which he has been employed.

To MIDI or not to MIDI

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Learn about the latest MIDI advancements from a true pioneer in the field, focusing on three important aspects of MIDI: 1) organ voices; 2) non-organ voices; and 3) sequences.

Robert Tall

Robert Tall has devoted most of his life to music. Advanced studies at the University of Utah culminated in 1967 with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in music and psychology. He has been a member of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Guild of Organists since 1984, holding many positions, including dean, and was convention coordinator for the Guild’s 2004 national convention in Los Angeles. On the national level, he served as director of the Guild’s Committee on National Conventions. Since 1984, he has worked in various capacities to help create and develop digital systems that allow MIDI to communicate with classical organs. He calls the classical MIDI organ “The Modern Organ,” for which he has composed, arranged, and recorded music. He is a true pioneer in the field. His performances and lectures are highly entertaining. He enjoys sharing the magic!

Writing Grant Applications to State Arts & Humanities Councils

AGO Chapters and Conventions always need money for programs. Often untapped are grants from state and local Arts & Humanities Councils. This workshop demonstrates how to write grant applications to these agencies in order to fund concerts, workshops, and speakers.

Clavert Johnson

Calvert Johnson has performed in Japan, Mexico, and throughout the United States and Europe. He is known for performing music by underrepresented composers and early music. He has recorded for Albany, Calcante, and Raven. Hildegard, Vivace Press, ClarNan, and Wayne Leupold Editions are his publishers. Author of acclaimed volumes of Historic Organ Performance Practices (Spain, Italy, England, and the Netherlands), He has performed and lectured at many colleges and American Guild of Organists chapters. He has served as the Guild’s treasurer and dean of the Atlanta and Tulsa chapters. He has also served as president, Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society; chair of the board, ArtReach Foundation; and chair, Committee on Cultural Inclusion, College Music Society. He has successfully written grant applications in support of these organizations.

How to Pass the AGO Service Playing and Colleague Exams

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Explore the most common barriers to success on the AGO Service Playing and Colleague Exams, in a workshop led by a member of the AGO National Committee on Professional Certification. This workshop is appropriate for organists preparing for their first AGO certificate and for those who have taken exams and wish to perfect their scores next time around. Topics include practical approaches to study and preparation. Recorded examples from actual exams are used to demonstrate commonly heard misunderstandings or errors, and to illustrate successful results. Additional topics include keyboard harmony, transposition, and improvisation skills, as well as some basic tactics for proficiency in hymn playing and anthem accompaniment.

Andrew Scanlon

Andrew Scanlon, FAGO, is an organ professor at East Carolina University. He is organist-choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Greenville, and artistic director of the East Carolina Musical Arts Education Foundation. He previously taught organ at Duquesne University, and has held positions at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, Buffalo; Christ & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, New York; and Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School. He has performed at national conventions of both the American Guild of Organists and Organ Historical Society, and throughout the United States and in Canada, England, Italy, France, Germany, and Croatia. He has been a faculty member for three Pipe Organ Encounters, and serves on both the National Board of Examiners and the National Committee on Professional Certification of the Guild. He holds degrees from Duquesne University and Yale University. His principal teachers have been John Skelton, Ann Labounsky, David Craighead, John Walker, and Thomas Murray.

Teaching Organ Techniques in a Holistic Manner

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How can we best prepare our students to play a vast body of organ repertoire with healthy and effective technique? This workshop seeks to answer this question by offering resources and strategies for teaching organ technique in a holistic manner. Learn methods and pedagogical tools from the current technique curriculum used at the Eastman School of Music. Topics include body wellness, use of dynamic instruments to reinforce organ practice, and ways to teach an historically appropriate technique. While this session uses a collegiate curriculum as a model, the basic concepts can be adapted for teaching students at all levels.

Anne Laver

Prizewinning organist Annie Laver has performed throughout Europe and the United States. She has been recognized with a number of awards, including second prize in the 2010 American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance. She holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (M.M. and DMA, Organ Performance) and Brown University (B.A.). She has studied with Hans Davidsson, David Higgs, and William Porter (Eastman); Jacques van Oortmerssen (Conservatory of Amsterdam); and Mark Steinbach (Brown University). She is an instructor at the Eastman School of Music, where she teaches organ literature for graduate organ majors and healthy keyboard technique for all incoming organ students. Her current research interests focus on historical programming trends in nineteenth-century America. She is music director at two historic city churches in Rochester, The Church of St. Luke and St. Simon Cyrene (Episcopal), and St. Michael’s Church (Roman Catholic).

Church Music in Finland

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Finland, a North European country of 5.5 million inhabitants, boasts high-quality church music of considerable variety, especially considering the country’s size. Nearly 80% of the Finnish people are members of the Lutheran church, and the number of church music enthusiasts is growing. This presentation gives a general overview of Finnish church music: the profession and the education of cantors, organ building, music activity in congregations, concerts, compositions, and church music for children. It also explores why the Finnish music scene has produced significant international composers, conductors, singers, and other musicians throughout its history.

Timo Kiiskinen

 Timo Kiiskinen (b. 1960), doctor of music, works as an organ and church music lecturer at Sibelius-Academy, Helsinki, Finland. Before this position, he worked for nearly twenty years as a cantor in several congregations. He has enjoyed a career in many fields: organ, improvisation, singing, choral music, education, composing, etc. In his artistic work, he now concentrates on making music with his baroque ensemble, Galantina (www.galantina.info).

Wilhelm Middelschulte: His Life and Works

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Brink Bush

Brink Bush is a leading interpreter of German Romantic organ music. He has performed throughout the United States and Europe, and made his German debut at the Berliner Dom in 2001. He has performed and studied the organ works of the German-American composer Wilhelm Middelschulte (1863–1943), and given his lecture, Wilhelm Middelschulte: His Life and Works, at Yale University, the University of Iowa, and the 2006 national convention of the American Guild of Organists. He was featured on American Public Media’s Pipedreams in a program titled Bach, Bush and Middelschulte. His New York debut was at Trinity Church Wall Street during the Virgil Fox Legacy Twenty-fifth Anniversary Concert Weekend. He is the editor of The Innermost Secrets by T. Ernest Nichols, a book about the performance technique of the late great Virgil Fox. He currently serves as organist-director of music at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Beverly Farms, Massachusetts.

Thomas Richner: Organist, Pianist, Teacher, and Composer

Few organists are as versatile as organist and pianist as was Thomas Richner (1911–2008). As a winner of the Naumburg Competition in 1940, he embarked on a career as a concert pianist. He taught at Columbia University and Rutgers. The New York Times hailed him as “a born Mozart player.” Largely self-taught as an organist, he was, for twenty-two years, the organist of The First Church of Christ, Scientist (The Mother Church), in Boston, and toured as an organist and pianist under Truckenbrod management. The presentation gives details of Richner’s life and a list of his compositions and recordings.

Neal Campbell

Neal Campbell has been director of music and organist of Saint Luke’s Parish in Darien, Connecticut, since 2006. Prior to that, he held church, college, and synagogue positions in Washington, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. He grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended the University of Maryland, studying with William Watkins and Paul Callaway. In 1996, he earned Doctor of Musical Arts at Manhattan School of Music, for which he wrote a dissertation on the life and works of the New York composer-organist Harold Friedell. He is a member of the New York City and Fairfield West chapters of the American Guild of Organists, and is the newsletter editor for the New York City chapter. From 2000 through 2006, he served three terms on the Guild’s national council, representing Region III.

The Lost Organ Temperaments of the Renaissance, 1400–1600

Two families of temperaments, lost until now, were predominant in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Meantone has been incorrectly viewed as the temperament in use in those centuries; it came into use later than previously thought. Widespread use of the lost temperaments is supported by both treatises and physical evidence, which indicate that they had pure thirds, and notably that the tempering was unevenly concentrated to favor the organization of the Church modes. These temperaments, together with tonal design characteristics of Renaissance organs, enhanced the now-lost practice of playing sacred vocal music on the organ.

Adam Rahbee

Adam Rahbee (b. 1976) studied organ and clavichord with Peter Sykes from an early age. He served as a board member of the Boston Clavichord Society, and has performed on clavichord at the Boston Early Music Festival and in a masterclass with Christopher Hogwood. He holds degrees in civil engineering from Northeastern University and from the Center for Transportation Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has worked in public transit authorities in Boston, New York, Chicago, and London, and has authored and co-authored numerous publications in that field. Scholar Mark Lindley tutored Mr. Rahbee in the mathematics of temperament. Mr. Rahbee has since prepared an extensive review of original sources on temperament from 1400 through the Baroque period. In conjunction with this research, he has begun to revive the practice of playing Renaissance vocal polyphony directly on the organ.