Learning Techniques for a Lifetime of Music-Making

Handout

If juggling several jobs is jangling your nerves, this workshop is designed for you. It provides an opportunity celebrate the many skills you already have, reflect upon the roadblocks to your progress, and develop a personal plan for overcoming them. Making-music is an occupation that can be filled with joy and a sense of personal satisfaction. Find out how you can use your job to enhance the quality of your entire life.

Christopher Cook

Christopher Cook, DMA, serves as director of worship, music and the arts at Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California. In addition to holding a Bachelor of Music in organ performance from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a Doctor of Worship Study from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies in Jacksonville, Florida, he earned the California state license in Oriental Medicine/Acupuncture. He has gained a wide following through his workshops, Self-Care for the Organist and The Zen of Liturgy, teaching the use of holistic medicine as a means of enhance music performance. He is currently developing an online support group entitled Fellowship of Christian Artists.

A Golden Age: The Music of the Boston Classicists

Handout

In the early 1900s, Boston was the home of many of the most prominent American composers, including Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Horatio Parker, and others. Their organ and choral music was widely performed, and Foote later remembered their time as a golden age, when music was perceived as an uplifting intellectual, moral, and spiritual force, and Boston was known as “the Athens of America”. This workshop introduces the organ and choral works of these composers, set against the cultural milieu of the era.

Harold Stover

Organist and composer Harold Stover has written on American organ music and organs for The American Organist, The Diapason, The Tracker, and other journals, and has recorded American organ music for Albany and Table Eight records. He is a native of Latrobe, Pennsylvania; a graduate of The Julliard School; and a resident of Hollis Center, Maine.

“When You Know the Notes to Sing”: Teaching Music-Reading Skills to the Amateur Church Choir

This workshop generously sponsored by the New Haven Chapter of the AGO

In this workshop, church music directors learn techniques to develop their choirs’ music-reading skills. The workshop begins with a brief, accessible lecture on how we process information when we read music, based upon music cognition studies. The vast majority of the workshop is a hands-on demonstration of rehearsal techniques and exercises that contribute to improved sight-reading. The workshop leader talks through the pedagogical value of these techniques and exercises, and then demonstrates them in practice by leading sections of mock choir rehearsals; attendees act as choristers in these rehearsals. The workshop concludes with a question-and-answer session.

Scott Perkins

Connecticut native Scott Perkins enjoys a multifaceted career as an international prizewinning composer, a versatile performer, an award-winning scholar, and a music educator. His critically acclaimed music spans numerous genres and styles and has been performed throughout North America and Europe. Augsburg Fortress and Encore Music Creations publish his music. He has concertized as a tenor throughout the United States and abroad, performed with many professional ensembles as both a vocalist and a conductor, and is a featured soloist on recordings produced by Bridge Records and Loft Recordings. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in composition and master’s degrees in music theory and music theory pedagogy at the Eastman School of Music. He is on faculty at DePauw University, where he teaches courses in composition, music theory, musicianship, and orchestration. He has previously taught at Central Connecticut State University, Nazareth College, and the Interlochen Summer Arts Academy.

Introduction to Jewish Music and Chant

This workshop introduces some of the varied traditions in Jewish music and chant. It
includes both modern and ancient melodies, sacred and secular, prescribed and
free, accompanied and a cappella, Hebrew and English (and maybe Yiddish),
attempting to portray the wide spectrum of music in the Jewish community.

Daniel Rosensweig

Daniel Rosensweig is a Boston-based vocalist, pianist, music educator, and beginning organist. He currently sings with the Labyrinth Choir, Cantata Singers, All Saints Ashmont Choir of Men and Boys, and Night Song; has a private voice studio; teaches music composition in Boston Public Schools through Cantata Singers’ Classroom Cantatas program; and is High Holy Days cantorial soloist at Temple Bnai Israel in Willimantic, Connecticut. He grew up immersed in Jewish music at Temple Emanuel in Andover, Massachusetts, where his father was cantor for twenty-five years. He began studying piano privately in 1991, and voice in 2000, and completed his Bachelor of Arts in music at Williams College in 2008. His musical interests range from Renaissance and early music through jazz and world music, both sacred and secular. He is excited about the new musical possibilities available by blending aspects of disparate genres. He enjoys hiking mountains, running, contradancing, cooking, reading, and working with children.

Organ Articulation, Part I: Freeform vs. Structured Articulation

This is the first of a pair of back-to-back workshops on organ articulation, or “the space between the notes”. Part one demonstrates how varied articulation, when determined in response to other salient musical elements, can define both a composer’s style and an organist’s style with compelling results. Part two (at 9:45 a.m.) covers how to notate articulation in musical scores and the presenter’s own guidelines for interactive participation. It also includes a demonstration, using the work of J.S. Bach, of the effects of applying grammar-like rules to articulation.

Fred Hohman

Frederick Hohman, an American organist based in greater Chicago, has toured internationally as a concert organist since 1984, is presently one of the most viewed of organists on YouTube, and is in demand as a recording and music video producer with the Pro Organo label. With the recent publication of his music scores and instructional articles, he is gaining attention as a composer and organ pedagogue. He earned the Performer’s Certificate, Bachelor and Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts in the organ class of David Craighead at the Eastman School of Music between 1974 and 1990. In 1984, he won First Prize in both the Clarence Mader and Arthur Poister organ playing competitions. He has performed at American Guild of Organists regional and national conventions, and currently serves as a co-director of the Guild’s Committee on Continuing Professional Education. His musical life is chronicled at www.frederickhohman.net.

Flor Peeters and the American Organist

Flor Peeters—teacher, composer, and mentor to many American organists—was highly regarded for his international masterclasses and liturgical compositions, including the largest published collection of organ chorales to date. He and his students, including composers Paul Manz, Kathleen Thomerson, and Charles Callahan, can trace their musical lineage back to J.S. Bach. Peeters’ dedication to the organ is evident from his nearly seventy-year tenure at St. Rombout’s Cathedral in Mechelen, Belgium, the site of his international masterclasses. Join us as we explore a wealth of important compositions every organist should know.

Linda Patterson

Linda Patterson, DMA, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ performance from the University of Houston. Her teachers included Don Ryno, Seth Wertz, Dr. Marilyn Mason, and Dr. Robert J. Jones. She received Belgian fellowships for Flor Peeters’ International Masterclass and his Memorial Masterclass and Competition. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts in organ performance, sacred music emphasis, from the University of Texas, Austin, studying with Drs. Gerre and Judith Hancock. A member of the Association of Anglican Musicians, she has served as organist/music director of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Brenham, Texas since 1994. She leads Youth and Adult Choirs and administers a recital series. She has chaired the Episcopal Diocese of Texas Music Commission since 2003. A teacher, accompanist, and organist, she has performed, taught, and accompanied for national and regional gatherings. The mother of three, she lives in Round Top, Texas with her husband and youngest daughter.

Know Your Instrument – A Little Better

Handout

What’s going on in there, anyway? Because of the size, complexity, and rather stationary nature of the pipe organ, among musicians of all stripes, organists are perhaps the least aware of what makes their instrument make music. This workshop briefly covers the history and structure of the pipe organ, the various key actions, and the instrument’s most common problems. It also addresses the pipes and tuning, the importance of environment, and general care of the organ. Finally, how to call your organ technician for routine care and for that dreaded emergency.

David Wallace

David E. Wallace apprenticed in pipe organ restoration with the Andover Organ Company of Lawrence, Massachusetts. He received his early musical training in piano and organ from Eleanor Wallace, John Fay, and Stewart Shuster. After completing college, a graduate degree, and a career as a language translator in two languages for the U.S. Air Force, he founded David E. Wallace & Company Pipe Organ Builders, a pipe organ service company in southern Maine. The company has grown and specializes primarily in the restoration and renovation of historic mechanical action instruments, as well as the construction of new mechanical action pipe organs. Mr. Wallace has authored numerous articles for organ journals and magazines on pipe organ restoration and on several specific instruments, including Portland’s historic Kotzschmar Memorial Organ.

Gregorian Chant: Bridge-builder to Ecumenism

Gregorian chant was the musical lingua franca of Western Christian worship for the first 1500 years of Christendom. Even after the Reformation, chant continued to make its presence known in music composed for Protestant worship. This paper examines examples of chant-embedded music, as well as examples of Gregorian chant present in all current Protestant hymnals, as evidence of a mutually shared musical heritage.

Armand Di Scenna

Armand Di Scenna received a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Oberlin College, a Bachelor of Arts in music from the Crane School of Music, and a Master of Arts in music history from the State University at Buffalo. His organ teachers have included James Autenrith, David Enos, Dr. David Fuller, Roland Martin, and Allison Evans Henry. In 2002, he was hired as Director of the Syracuse Diocesan Office of Liturgy and Music. He has offered numerous workshops on the practice of Gregorian chant in the service of worship, and has taught a course in chant at SUNY Oswego through the auspices of Dr. Karen Nicholas, chair of the school’s Medieval and Renaissance Studies Department. He has also taught music history at SUNY Oswego, as well as Italian at LeMoyne College in Syracuse. He is currently music director and organist at historic St. Mary’s Church in Cortland, New York.

Christoph Graupner and the Baroque Church Cantata

Christoph Graupner (1683–1760) was one of the best-known composers in Baroque Germany, eclipsing the contemporary fame of J.S. Bach. There are 1,418 extant church cantatas of his housed in Darmstadt’s Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek, the vast majority of which have never been published. This session assesses Graupner’s contribution to the genre by examining the fifty-five surviving Christmastide cantatas. The Christmas feast days in Darmstadt provide a balanced study because of the inclusiveness of penitential as well as joyous themes. A session includes a brief survey of Graupner’s life and examples from his cantatas, including recordings.

René Schmidt

René Schmidt received his Bachelor of Arts from Luther College, and his master’s degree in organ and harpsichord from Southern Methodist University, where he studied under Bob Anderson and Larry Palmer. His Doctor of Philosophy in musicology is from the University of North Texas. He is organist/choirmaster at Christ Church Episcopal in Dallas, teaches at Dealey Academy, and has taught at the Anglican School of Theology in Dallas. He has performed with the Orchestra of New Spain and the Dallas Chamber Orchestra. He is president of the Dallas Music Educators Association and has served as director of the Dallas AGO chapter’s Recital Series and Educational Projects. An avid preservationist, he is president of the Junius Heights Historic District in Dallas, the largest collection in the Southwest of houses built in the arts and crafts style.

Mozart’s Fantasie, K. 608 and its Performance: Beyond the Spieluhr

Do organists who perform Mozart’s Fantasie, K. 608 know how it sounded on the mechanical clock (Spieluhr), for which it was written? Would you like to hear it? Do we understand Mozart’s attitude toward this automaton? This paper gives the surprising answers to these and more questions. Because of their limited original medium, Mozart’s works for Spieluhr were always transcribed for other instruments: four-hand piano, string quartet, even orchestra. Indeed, K. 608 as written is physically impossible to perform on one instrument. Nevertheless, there are reasons—musical, historical, and practical—it is most appropriate for the organ.

Jane Hettrick

Jane Schatkin Hettrick, professor emeritus, Rider University, has edited the masses, symphonies, and organ concerto of Antonio Salieri, and music by numerous other eighteenth-century composers (published by A-R Editions, Doblinger, Garland, Hildegard, Vivace, and Denkmäler der Tonkunst, Österreich). She holds a DMA in organ from the University of Michigan and studied under a Fulbright scholarship with Anton Heiller in Vienna. She has written extensively on liturgical music, with articles and reviews in The American Organist, Fontes Artis Musicae, Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, Gottesdienst, Sacred Music, Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, The Diapason, The New Grove Dictionary, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, and other journals and books. A practicing church musician, she was an editor of the hymnal Lutheran Worship. Specializing in the Baroque organ repertoire, she recently performed Mozart’s K. 608 for an international conference of the Mozart Society of America.