Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911): Aspects of Life and Work

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One of the greatest Parisian organist-composers of the Belle Époque, Alexandre Guilmant exercised considerable influence as a musician. This presentation includes a wealth of photos, documents, and anecdotes about Guilmant, in particular about his three concert tours to the United States, and an overview of Guilmant’s life and work as organist at La Trinité in Paris, a much sought-after teacher of Europeans and Americans, co-founder of the Schola Cantorum, Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire, and President of New York’s Guilmant Organ School.

Hans Hielscher

Hans U. Hielscher has been organist at the Marktkirche in Wiesbaden, Germany, since 1979. He studied at the Detmold State Academy of Music and in Paris/Rouen, France. His organ concert tours have taken him to all European countries, the United States (fifty-two tours), the Bahamas, Israel, Iceland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bangkok. He has been featured on radio and television broadcasts, twenty-two CD recordings on the Motette, Wergo, IFO, and Lade labels, and is the author of the books Alexandre Guilmant: Life and Work, Famous Organs in the U.S.A., and The Organ of Wiesbaden Marktkirche. He is a published composer of some fifty works for organ. He has been honoured by the French government in Paris for his worldwide engagement in French organ music and nominated Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1985.

Beginning a Children’s Choir in Your Church or Community

One of the most wonderful gifts we can give young people is the opportunity to experience the joy of singing in a choir. In addition to exposing children to the finest choral music, and fostering their love of singing so that they will become singers for life, choral singing builds confidence, encourages teamwork, and helps children make a valuable contribution to worship by sharing their music in performance. This presentation addresses recruitment, rehearsal techniques, vocal exercises, repertoire selection, service/concert programming, organizational management, and educational resources.

Tamara Rozek

Tamara Rozek is artistic director of the Sandpipers Seacoast Children’s Chorus, an auditioned treble chorus for ages seven through fifteen, widely recognized in the New Hampshire Seacoast Area for the performance and educational opportunities it provides. She is director of music ministry at Middle Street Baptist Church in Portsmouth, and has given organ recitals in the New Hampshire Seacoast Area, Boston, and Sydney, Australia. She holds a bachelor’s and masters in performance from the University of New Hampshire, studying organ with John Skelton, harpsichord with Peter Watchorn, and voice with Kathleen Wilson Spillane. She continued post-graduate keyboard studies with Peter Sykes and Amy Johansen, and singing and vocal pedagogy with Nancy Armstrong. She has sung with the Seraphim Singers and Boston Bach, is a teacher for the Young Organist Collaborative in New Hampshire, and has a private studio in piano, organ, and voice.

Vocal Hints for Healthful Choral Singing

Choir members must sight-read new music, sing in foreign languages, fit text to rhythmic passages, sing in tune, and listen for balance within their own section, as well as within the entire choir. Give them the opportunity to focus on the act of singing—thinking about just their instrument itself—affording the building of good vocal habits that are then incorporated into the rehearsal setting. Learn new vocal warm-ups, descriptors, gestures, facial expressions, and more that aid singing with less tension and more consistent vocal quality, resulting in finer music making. 

Kathy Grammer

Kathleen Grammer has experience as a teacher, musician, conductor, and arts administrator. She taught public school music, K–12, and private voice at community music schools and colleges, including Westminster Conservatory, Wilmington Music School, Trenton State College, Muhlenberg College, and the University of Southern Maine. She was alto soloist for more than ten years at St. Thomas Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, a member of the professional Ensemble Singers of VocalEssence, and a guest soloist, and performed in solo recital. She has conducted workshops for church choirs in New Jersey and Maine, and conducted high school, church, and community choirs and ensembles. Today, she is executive director of Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ and maintains a teaching studio in Scarborough, Maine. She holds a Master of Music from Westminster Choir College and a Bachelor of Music from Heidelberg College, and is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and Chorus America.

Voluntaries Rediscovered

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Much glorious repertoire has gone “out of fashion” over the years, but a current renewal of interest in voluntaries, particularly from the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century English school reveals repertoire that is both beautiful and relevant today. This workshop offers suggestions for preludes and postludes, drawn from a wide spectrum of the standard repertoire, that may have been forgotten over the latter half of the twentieth century.

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.

The Complete Organ Music of Nicholas de Grigny

Nicholas de Grigny (1672–1703) left behind only a single volume of organ music, his Premier livre d’orgue, presented here in a new, critical urtext edition. The music has been edited by Wayne Leupold, who has, in concert with Sean Redrow, compiled the editorial report. This critical commentary not only discusses differences between the 1699 edition and the Bach and Walther handwritten copies, but also French Classic organ registration practices, rhythm, and ornamentation, as contributed by Sean Redrow. Sandra Soderlund wrote part two of the preface, addressing French Classic fingering practices and dance rhythms. John D.B. Hamilton provided an English translation of the Latin liturgical texts. Sarah Long contributed historically appropriate versions of late seventeenth-century mass chants and hymns.

James David Christie

James David Christie has been internationally acclaimed as one of the finest organists of his generation. He has performed around the world with symphony orchestras and period instrument ensembles, as well as in solo recitals. His career was launched after he won First Prize in the 1979 Bruges (Belgium) International Organ Competition, where he was the first American ever to win First Prize and the first person in the competition’s eighteen-year history to win both the First Prize and the Prize of the Audience. He has served as Boston Symphony Orchestra organist since 1978, and given more than fifty tours of Europe and performs regularly in Canada, Asia, Australia, and Iceland.

Mr. Christie is professor and chair of the organ department at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, distinguished artist-in-residence at College of the Holy Cross, and college organist at Wellesley College. He is music director of Ensemble Abendmusik, a Boston-based period instrument orchestra and chorus specializing in sacred music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the New England School of Law for his outstanding contributions to the musical life of Boston, and the New England Conservatory honored him with its Outstanding Alumni Award. He has served on more than forty international organ competition juries in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, and Japan. He has recorded extensively and received several awards for his solo recordings.

Wayne Leupold

Wayne Leupold holds a Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Arts with distinction from Valparaiso University, Indiana; a Master of Music in organ performance from Syracuse University; and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Valparaiso University Alumni Association. He has edited more than three hundred volumes of organ music. In 1989, he founded the music publishing company, Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc., with the purpose of publishing organ teaching materials and organ music from all national schools and historical periods.