Marianne Webb

Marianne Webb (1936–2013) maintained a balanced career as an internationally recognized performer and teacher. She was Distinguished University Organist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), where she has taught organ and music theory since 1965. She built a thriving organ department and established, organized, and directed the nationally acclaimed SIUC Organ Festival (1966–1980), the first of its kind in the country. She sought funding for and designed the 58-rank Reuter pipe organ in Shryock Auditorium in 1969. The instrument is named in her honor. Together with her husband, David N. Bateman, she established the endowed Marianne Webb and David N. Bateman Distinguished Organ Recital Series.

Miss Webb was a graduate of Washburn University in Topeka, Kans., and obtained the master of music degree, with highest distinction, from the University of Michigan in 1959. Her teachers were Jerald Hamilton, Marilyn Mason, Max Miller, and Robert Noehren.  In 1961, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to continue her studies in Paris with André Marchal. While in Paris she served as supply organist for the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal).  Further graduate study was with Arthur Poister at Syracuse University and Russell Saunders at the Eastman School of Music.

Among her numerous awards and honors, Marianne Webb was given the AGO Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award in 2008 “in recognition of her stellar career as a concert artist and distinguished teacher, and in gratitude for her lifetime of leadership, devoted service, and extraordinary generosity to the AGO.” In 2009, she received the Avis Blewitt Award from the St. Louis (Mo.) AGO Chapter, and was selected as the Alumni Fellow by the College of Arts and Sciences at Washburn University in Topeka, Kans., for her “significant contribution as a highly regarded professional in her chosen field.”

As a concert artist and clinician, Miss Webb toured extensively throughout the United States performing at AGO regional and national conventions, and for the national conventions of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity and the Fellowship of American Baptist Musicians, as well as for local AGO chapters, churches, colleges, and universities. She recorded on the Pro Organo and Pleiades labels and was featured on American Public Media’s Pipedreams.

An active member of the AGO, Miss Webb served as a member of the national committees on Educational Resources, Chapter Development, and Membership Development and Chapter Support. She re-established the Southern Illinois AGO Chapter in 1983 and served as its dean for six years. She is a member of the Clarence Dickinson Society and founded the AGO St. Cecilia Recital series in 2007. Through this magnanimous gift to the American Guild of Organists, Marianne Webb will be remembered, in perpetuity, for her musical artistry, excellence in teaching, and as a woman of quiet strength, courage, generosity, and abiding faith.

Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co., Opus 1203, 1952

Visitors will get a brief demonstration of the organ, then be welcome to play it!

Hosted by Bryan Ashley, organist of The Mother Church, and Stephen Loher, Boston organist and historian.

Meet at the Portico (main front door) of the church, facing Massachusetts Avenue, at 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m.

For more information, contact Stephen Loher at stephenloher@comcast.net.

Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray is Professor, Department of English, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee.  He is author of numerous articles on 18th-century fiction and edited (with Margaret Anne Doody) Jane Austen’s Catharine and Other Writings (Oxford World’s Classics).  He studied organ with Larry Lowder, Stanley Scheer and Van Quinn in his native North Carolina and has attended improvisation workshops with William Porter, Jeffrey Brillhart, Gerre Hancock, Rick Erickson, Bruce Neswick and Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra.  In Nashville, he has coached with Wilma Jensen.  He was interim organist at First Presbyterian Church, Nashville in 1999, then organist there from 2001-2010.  He has also been assisting organist at Christ Church, Nashville, working under Michael Velting and Peter Fyfe.  He was an NCOI Semi-Finalist and Finalist in 2012 and was a runner up in the University of Michigan Competition in October 2013.  He is now organist at McKendree United Methodist Church, Nashville’s historic downtown Methodist congregation.

Samuel Soria

Samuel Soria has been the organist of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels since its dedication in 2002.  Mr. Soria is a graduate of Valparaiso University and Northwestern University.  In addition to academic study with Philip Gehring and Wolfgang Rubsam, he has coached privately with Paul Manz and Cherry Rhodes. Soria was a prizewinner in the 1993 J.S. Bach International Competition at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.  In 1996 he tied for third place in the NCOI, New York City, and was a semi-finalist in the 1992 Atlanta NCOI.  He was also invited to Knokke-Heist, Belgium as a participant in the European Competition in Organ Improvisation in 1995. Soria has recorded two CDs for Delos International Records, “Premier Organ Recording” and “Organ Voices”, both of which have received national critical acclaim.  A third CD produced by Omni Recording, “Samuel Soria: Cathedral Organist”, has just been released and features Leo Sowerby’s Symphony in G Major.

In July of 2004, he was a featured artist for the AGO National Convention in Los Angeles.  In July of 2011, he was the organist for a religious service which featured improvisations at St. Mary’s Cathedral during the Region IX Convention, San Francisco.