Our Lady of Victories Church

The feast of Our Lady of Victories originally celebrated the rout of the Ottoman Empire’s navy by a Christian armada at Lepanto in 1571, effectively ending Muslim domination of the eastern Mediterranean and its threat to Europe.  Successive tweaks broadened the feast’s intention considerably.  Boston’s church is actually named after the famous Parisian shrine Notre-Dame-des-Victoires.  It was the first French parish in the city, long associated with the Marist Fathers.  Patrick C. Keely designed the present building in 1886 with its significant stained glass by F. X. Zeittler of Munich.

Casavant Frères Opus 1484, 1933

Casavant Frères Opus 1484, 1933

Donald Teeters

  Donald Teeters served as music director of The Boston Cecilia for forty-four seasons (1968–2012), and was subsequently named conductor emeritus. Throughout his tenure, he was in the forefront of historically oriented New England musicians and was the first Boston choral conductor to engage period-instrument players for pre-nineteenth-century works. In 1982, he and Cecilia began a comprehensive survey of Handel’s major dramatic works for chorus. These performances elicited the highest praise from public and critics alike and played an important role in establishing Boston as a world center for stylistic Handel interpretations and historically informed performance practice.

Mr. Teeters also led Cecilia in significant explorations of twentieth-century English music, especially that of Benjamin Britten, and American repertoire, including premieres and commissions from important New England composers. Music by John Harbison, Donald Martino, Daniel Pinkham, Robert Sirota, and James Woodman figured prominently in recent programming.

Prior to The Boston Cecilia, Mr. Teeters was associate conductor and keyboardist for Boston’s Chorus pro Musica, under Alfred Nash Patterson. In that position, he assisted Patterson in preparing for performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, including Bach’s St. John Passion and Wagner’s Lohengrin. Mr. Teeters was also awarded a Tanglewood Fellowship for the 1967 season.

Since 1967, Mr. Teeters has been the principal church musician at All Saints Parish in Brookline. He was a member of the New England Conservatory (NEC) organ faculty from 1970 to 2002. For the spring 2007 semester, he rejoined the faculty to lead a graduate seminar in Handel’s English-language dramatic works. He received NEC’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004, and, in 2005, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alfred Nash Patterson Foundation.

Solemn High Mass

Stravinsky: Mass for Chorus and Double Wind Quintet

Order of Worship

The Choir and Orchestra of The Church of the Advent

Donald Teeters, guest conductor

Mark Dwyer, organist & choirmaster

Ross Wood, associate organist & choirmaster

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.

Patrick Scott

Patrick A. Scott is Music Associate and Organist at Myers Park United Methodist Church, a 5,000-member church located in the heart of Charlotte, North Carolina.  A native of Picayune, Mississippi, he holds the Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance from Birmingham-Southern College where he studied with Dr. James Cook.  As a student of Drs. Judith and Gerre Hancock, Patrick earned the Master of Music in Organ Performance and Sacred Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance, both from The University of Texas at Austin.  His other major teachers have included Betty Polk and Kathy Vail.

Dr. Scott was awarded the audience prize as well as the second prize in the American Guild of Organists 2012 National Competition in Organ Improvisation.  He has also been the winner of many first prizes in regional and national competitions throughout the region.  An active recitalist and accompanist, Dr. Scott has appeared in concert throughout the United States, as well as in France, Prague, Austria, Scotland, England and Ireland.  Dr. Scott will also be teaching improvisation for the 2015 American Guild of Organists Region IV Convention.

Matthey Koraus

Matthew Koraus (FAGO) is a composer of vocal and instrumental music active in the greater New York area.  He has written an extensive amount of sacred music, and a number of his liturgical works are published by CanticaNOVA Publications.  Matthew presently serves as the Director of Music Ministries for the Church of St. Patrick in Huntington, NY, where he is overseeing the installation of two new pipe organs by the Glück Organ Company.  He is also an adjunct professor of music at Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.  Matthew holds the Master of Music degree in Composition from Manhattan School of Music, where he studied composition with Mark Stambaugh, and organ with Walter Hilse.  Additionally, he holds the Bachelor of Science degree in Music Theory and Composition from Hofstra University, where he studied composition with Chandler Carter and David Lalama.  His initial organ studies were with Michael Bower, of St. Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre, NY.  Matthew holds the Fellowship Certification from the American Guild of Organists, and was the 2013 winner of both the Fellowship Prize and the S. Lewis Elmer Award offered by the Guild. More information on Matthew and samples of his compositions may be found at www.matthewkoraus.com.