Raymond J. Barnes, 73, founding dean of the Southern Nevada AGO Chapter, died suddenly of a heart attack the afternoon of May 21, after having played for the morning worship service. On April 30, 2006, the chapter presented him with an Honorary Lifetime Membership in the guild. Born in 1933 in Adrian, Michigan, he began piano lessons at age five with his aunt, Ella Kafer, later studying with Myria Fox, whose piano studio was on the campus of Adrian College, where he saw the college’s four-manual Hutchings-Votey organ. He entered Adrian College in 1951 and began organ study with James Houston Spencer, graduating in 1955.
Barnes’s career in music education included teaching in Pensacola, Florida; Biloxi, Mississippi; and in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was influential in developing and implementing a music curriculum for the Clark County schools. His teaching career in Clark County, Nevada spanned 25 years, during which time he earned a master’s degree from University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
In addition to his activities in the AGO and in music education organizations, he was a member of the Fellowship of Methodist Musicians, and with his wife was active in the Swedish American Fraternal Organization, the VASA Order of America. He is survived by his wife Inga-Britt of Las Vegas and by two brothers. A memorial service was held on the campus of UNLV on June 11.
The Southern Nevada AGO Chapter has established the Raymond J. Barnes Memorial Scholarship Fund to assist young students interested in the organ with lesson scholarships, and to help underwrite attendance at Pipe Organ Encounters. Contributions to the fund may be sent to: Raymond J. Barnes Memorial Scholarship Fund, Joan Winter—Treasurer, HCR 38—Box 559, Las Vegas, NV 89124.
Charles M. Eve, 72, died of cancer at his residence on February 10. He was a retired assistant professor of music at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Monroe, Louisiana. A graduate of Central High School in Pueblo, Colorado, he earned the bachelor of music and master of music degrees from University of Colorado, where he also did additional study. His teachers included Arthur Poister, Claire Coci, and Vernon DeTar. He served as an organist and chaplain’s assistant in the U.S. Army.
Before coming to Monroe, he taught at Temple Buell College and the University of Colorado, and served as organist and choir director at Christ Methodist Church in Denver. In 1956, he placed second in the AGO playing competition. While studying in New York City, he served as organist at All Angels Church, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, and Interchurch Center.
After coming to NLU in Monroe, Louisiana, he served as organist at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Grace Episcopal Church, and the First Presbyterian Church. He had given recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., New York’s Riverside and Trinity churches, and at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He was the former dean and founder of the Ouachita Valley AGO Chapter, a member of the American Musicological Society, and the National Association of Presbyterian Musicians.
Mr. Eve is survived by his sister and her husband, as well as by a nephew and two nieces, and a host of friends and former students. A memorial concert was held February 25 at the First Presbyterian Church in Monroe. A series of memorial concerts is planned.
Rolande Falcinelli died in Pau, France, on June 11, at the age of 86. She was one of the leading exponents of the modern French school of organists-improvisers-composers and taught organ and improvisation at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique from 1954 to 1986. Among her pupils are some of the greatest French virtuosos and improvisers of our time.
A favorite disciple of Marcel Dupré, she was the most authorized performer of his works, as the composer himself asserted. She reached the highest level of virtuosic skill, as testified by her own Poèmes-études, the most difficult pieces ever written for the organ, which she played and recorded in the U.S.A. during her legendary 1950 tour.
As a composer, she leaves a catalog of 74 opus numbers that includes organ, piano and harpsichord works, chamber music, vocal music and orchestral works. Her writing is characterized by tormented chromatic harmonic progressions, by explorations of tone color, and by the new perspectives of extra-European music (she integrated Persian and Indian modes and rhythms into her works). She pursued and extended Marcel Dupré’s ideals, associating the organ with other instruments: she composed works for organ and violin, organ and violoncello, organ and viola, organ and two violas, organ and flute, organ and piano, organ and voice, organ and orchestra.
Today, her artistic legacy (as a performer, an improviser and a composer) is inspiring an awakening interest in her works, sustained by a progressive series of CDs and numerous publications. —Sylviane Falcinelli
A mass was held at Saint-Eustache Church in Paris, France, on June 30 in remembrance of Rolande Falcinelli. The titular organist Jean Guillou, who was one of her first disciples (he began to take private lessons from her in 1947), improvised with an unforgettable and moving intensity at the beginning and at the end of this ceremony. Philippe Brandeis (the last of her 65 students awarded the First Prize in Organ at the Paris Conservatory) interpreted her works: Offertory for the Feast of Christ the King (op. 38), Prayer to the Holy Spirit (op. 24, no. 4), and Antiphon of the Salve Regina (op. 43). Her colleague Jason Meyer, the American violinist from Boston, performed his own special arrangement for violin solo of the cadences and solos in her work for organ and violin, Song of Sorrow and Struggle (op. 53). Gregorian chants were sung by a men’s choir from the Paris Conservatory, directed by Louis-Marie Vigne. The Belgian Stéphane Detournay, a specialist of her works, also rendered homage to her high spiritual ideals and her constant devotion to her art.
—Carolyn Shuster Fournier
Paris, France
John Anthony Steppe lost a year-long battle with cancer at the age of 51 on October 14, 2005. He was a native of New Jersey, born in Jersey City on February 3, 1954. He studied voice at Westminster Choir College. A man of many talents, he was an artist, a gourmet cook, and a consummate vocalist. His rich bass/baritone voice was heard in many venues around south Florida, most notably in the church choirs of St. John the Evangelist, Lighthouse Point; St. Martin in the Fields, Pompano Beach; and finally at St. Gregory’s in Boca Raton. He sang with the Florida Philharmonic Chorus and was featured bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah in a community-wide production at First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale. But his true passion and dream was to be an organbuilder. The dream became a reality when he, Walter Guzowski, and Christopher Kane established Guzowski and Steppe Organ Builders, Inc., in 1983. His passion and love of the instrument was evident in the craftsmanship in every instrument he designed or enhanced. John’s graceful, lyric visual designs were inspirational. He was a master in woodworking as well. He is survived by his mother, Sonia Bobo, of Neptune, New Jersey. Innumerable friends will miss his exuberant personality, acutely wry sense of humor, and delight in all things musical. Memorials may be made to St. Gregory’s Music Ministry, 100 Northeast Mizner Boulevard, Boca Raton, FL 33429.
—Paul Aldridge
Henry VanSeters, curator of the organs at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, for 42 years, died in September 2005 in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York. He began playing the organ at age 10, apprenticing in his teens and later becoming an organbuilder, technician and installer for M. P. Möller. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II, and after the war was appointed curator of organs at West Point.
He guided the rebuilding and expansion of the Cadet Chapel organ from 211 ranks to more than 334 ranks. In addition to the chapel organ, he maintained, tuned, and rebuilt the Post Chapel, Catholic Chapel, Old Cadet Chapel, and St. Martin’s Chapel organs all on the USMA post.
In addition to maintaining and rebuilding numerous organs in the Hudson River Valley, he built five pipe organs for various churches, including his home church, The Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Clifton, New Jersey. He was a frequent consultant to churches and attended conventions of the American Guild of Organists, American Institute of Organbuilders, and Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America.
Mr. VanSeters is survived by Teresa, his wife of 54 years, a son and daughter, granddaughters, and many friends. A memorial service was held at the Cadet Chapel with organists Lee Dettra and A. Robert Chapman.
