August 2004

J. Bunker Clark, Richard Frederick Horn, M. Searle Wright

A. David Moore, North Pomfret, Vermont: home of George Becker and Christo Bresnahan, San Francisco, California; Fabry, Inc., Fox Lake, Illinois: Zion Lutheran Church, Marengo, Illinois; Bedient Pipe Organ Company, Roca, Nebraska: First Presbyterian Church, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

The Ann Arbor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists presented its annual New Music Festival April 24 and 25, entitled “Music for the Queen of Instruments--a celebration of women composers for the organ.”

Sarah MacDonald is the first woman in the history of any of the Oxbridge college chapels to hold the position of director of music. She greeted us by giving us publications issued by Cambridge University that included a prospectus and other materials given to all potential students. We learned a great deal from Sarah about the system of the Cambridge colleges.

Michigan's Grand Valley State University was the site of the 2004 annual meeting of the Midwestern Historical Keyboard Society. Slightly fewer than 50 members attended, from May 20-22; they were rewarded with a carefully calibrated schedule of events, beautifully organized and efficiently administered by program chair and host, Grand Valley State's University Organist Gregory Crowell.

This year's theme was "Bach and the Age of Romanticism" and featured modern instruments. The Bach Medal went to Helmuth Rilling, firmly rooted in the Romantic tradition and founder of the Gächinger Kantorei in 1954 and of the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart in 1965. Quite a shift!