November 2014

Building a new studio teaching and practice organ for the Curtis Institute of Music came with some unusual parameters. The available space was the former percussion studio, a pigs-ear room for an organ, buried in the basement of the former mansion on Rittenhouse Square. Totally padded with carpet and acoustically absorbent material, it was obvious that an acoustician was going to be needed, not only to tell us what could be done to improve the situation, but also to warn us how bad it might actually be!

From the builder

The American Guild of Organists 2014 National Convention met in Boston, Massachusetts, June 23–27. The weather gods smiled favorably for the most part and the city was a delight. This was a walking convention, so it was possible to get sufficient exercise from transport on foot (and climbing stairs to use the metropolitan trains). The convention daily details (and program notes, written by the artists) were nicely packaged, with each day’s itinerary in a single booklet (all the booklets came packaged in a cardboard slipcase).

*Moniker assigned to Fred Swann in the printed program for the AGO 2008 Distinguished Performer Award.

Keeping It Going II

For the home that has everything

Christopher Hogwood—English conductor, musicologist, and harpsichordist—died September 24 at his home in Cambridge, England. He was 73. Born in Nottingham, England, on September 10, 1941, he received piano lessons as a child and enrolled at Cambridge University, where he switched from studying Greek and Latin to music, and went on to pursue keyboard studies with such talents as Rafael Puyana, Mary Potts, and Gustav Leonhardt.