Dean Billmeyer was honored in May for the 25th anniversary of his appointment to the faculty of the University of Minnesota School of Music. Minnesota alumni and former organ students Mary Joy Rieder, Ralph Johansen, and Paul Barte performed a recital on the university’s 1986 Van Daalen organ, and Billmeyer was interviewed by J. Michael Barone of American Public Media’s Pipedreams. He was also presented with a book of congratulatory letters from former students across the country.
In addition to organ and harpsichord, Billmeyer teaches theory and counterpoint at the School of Music. A frequent guest performer with both the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Billmeyer recently appeared with the SPCO as pianist in performances of György Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto for 13 Instrumentalists. In 2006, he gave an organ recital tour in Norway, and he has performed elsewhere in Europe and the USA. Named to the Minnesota faculty in 1982, Dean Billmeyer is the sixth, and longest serving, organ professor in the University’s history, succeeding George Fairclough (1918–1937), Arthur Poister (1937–1938), Arthur Jennings (1938–1956), Edward Berryman (1956–1959), and Heinrich Fleischer (1959–1982).
