Sacred Music Intensive Workshop, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington

Jane Scharding Smedley has served as organist-choirmaster at St. Peter Roman Catholic Church in Memphis, Tennessee since 1980. She earned bachelor’s (Rhodes College) and master’s (Wittenberg University) degrees in sacred music, and holds the Colleague and Choirmaster certificates from the American Guild of Organists. Her teachers included David Ramsey, Tony Lee Garner, Frederick Jackisch, and Richard White. An attendee at the Sewanee Church Music Conference since 1979, she currently serves as secretary of the board of directors.

This year’s conference, directed by Keith Shafer, immediately followed the national AGO convention just up the road in Nashville. What a fine experience it was for those fortunate to attend both, with their wide range of performances and learning opportunities. At Sewanee, however, the emphasis is on music within worship, taught through actual “doing.” Daily choral rehearsals provide a teaching laboratory, as well as preparing repertoire for the Friday Evensong and the Sunday Eucharist that concludes the week. 

Huw Lewis and Bruce Neswick, long-time favorites of this conference, returned as music faculty. Dr. Lewis, organist at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, is director of music at St. John’s Church in Detroit. Mr. Neswick, well known in AGO and AAM circles from past cathedral positions, is associate professor of organ and sacred music at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. Both masters on the bench and the podium, they showed seamless teamwork and sterling professionalism. They shared the bench at the Tuesday evening recital, now named in memory of long-time conference leader Gerre Hancock. In homage to his teacher, Neswick performed his works (Air, Variations on tunes Ora Labora and Palm Springs), ending his half of the concert with an improvisation. Lewis balanced the program with skillful renderings of works from past masters: Bach (Fugue in E-flat Major), Brahms (Chorale Prelude and Fugue on “O Sorrow Deep”), and Franck (Chorale in A Minor). Both in recital and later in the worship services, the resources of the large Casavant organ in All Saints Chapel at the University of the South were fully explored. 

In the nearby Chapel of the Apostles, a newer two-manual Casavant instrument was used for a masterclass led jointly by Neswick and Lewis. Ten performers, representing a range of ages and backgrounds, received individualized coaching and guidance. Special mention is made of those present who represented the next generation—two in their teens and eight of college age or under thirty. Board member Alvin Blount coordinated this event; he also led a reading session of organ repertoire based on hymntunes useful for worship. Other workshops on hymn-playing techniques and improvisation were offered by Neswick on this smaller instrument, a nice gesture towards those present who may not be blessed with four manuals and en chamade on Sunday mornings.

Other sessions offered throughout the week included handbells, Episcopal basics, computer notation systems, and reading sessions. Bradley Almquist presented excellent workshops on “Conducting Skills” and “Music Theory for the Singer.”

Huw Lewis’s choral skills were fully evident in the daily rehearsals, demonstrating various techniques and a few ‘tricks of the trade’. To illustrate the importance of posture and how to efficiently communicate this to singers, Lewis shared a simple system that came to be named “Position 1, 2, 3.” It gave attendees a useful technique to take home—and provided much humorous fodder at the Annual Frolic later!

The daily Eucharists in the Dubose Conference Center’s chapel gave Neswick more opportunity to incorporate creative service-playing and improvisations.

To complement the rehearsals, workshops and performances, Lois Fyfe Music brought its excellent display of choral and organ music, along with related items. In spite of this conference following a very busy week at the Nashville AGO convention, Elizabeth Smith cheerfully shared her expert advice as browsers delighted in a shopping spree.

Repertoire for Evensong included the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B-flat by Henry Smart and Preces and Responses by Robert Lehman. The anthem was Bairstow’s gorgeous setting of The King of Love, using the beloved St. Columba melody. Anglican chants by Walmisley and S. S. Wesley added variety to the many verses of Psalm 18 appointed for the evening. Under his sensitive guidance, with superb accompaniment by Neswick, Lewis enabled the beauty of Anglican chant to meld 145 voices into true sung prayer. A prelude improvisation on Mighty Savior was offered by Neswick to undergird the solemn procession of 145 vested singers, then seamlessly flowed into the hymn itself.

The liturgical and musical climax of the week was the Sunday Eucharist. Neswick’s preludes were on tunes to be sung: Nettleton by Hancock, Leoni by Seth Bingham and Richard Proulx. Hancock’s Houston Mass (also sung at daily Eucharist) was used.

This year’s commissioned anthem— Hymn of Praise by Gary Davison—used a text from Revelations and the Psalms. Its shifting meters and dynamic contrasts were well performed by the singers under Lewis’s precise musical direction; Neswick had the very challenging accompaniment, punctuated by dramatic silences, well in hand.

Deeply appreciated by this writer, Neswick demonstrated throughout both liturgies the role of the organist in connecting the parts of the liturgy. When silence was needed, it was there—when a musical thread could serve the flow, he wove it with sensitivity and art. His free accompaniment to In Babilone (“Hail, Thou Once-Despised Jesus”) was classic, with twists of key and registration, but never straying from its purpose to lead and support congregational song. Later at Communion, he used motifs from the anthem to come. He sensitively bound the flow of worship, leading into Davison’s lovely setting of My Soul Shall Be Alway, followed by Nettleton (“Come, Thou Fount”). All followed his musical cues to bring the hymn to a gentle close. “Praise to the Living God” (Leoni) closed the liturgy, then continued as seed for a final improvisation: a postlude of flourishes, calm mid-section, then fugal ending—a marvelous musical coda to a wonderful week. 

Father Matthew Moretz served as the conference chaplain. A member of the clergy of St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York City, Fr. Moretz is an advocate of Internet resources as a means of evangelization; he spoke to the conferees about ways he thought they might enhance their ministries through electronic media.

This year’s gala banquet honored two long-time board members. Keith Shafer is stepping down as conference co-director. Janet Perkins, registrar for many years, provided a friendly face and concerned ear to all who have been part of the Sewanee ‘family’. Gifts were bestowed along with much applause to show appreciation for their dedicated service. 

The sense of community at the conference is further supported by delicious culinary offerings issuing from the kitchen at the Dubose Center under Kim Agee, director, advised by board member Nancy Whitmer, hostess extraordinaire. In spite of a packed schedule, no one loses weight during their week on the ‘holy mountain’. 

The faculty for 2013 will be Richard Webster (Trinity Church, Boston) and Maxine Thevenot (St. John’s Cathedral, Albuquerque). The Reverend Barbara Cawthorn Crafton, who served as chaplain in 2011, will again share her spiritual gifts.

Jane Scharding Smedley has served as organist-choirmaster at St. Peter Catholic Church in Memphis, Tennessee, since 1980. She earned bachelor’s (Southwestern at Memphis/Rhodes College) and master’s (Wittenberg University) degrees in sacred music and holds Colleague and Choirmaster certificates from the American Guild of Organists. Her teachers included David Ramsey, Tony Lee Garner, Frederick Jackisch, and Richard White. An attendee at the Sewanee Church Music Conference since 1979, she followed her teachers Ramsey and White on the conference board; she has been secretary since 1996.

The 65th Sewanee Church Music Conference offered attendees a packed week under the leadership of new director Todd Wilson. A stellar music faculty—Robert Simpson and Kevin Kwan—were joined by the Reverend Dr. David B. Lowry as chaplain to lead a week of challenging repertoire and inspiring liturgies. Bob Simpson returned to the conference as choral conductor after a too-long absence. Canon for music at Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, he is founder and artistic director of the Houston Chamber Choir and lecturer on church music at Rice University. Kevin Kwan, organist and director of music at Christ and St. Luke’s in Norfolk, Virginia, admirably filled the role of organist for the week, playing the Friday Evensong, Sunday Eucharist, daily liturgies, and performing in recital. 

On Tuesday, the Gerre Hancock Memorial Concert showed a team approach with Kwan and Wilson joined by Robert Delcamp (conference board president). Each presented selections ranging from John Cook’s Fanfare to pieces by David Conte, George Shearing, C. V. Stanford, and Widor (first movements from Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 6). Hancock was recalled with his Fancy for Two to Play and his Maundy Thursday duet from Holy Week. For these, Kevin Kwan shared the bench of the Casavant in All Saints Chapel, University of the South, with Todd Wilson (his former teacher). Delcamp and Wilson rendered the grand finale: the Clarence Dickinson/Charlotte Lockwood transcription of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, showcasing Kwan’s talent on the cymbals!

The Reverend Lowry’s daily lectures and homilies bore titles he integrated into the conference week: “The Changing Role of Religion and Spirituality in the World Today,” “Liturgy and Music in a Hyper-Media Age,” and “Clergy and Church Musicians: Why is it so hard to work together in harmony?”

Masterclasses for organists and choral conductors offered valuable feedback from Kwan, Simpson, and Delcamp. Michael Petrosh, David von Behren, Jared Fenske, Matt Endahl, Paul Miller, and Stephen White performed on the Casavants in All Saints Chapel and in the Chapel of the Apostles.

Simpson endeared himself to choristers by his collegial approach in rehearsal, teaching service repertoire in an organized and timely manner. Evensong featured Preces and Responses by Thomas Ebdon, canticles by Peter Ashton, Anglican chant by T. A. Walmisley (prayerfully and pristinely rendered under Simpson’s training). The eight-part anthem, Pilgrim’s Hymn by Stephen Paulus, was the choral challenge of the week, allowing the 120 voices an opportunity to experience beautiful tone clusters sung well. Kwan led off with a voluntary by Paulus—A Refined Reflection from Baronian Suite and concluded the service with Stanford’s Postlude in D Minor, op. 105. The hymn text “Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation” was sung to the tune Lowry, composed by McNeil Robinson in honor of this year’s chaplain, a friend and colleague of the recently deceased musician.

On Sunday, the musical and spiritual high point was reached during the Eucharist in All Saints Chapel. Kwan’s prelude (Master Tallis’s Testament by Howells) and postlude (Recessional by William Mathias) beautifully bookended the liturgy. Craig Phillips’s 2006 Festival Eucharist, O Sacrum Convivium by Peter Mathews, and Let This Mind Be In You by Lee Hoiby elicited riveting sounds from the ensemble, paired with Kwan’s electrifying accompaniment on the last-named anthem.

This conference has reached an age rarely attained by similar associations. Reasons for this longevity include a tested format not averse to change, reflecting the needs of attendees, and a thoughtful balance between musical skills and spiritual nourishment, with worship that blends these two. But at its root is the sense of ‘family’ felt by many who return every July to its ‘home’—the Dubose Conference Center. Since 1951, this quiet, historic setting has welcomed thousands to the Sewanee Church Music Conference.

In 2016, Dale Adelmann and Tom Trenney will be music faculty, and the Reverend Erika Takacs will serve as chaplain. For more details: www.sewaneeconference.org.

Brian F. Gurley is director of music and organist at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, New York. He currently serves as membership chair of the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians.

The Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians (CRCCM) met in Kalamazoo, Michigan, January 8–11 for its thirty-fifth annual gathering. Thomas Fielding, director of liturgy and music at Saint Augustine Cathedral, designed and directed the gathering with help from Francis Zajac, director of liturgy and music emeritus at the cathedral; the support staff of the cathedral; and the CRCCM steering committee: Michael Batcho, director of music, Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Teri Larson, director of music and arts, Basilica of Saint Mary, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Ezequiel Menendez, director of music and organist, Cathedral of Saint Joseph, Hartford, Connecticut; Joseph Balistreri, coordinator of music ministries, Archdiocese of Detroit, and director of music, Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Detroit, Michigan; Crista Miller, director of music and organist, Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Houston, Texas; and Christoph Tietze, director of music and organist, Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco, California; with Gerald Muller, Leo Nestor, and James Savage, advising.

Monday, January 8

Conference participants gathered at Saint Augustine Cathedral for Vespers.  Reverend Thomas McNally, Vice Rector of the Cathedral, celebrated Vespers, and liturgical music was provided by Thomas Fielding and the Cathedral Choir. Choral music included Unto Us is Born a Son, arranged by David Willcocks; Christmas Lullaby by John Rutter; Tollite hostias by Camille Saint-Saëns; Awake and Arise and Hail the New Morn by Fielding; O Virgin Theotokos, Rejoice by Roman Hurko; Transeamus usque Bethlehem by Josef Ignatz Schnabel; Gesu Bambino by Pietro Yon; and Magnificat by Giuseppe Pitoni. Francis Zajac welcomed all conference participants and gave a thorough history of the cathedral, including its various renovation projects.

Saint Augustine Cathedral was dedicated in 1951. It was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Ralph Adams Cram of Boston and originally served as a parish church in the Diocese of Lansing. In 1970, Pope Paul VI created the Diocese of Kalamazoo from portions of the Dioceses of Lansing and Grand Rapids, at which time Saint Augustine Church was consecrated the diocesan cathedral of Kalamazoo. The cathedral is home to a three-manual, forty-two-rank Nichols and Simpson organ of 2002.

Following dinner in the cathedral hall, all of the participants introduced themselves. New members and first-time conference participants for 2018 included: Adam Brakel, director of music, Saint James Cathedral, Orlando, Florida; Bruce Croteau, director of liturgy, Saint James Cathedral, Orlando; Felipe Delsart, director of the polyphonic choir and adjunct organist, Metropolitan Cathedral, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Terri Dunn, conductor at Saint Michael’s Choir School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; James Grzadzinski, director of music and organist, Cathedral of Saint Raymond Nonnatus, Joliet, Illinois; Mark Loria, principal organist, Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Bruce Ludwick, director of music and organist, Cathedral of Saint Paul, Birmingham, Alabama; Matthew Meloche, director of sacred music, Cathedral of Saints Simon and Jude, Phoenix, Arizona; Andrew Motyka, director of archdiocesan and cathedral liturgical music, Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Indiana; Charles Nolen, director of music and liturgy, Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Richard Siegel, assistant organist, Cathedral of Saint Raymond Nonnatus, Joliet, Illinois; and Richard Skirpan, Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Tuesday, January 9

On Tuesday morning, conference participants gathered for Morning Prayer at the cathedral. Prelude music was performed by David Jonies, associate director of music, Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois. Jonies played Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, opus 60, movements 2 and 3, by Max Reger. Thomas Fielding played all service music for Morning Prayer, as well as Procession by William Mathias for postlude.

Following Morning Prayer, Reverend Bradley A. Zamora, director of liturgy and instructor in the Department of Liturgy and Music, Mundelein Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois, delivered a keynote address on the spirituality of the cathedral musician. Fr. Zamora exhorted conference participants to maintain active prayer lives, since cathedral musicians are to be disciples. He also reminded his audience of the distinction between “working for Mass” and “attending Mass” and described his own spiritual enrichment whenever he attends Mass “as a parishioner” in the assembly.

Prior to his appointment at Mendelein Seminary, Fr. Zamora served as associate pastor and director of liturgy at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. Formerly a parish music director, he maintains active membership in the National Associations of Pastoral Musicians, the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, and the Patron of the Arts in Vatican Museums.

Following the keynote address, conference participants turned to the first of two CRCCM business meetings. Christoph Tietze, chair of the steering committee, led the business meeting and described the nomination and election processes for new members of the steering committee. Scott Eakins, treasurer, presented the financial status of the organization. Brian Gurley, membership chair, discussed the ongoing efforts to involve new cathedral musicians in CRCCM, and Marc Cerisier proposed technological options for much needed modernization and automation of membership initiations and renewals.

After lunch, conference participants then gathered at the Waldo Library Rare Book Room of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Elizabeth C. Teviotdale, assistant director of the WMU Medieval Institute, delivered a lecture, “The Illustration of the Music of Christian Worship in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.” Teviotdale presented a fascinating array of illuminated chant manuscripts and offered possible theological, liturgical, and musical interpretations of the illuminations as paired with their antiphons and feasts. She also called attention to a trend in manuscript illuminations, in which they became less detailed and less obviously religious in nature. This trend probably resulted from an increase in the number of illuminations carried out by lay tradesmen and women rather than religious monks and nuns. Following the lecture, conference participants were able to view selected illuminated manuscripts in the Medieval Institute Library.

Elizabeth Teviotdale received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her main research interests are early medieval Christian liturgical manuscripts and their illumination, as well as the history of collecting.

Conference participants returned to the Radisson Hotel for a composers reading session. The reading session is a forum in which conference participants have the opportunity to sing through new compositions from their colleagues.

Conference participants then moved to Saint Augustine Cathedral in the evening for a choral concert performed by the choir, Audivi. Works included Advent Responsory by Richard Marlow; Steh Auf by Christoph Demantius; The Holly and the Ivy, arranged by Reginald Jacques; Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming, arranged by Michael Praetorius; Ave Maria by Robert Parsons; Tota pulchra es à 12 by Heironymous Praetorius; Gloria and Sanctus from Mass for Double Choir by Frank Martin; Once in Royal David’s City, arranged by Arthur Henry Mann; Sanctus from Missa Et ecce terræ motus by Antoine Brumel; Away in a manger, arranged by David Willcocks; A Spotless Rose by Herbert Howells; In the Bleak Midwinter by Gustav Holst; Magnificat by Arvo Pärt; Good Christian friends, rejoice, arranged by Charles Winifred Douglas; Hymne à la Vierge by Pierre Villette; and Silent Night, arranged by Malcolm Sargent. Audivi is a professional vocal ensemble founded in 2013 and based in Detroit. The ensemble specializes in lesser-known Renaissance choral music, but also performs choral music from all eras (www.audivi.net). For this performance, Audivi was under the direction of guest conductor Kimberly Dunn Adams, assistant professor of music and director of choral activities at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. The concert was presented as part of the Sacred Music at the Cathedral concert series of Saint Augustine Cathedral.

Wednesday, January 10

On Wednesday morning, conference participants traveled to South Bend, Indiana, for a day trip to the University of Notre Dame. Once on campus, Paul Thornock conducted an open choral rehearsal in the Gail L. Walton Rehearsal Room of the Coleman-Morse Building. The rehearsal repertoire included Sicut cervus and Sitivit anima mea by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina; Come, let’s rejoice by John Amner; and Abendlied by Josef Rheinberger.

Following the open rehearsal and lunch on campus, conference participants gathered in the newly constructed O’Neill Hall for a lecture given by Peter Jeffery, who discussed chant and psalmody in the reformed [post-Conciliar Roman Rite] liturgy. Jeffery spoke about the relationship between Gregorian psalm tones and various vernacular adaptations (e.g., Anglican chant, Gelineau and Guimont psalm tones, and Meinrad psalm tones). He proposed the increased usage of psalmody in Christian sacramental preparation. For example, psalm refrains—set to music and relevant to any of the Sacraments—could be taught to children and adults. Upon completion of their formation, the candidates and assembly together could sing the psalm refrains as acclamations within the celebration of the particular sacrament.

Peter Jeffery holds the Michael P. Grace Chair in Medieval Studies and is professor of musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Notre Dame.  He earned his Ph.D. in music history from Princeton University and received a “Genius Award” Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1987–1992).

O’Neill Hall is the new home of the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Music, the Sacred Music Program, the Music Library, and new recital and rehearsal spaces. It is part of Notre Dame’s Campus Crossroads Project.

Following the lecture, conference participants enjoyed free time to explore Notre Dame’s campus, as well as open bench time on two of the university’s three Paul Fritts organs (Opus 24 of 2004, a two-manual, thirty-four-stop instrument in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and Opus 37 of 2016, a four-manual, seventy-stop instrument in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart).

Following dinner, participants returned to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart for an organ concert given by Craig J. Cramer. Repertoire included Toccata in D minor, BuxWV 155, by Dieterich Buxtehude; Partita sopre diverse: Sei gegrüßet Jesu gütig, BWV 768, by Johann Sebastian Bach; Batalha de 6. Tom by Anonymous (seventeenth century); three Noëls by Jean-François Dandrieu; and Le Mystère de Noël by August Fauchard.

Craig Cramer is professor of organ at the University of Notre Dame. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree and the Performer’s Certificate from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. The concert was given in memory of Gail L. Walton, director of music and organist emeritus of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and initiator of the Basilica organ project.

Thursday, January 11

Conference participants gathered for Morning Prayer at the cathedral. Prelude music was performed by Chris Stroh, principal organist at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Stroh played the Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 547, by Bach. Thomas Fielding played all service music, as well as Dialogue sur les grands jeux by Louis Clérambault for postlude.

After Morning Prayer, conference participants returned to the hotel for an update from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) given by Reverend Andrew V. Menke, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Divine Worship. Fr. Menke described the work of the Secretariat, which includes primarily the preparation of liturgical books and the review of publications containing excerpts from liturgical books. He also elaborated on current projects, namely an updated Rite of Exorcism, excerpts of the Roman Missal (also referred to as the Book of the Chair, as it contains collects and Mass texts not prayed from the altar), the nearly completed edition of a Spanish-language Roman Missal for the United States, a new translation of the Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar, a new translation of the Rite of Blessing and Consecration of the Oils and Chrism, a Formulary for Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, a Spanish-language Book of Blessings, a new translation of the Rite of Baptism of Children (with an option for celebration during Mass), the new translation of the Liturgy of the Hours, a review of hymnody from the International Committee for English in the Liturgy (ICEL), a new translation of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), and a new translation of the Rites of Ordination.

The morning sessions continued with the second business meeting, during which nominations to the steering committee were submitted for the upcoming election.

After lunch, Marc Cerisier delivered a presentation, “Technology for the Modern Cathedral Musician.” He highlighted the value of consistent music engraving and attractive service leaflets as visual aids to liturgical prayer. Cerisier then discussed types of software available for desktop publishing and music notation, and he demonstrated ways to prepare scores for display on tablet screens, as well as MIDI functionality for capturing organ registrations, recording, and playback.

Following the presentation, conference participants enjoyed free time to explore Kalamazoo and later gathered at Saint Augustine Cathedral for Mass. Most Reverend Paul J. Bradley, Bishop of Kalamazoo, was the celebrant and homilist. Choral music was provided by the Cathedral Choir, and repertoire included Kyrie from Missa L’hora passa by Lodovico da Viadana; Soul of Christ by Lance A. Massey (director of music at Saint Augustine Cathedral from 1984 to 1988); and Cantate Domino by Giuseppe Pitoni. Thomas Fielding played all the service music, as well as Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major, BWV 552, by Bach, for the prelude; and Sonata Eroïca, opus 94, by Joseph Jongen, for the postlude.

After Mass, conference participants enjoyed an elegant closing banquet at which time appreciation was extended to Thomas Fielding, Francis Zajac, the Cathedral’s administrative staff, sponsors, and the CRCCM steering committee for organizing such a successful and enjoyable gathering.

The 2019 meeting of the CRCCM will take place in Seattle, Washington, in conjunction with the Cathedral Ministries Conference. It will be hosted by Saint James Cathedral.

A native of Michigan, Linda Dzuris is professor of music and university carillonneur at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. She is also organist at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Simpsonville, South Carolina.

On the last day of September in this, the University of Michigan’s bicentennial year, a conference on the music of Louis Vierne, presented by the university in partnership with the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit, was dedicated to concert organist and pedagogue, Robert Glasgow. It was a unique opportunity to hear all six of Vierne’s organ symphonies, several of his character pieces and chamber music, plus works by Vierne’s mentors and students.

September 30

The conference began on the evening of September 30 with the final round of the university’s sixth annual Organ Improvisation Competition at First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor. Competitors were given two themes and required to improvise a three-movement symphonic suite on the church’s three-manual, 42-rank Schoenstein organ. 

First prize was awarded to Matt Gender, a Doctor of Musical Arts student at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, where he has studied with James Higdon and Michael Bauer. Second prize and the audience prize were awarded to Joe Balestreri, director of music for the Archdiocese of Detroit and episcopal music director at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Detroit, as well as a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2015. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ performance from the University of Michigan, where he studied with James Kibbie. Third prize was awarded to Sandor Kadar, organist at First Presbyterian Church of West Chester, Pennsylvania. In addition to studying improvisation privately with Jeffrey Brillhart, he holds degrees in organ performance, sacred music, and conducting from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria.  

The judges were Ellen Rowe, professor of jazz and contemporary improvisation, University of Michigan; Edward Maki-Schramm, director of music, Christ Church, Detroit, and conductor of the Community Chorus of Detroit; and Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, hymn festival leader, workshop clinician, and author of music literacy books for children, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sponsorship was provided by the American Center for Church Music, First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, and the Ann Arbor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. 

October 1

“Music of Vierne for Choir, Voice, Brass, & Organ” was the title of the opening concert on Sunday, October 1, in the historic Norman Gothic stone edifice of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. Utilizing both the church’s original 1925 three-manual, 50-rank Casavant Frères organ and its 2003 two-manual, 29-rank Austin organ, the Detroit Archdiocesan Chorus and the Cathedral Singers (Cathedral Church of St. Paul) joined their voices under the direction of Jeremy David Tarrant to present Vierne’s Messe solennelle, op. 16. Trumpets, trombones, and timpani combined with Naki Sung Kripfgans at the organ for the performance of Marche triomphale du centenaire de Napoléon I, op. 46, conducted by Elliot Tackitt. Andrew Meagher accompanied soprano Kathy Meagher in the performance of Les Angélus, op. 57. Vierne’s Tantum ergo, op. 2, and Carillon de Westminster, op. 54, no. 6, were heard before the program moved to the music of other Notre Dame musicians: Ubi caritas by Maurice Duruflé and Olivier Latry’s Salve Regina with Joe Balistreri at the organ.

Later that evening, concert attendees traveled down Woodward Avenue to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul for a gala organ recital by Martin Jean, a former student of Robert Glasgow, current professor at Yale University, and highly acclaimed American organist. Employing all the nuances available from the Opus 23 organ by D. F. Pilzecker & Company of Toledo, Ohio (with several rescaled/revoiced stops from the 1923 Austin and 1951 Casavant instruments), Dr. Jean gave eloquent performances of Widor’s Symphonie Romane, op. 73, and Vierne’s Symphonie V in A Minor, op.47.

October 2

Monday commenced with a full morning of presentations at First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor that were thoughtfully constructed, earnestly delivered, and well received. Of particular interest to any who knew or heard Robert Glasgow perform was the announcement of plans for making available extant recordings of past performances, many currently on reel-to-reel tape. Jeremy David Tarrant, former student of Professor Glasgow at the University of Michigan and later executor of his mentor and friend’s estate, would like to release a two-CD set that would include recordings made from a 1995 Organ Historical Society Convention recital in Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, among other select events. Another goal is to have concerts available for download on a Robert Glasgow website. 

Mr. Tarrant also presented a survey of Vierne’s Pièces de fantaisie, which included live performance of several of the pieces. Jeremy David Tarrant serves as organist and choirmaster of the Cathedral of St. Paul, Detroit, adjunct professor of organ at Oakland University, and is an active concert organist. The University of Michigan Department of Organ especially recognized him for initiating the partnership between the cathedral and the university that brought this conference concept to realization. 

Jason Alden of Alden Organ Services served on the faculty of Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois, and Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan. His performance and commentary had us take a closer look at Vierne’s 24 pièces en style libre, while later in the day he gave us a skillful rendering of the composer’s Symphonie IV in G Minor, op. 32.

“Our Vierne” was a thought-provoking session led by Lawrence Archbold, professor of music emeritus, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, that considered Louis Vierne and his output from the viewpoint of various sub-categories of old and new musicology. History and values for “Old Musicology” covered aspects of biography, score editing, musical form, genealogy, and style analysis. “New Musicology” pushed us further as we considered how music is used and issues such as feminist critique, nationalism, personal stories, and liminal spaces. Good thesis topics.

After some midday free time, the 71 conference registrants and 20 students were invited to watch Vincent Dubois, the newest appointed titular organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, teach a masterclass at Hill Auditorium on the Ann Arbor campus. Clair de lune, op. 53, no. 5; Impromptu, op. 54, no. 2; and Lied, op. 31, no.17, were played by undergraduates Julian Goods, Jennifer Shin, and Matthew Durham, respectively. Much attention was paid to the musical shaping of phrases within all pieces, and each student responded well to the animated coaching given by Monsieur Dubois.

“Gems of the Flemish Romantic with an American Interlude” filled the air around Burton Memorial Tower as the sun began to set. The Charles Baird Carillon consists of 53 bells weighing about 43 tons and was played beautifully with tremolo galore by Jeremy Chesman, university carillonist and professor of music at Missouri State University, Springfield. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he was the first person to earn a Master of Music degree in carillon performance.  

Of course, no university conference would be complete without a faculty recital, and we were not disappointed with the evening’s musical offering on the Frieze Memorial Organ, a Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner instrument, since rebuilt, in Hill Auditorium. There are 120 ranks (12 from the 1893 organ built by Farrand & Votey Company of Detroit for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago) with four additional ranks available in the Echo division. James Kibbie, the chair of the organ department and university organist, performed Vierne’s Symphonie VI in B Minor, op. 59, with a mastery of expressiveness and precision. Associate professor of organ Kola Owolabi paired the symphony with a dynamic performance of Prélude, Adagio, et Choral varié sur le thème du Veni Creator, op. 4, by Maurice Duruflé and called to mind the connection between the two musicians in his program notes.  

October 3

The first morning session on Tuesday was an eye- and ear-opener. Michael Barone, host of Pipedreams from American Public Media, presented an illustrated talk, “Louis Vierne: His Other Music,” accompanied by recordings of much-overlooked compositions. Vierne gave us 17 opuses for organ, but there are 45 opuses of other music. We listened to works including Largo et Canzonetta for oboe and piano written early in his career, a few of his numerous pieces for piano, excerpts from an orchestral symphony and a rhapsody for harp written a few years after his second organ symphony, a piano quintet from 1917 composed for the death of his youngest son, and Vierne’s op. 61 from 1931, La ballade du déspéré, orchestrated by Maurice Duruflé. Mr. Barone certainly proved there is a trove of worthy music by Louis Vierne besides those works written for solo organ.

Sarah Simko, a master’s student at the University of Michigan and a member of The Diapason’s 20 under 30 Class of 2017, performed Symphonie III in F-sharp Minor, op.28, in a mid-morning recital at Hill Auditorium, holding the audience captivated from beginning to end. A long line of appreciative listeners waited to praise her, as it was an exhilarating performance.

Attendees and the greater Ann Arbor community experienced the unusual treat of seeing at ground level, rather than having to ascend a tower, how a carillon is played by means of a full 48-bell (26,000 lb.) carillon attached to a flatbed of a semi truck. Tiffany Ng, assistant professor and university carillonist at Michigan, secured a bicentennial celebration grant from the university to bring the Mobile Millennium Carillon in from the Chime Master Company of Lancaster, Ohio. Three of Dr. Ng’s current carillon students performed pieces for a masterclass outside Rackham Auditorium. Jeremy Chesman, who performed a solo concert the previous evening, delivered helpful instruction while maneuvering between the small cabin housing the playing console and street level via a small ladder. Kevin Yang, Rachael Park, and Michelle Lam each quickly adjusted their playing to produce more sensitive delivery of musical passages.

Students continued in the spotlight as six studying with James Kibbie and Kola Owolabi took the stage back at Hill Auditorium. Jennifer Shin, Joe Mutone, Dean Robinson, James Renfer, Sherri Brown, and Joseph Moss each played a movement of Symphonie I in D Minor, op. 14, competently representing the strength of the organ department.

The afternoon sessions reconvened at First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor where Naki Sung Kripfgans is organist.  She is also a staff collaborative pianist for the University of Michigan string department and university choir. In her presentation on “Vierne’s Harmonic Language,” Dr. Kripfgans posed questions about impressionism and how the label may or may not work in reference to the composer’s various works. 

Then we had soup—literally. A local chef demonstrated how to make the base for a classic bouillabaisse or seafood stew from the port city of Marseilles during her presentation “A Taste of France with Christine Miller.” When it was ready, sampling for all commenced.

A sweeter treat awaited us in the sanctuary. More intimate than the other venues we had been in, the space was a good choice for pianist Nicole Keller from Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio, with the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance’s Ivalas Quartet members (violinists Anita Dumar and Reuben Kebede, violist Caleb Georges, and cellist Pedro Sánchez) and award-winning Australian cellist Richard Narroway. Mr. Narroway, who is pursuing a doctoral degree with Richard Aaron at the University of Michigan, played Cello Sonata, op. 27, written when Vierne was 40 and prior to his third organ symphony. The performance was followed by String Quartet, op. 12, written some 16 years earlier. Deeply committed to sharing string quartet repertoire both new and old, the Ivalas Quartet graciously answered questions posed by Michael Barone after their spirited performance. We learned that op. 12 is the first composition by Vierne the musicians have taken on, and that they were not familiar with any of his chamber pieces beforehand. The quartet agreed they did find it an interesting composition and they would indeed continue to hone the work to include on future programs.

The penultimate conference event was a faculty recital by Tiffany Ng. Again, the Mobile Millennium Carillon was featured as she played selections in tribute to Louis Vierne including an athletic piece that referenced the Westminster chime and an arrangement of Ravel’s impressionist-style La vallée des cloches. Dr. Ng is responsible for the commissioning of several pieces, three of which were heard Tuesday evening. An advocate of new music for carillon with a social significance, she programmed Ashti by Jung Sun Kang (b. 1983) first. The composer, a Korean immigrant, was moved by the story of an artist acquaintance, an Afghan refugee.  

Handbells and mobile carillon combined during an alumni spotlight to allow Dr. Ng to relocate to Burton Tower’s instrument. Student carillonist Michelle Lam was joined by Handbell Adventure, and was directed by Wm. Jean Randall for the performance of a recent composition by Joseph D. Daniel. Mr. Daniel is an organ department graduate, composer, and member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. He was happy to be in attendance to hear his Five Miniatures (2106) for the first time while not having to direct or play. 

At the Charles Baird Carillon, Dr. Ng gave us some special collaborative, electroacoustic music composed in 2017. The first of two commissions in this portion of the recital was The Seer by Laura Steenberge (b. 1981), who describes this scene: “High in her tower, [the Seer] weaves space and time together with the vibrations of the ringing bells.” And the second commission, Euler’s Bell by John Granzow (b. 1976), seamlessly merged live performance with pre-recorded sounds created to showcase the connection between bells and history in the following way as noted by the composer: 

As history tells, bells are shattered in their belfries for easy transport to military furnaces. If the bell withstands the concussion, it may rebound and spin on its mouth’s edge with ratios of wobble to rotation redolent of Euler’s Disk, a physics toy used to investigate this type of oscillation. Euler’s Bell integrates the sound of such a bell wobbling on the hard ground, a sound that might forestall, just briefly (and yet longer than you might expect) the perennial recycling of metals and history.

Dr. Granzow is an assistant professor in the University of Michigan Department of Performing Arts Technology. His resulting eerie sonance with Dr. Ng was stunning.

Recently appointed continuing guest artist at the University of Michigan, Vincent Dubois regaled us with a closing concert that completed our journey through the organ symphonies of Vierne as he expertly performed Symphony II in E Minor, op. 20, followed by Dupré’s Symphonie-Passion, op. 23. With a rousing, grand finale send-off in the form of an improvisation on the name of Louis VIERNE, it was farewell until the next annual organ conference.

André Lash earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music and earlier degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Pittsburg (Kansas) State University. He is currently lecturer in organ at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists.

The presence of two American organists as recitalists and lecturers at the Beijing Baroque Music Festival in November 2017 can be seen as significant, not only in extending to the organ the ongoing musical interchange between China and the United States but also in demonstrating the ascendant importance of the organ in the People’s Republic of China. The history of the organ in China is a checkered one: the pan pipe and the sheng (mouth organ), predecessors to the modern organ, are known to have existed during the Yin dynasty (1401–1121 B.C.), and modern organs were first introduced in China during the 1600s.¹ During years of relative isolation in the twentieth century Chinese organ culture waned almost completely.

From the 1980s onward, however, organs (mainly from European builders) began to reappear in the major cities of Beijing and Shanghai, and today a revival of interest in organs for concert halls can be noticed. The emergence of some exceptionally fine instruments, growing audience curiosity about them, and increased knowledge about Baroque music exist especially in China’s capital city Beijing. In Beijing, a leading spokesperson for the organ and a proponent of stylistic Baroque music performance is Professor Fanxiu Shen of the Central Conservatory of Music.

Born in Beijing, Professor Shen earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Capital Normal University there, studying piano with Meiying Huang, Pingguo Zhao, Aifang Li, and Guangren Zhou. Immediately following her undergraduate studies she entered the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria, where she studied harpsichord with Gordon Murray and organ with Rudolf Scholz, eventually earning a Master of Arts degree.

During her harpsichord studies she had become impressed with the power and variety of sounds available on the organ, leading her to spend increased time with that instrument. Following the completion of the master’s degree she spent several years touring Austria and central Europe as the cembalist for various Baroque ensembles and became firmly committed to the promotion of Baroque music. In more recent years she has played organ and harpsichord concerts in Russia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and Poland.

Upon her return to Beijing in the early 1990s and her appointment to the faculty of the Central Conservatory of Music, Shen began to oversee the acquisition of harpsichords and to introduce Chinese students to some of the basic tenets of Baroque interpretation. Little by little she also began to make known the riches of the organ repertoire, particularly the Germanic literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Through the conservatory, she has been able to offer for the first time in China a group of courses in Baroque chamber music topics: Performance of Organ, Performance of Harpsichord, and Harpsichord with Orchestra. 

For many years Beijing has had an extensive series of music festivals and competitions involving Western musical traditions, both all-inclusive and for specific instruments. The unprecedented presentation in Beijing of Baroque masterclasses by the eminent British conductor Christopher Hogwood in 2010 as part of that year’s Beijing Music Festival signaled a major breakthrough for Baroque music in the city.

Because of the interest generated at that time and the increasing demand for her courses at the conservatory, the Beijing International Baroque Music Festival was established in 2011, with Professor Shen as founder and artistic director. This festival, held every two years, has brought together an increasing number of persons from both the conservatory and the wider Beijing musical community. A triumph for the “King of Instruments” came with the fourth such festival, held November 16–26, 2017, in which the organ was featured for the first time. In this festival appeared not only performances of Baroque music for both organ and harpsichord but also organ-oriented chamber music of all style periods—featuring composers such as Mozart, Telemann, and Handel, as well as Rheinberger, Mollicone, and Michael Baker—and lectures on various topics pertinent to Baroque organ literature, such as the relationship of string and keyboard articulation in the Baroque period (presented to string students by the visiting organists), the history of American organ music, and Iberian Baroque organ music. For the first time at one of the Baroque festivals, the major organ concerts were held not at the conservatory but at the Concert Hall in Beijing’s dazzling National Center for the Performing Arts, which features a Johannes Klais instrument of four manuals, 113 ranks, with twin consoles—one with mechanical action embedded in the case high above the stage and a duplicate console with electric action stored beneath the stage and completely moveable when raised by mechanized lift.

Ticket sales and audience sizes were stunning—the concert hall seats just over 2,000 persons, and each of the organ concerts was almost completely sold out! Besides Professor Shen, these concerts featured three foreign artists: Dariusz Bakowski-Kois from Poland, and Douglas Cleveland and André Lash of the United States. In addition to concerts in the major venue, Douglas Cleveland also performed at the conservatory’s middle school branch, which boasts its own three-manual mechanical action instrument by Kenneth Jones of Ireland. A highlight of the festival was the performance at the conservatory of all six of the Brandenburg concerti of J. S. Bach by a combined student-faculty orchestra with Fanxiu Shen leading from the harpsichord.

§

The following information is a summary of materials combined from an interview with Professor Shen during breaks in the festival and answers from a questionnaire submitted after the close of the festival.

How did your interest in Baroque music begin?

During my youth and early piano studies little was known in China concerning Baroque performance practice. During my time in Europe I was able to hear and experience excellent performances of Baroque works different from anything I had heard before. It was only natural that upon my return to China I would bring this expertise with me.

What about the presence of the organ in China?

When I was young there were no organs in China—at least no working organs. My first experience with the organ was during my studies in Austria. Although I was already becoming well trained as a harpsichordist, I was fascinated by the variety of sound and the sheer power of the organ. As with Baroque music in general, I wanted to introduce Chinese people to this fascinating instrument.

Concerning the Beijing International Baroque Music Festival, how did you become involved and how have you seen it grow?

The presence of the harpsichord and the courses that I started teaching at Central Conservatory of Music acted as a catalyst for greater interest in Baroque music, and my training in Europe gave me the tools to equip interested musicians with some needed interpretive skills. But this year [2017] has been exceptionally exciting because although I had given almost one hundred recitals myself in the National Center for the Performing Arts, this year is the very first time that the organ has been used for any of our music festivals here in Beijing, marking a significant turning point for the organ not only in Beijing but for all of China. Some organs also exist in Shanghai, but the National Center for the Performing Arts is a magnet for Chinese musical activity, and the use of the organ in that venue heralds the entry of organ into the mainstream of music within China. In addition, because the organ is still new to most Chinese people they are very curious about it: they are fascinated by all of the unusual and varied sounds and the organ’s power, and the appreciation for this can be seen from their attendance at our concerts during the festival.

What are your hopes and dreams for the future of the Beijing International Baroque Music Festival?

That it will grow! Now that the organ has become a part of the festival I hope that we will be able to include more artists from Europe and the United States and that we will attract even more attendees from within China. I also hope that we will continue to maintain our connection with the NCPA; the strong ticket sales in our first cooperative venture are quite encouraging.

§

Based on Professor Shen’s observations and her enormous enthusiasm and energy, the great success of the Fourth Beijing International Baroque Music Festival bodes well for the future of the organ in China. It will be interesting for all of us in the West to follow the growth of organ performance, organ pedagogy, and organ composition in this country during the years to come.

Notes

1. Clacklinevalleyolives.com.au, accessed March 26, 2018.

The Diapason’s inaugural “20 under 30” selections came from a field that included over 100 nominations, a response that surprised and delighted us. The nominees were evaluated based upon information provided in the nominations; we selected only from those who had been nominated. We looked for evidence of such things as career advancement, technical skills, and creativity and innovation; we considered a nominee’s awards and competition prizes, publications and compositions, and significant positions in the mix. Our selections were not limited merely to organists but reflect the breadth of our editorial scope, which includes the organ, harpsichord, carillon, and church music. Here we present the winners’ backgrounds and accomplishments, and then have them tell us something interesting about themselves, and about their achievements, goals, and aspirations.

Since we had to decline multiple nominees for each one we chose, selecting only 20 from a field of very worthy nominees was quite a challenge. We do urge you to participate in the “20 under 30” awards next year—a person must be nominated in order to be selected.