AGO President John Walker (center) recently visited the organ department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He met with Professor Lei Zhu, department chairperson (to Walker’s left), Professor Dan Wu, organ teacher (to Walker’s right), and many students.
David Briggs, Chanticleer, Nathan Laube, and Ann Elise Smoot will be among the featured artists at the 2015 AGO Mid-Atlantic Regional Convention.
Venues will include Westminster Presbyterian Church, Trinity Cathedral (Pittsburgh), St. Paul Cathedral (Pittsburgh), Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Sacred Heart Parish, Heniz Chapel, First English Evangelical Lutheran Church, Epiphany Catholic Church, East Liberty Presbyterian Church, and Calvary Episcopal Church.
The American Guild of Organists (AGO) presented its twelfth annual Endowment Fund Distinguished Artist Award Recital and Gala Benefit Reception honoring Cherry Rhodes and Ladd Thomas on Friday, April 17, at the First United Methodist Church of Glendale, California where Dr. Thomas has served as organist for 55 years. An audience of more than 500 colleagues, students, friends, and loved ones came together to celebrate the lifetime achievements of this dynamic musical couple.
View a slideshow of photos of the Gala
The Gala was sponsored by the AGO National Council and its Development Committee in cooperation with the First United Methodist Church of Glendale. The event raised approximately $60,000 to be invested in the AGO Endowment Fund in the couple’s honor. Annual earnings from the Endowment support the educational activities of the Guild. The honorees performed a recital that included Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 1 in F Minor (Thomas), Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, transcribed by Jean Guillou (Rhodes), and combined their talents on the organ bench in a rare organ duet performance of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas, as arranged by Rayner Brown for their exclusive use. The Gala Benefit Reception followed at the Hilton Los Angeles North/Glendale Hotel with 200 guests in attendance.
AGO President John Walker, FAGO, presented the honorees with the AGO Endowment Fund Distinguished Artist Award “for their exemplary careers as stellar performers and passionate teachers, and their lifelong service to the AGO and the sacred music profession.”
Established in 1994, the AGO Endowment Fund provides income to educate new organists and to cultivate new audiences for organ and choral music. Tax-deductible contributions to the Endowment Fund are invested in perpetuity to produce continuing income for essential Guild programs and educational projects. The AGO’s annual Gala travels around the country to celebrate distinguished members of the organ world. Past AGO Gala honorees have included Marie-Claire Alain (New York City), Charles Callahan (St. Louis), David Craighead (Philadelphia), Gerre and Judith Hancock (New York City), Joyce Jones (Fort Worth), Marilyn Keiser (New York City), Marilyn Mason (Ann Arbor), Thomas Murray (New Haven), John Obetz (Kansas City), Frederick Swann (Los Angeles), and John and Marianne Weaver (Philadelphia).
Those unable to attend the 2015 AGO Gala will receive a copy of the commemorative program book with their contribution of $50 or more to the AGO Endowment Fund. Contributions in honor of Cherry Rhodes and Ladd Thomas can be made online by mailing a check to: AGO Endowment Fund, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1260, New York, NY 10115. All gifts will be acknowledged in THE AMERICAN ORGANIST. For information, please call 212-870-2311, ext. 4308, or e-mail gala@agohq.org.
In December, 2014, twelve organists entered the 2015 competition. Working with a proctor, each competitor created a CD recording in January which was returned to AGO Headquarters in accordance with the procedure outlined in the rules. A panel of three judges, Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, Emma Lou Diemer, and Jason Roberts, reviewed the recordings (which remained anonymous) and selected five semifinalists.
The upcoming semifinal round will be held in conjunction with the 2015 Southeast AGO Regional Convention in Charlotte on July 1, 2015 at First United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. By showcasing the art of improvisation at a regional convention, the NCOI committee hopes to build interest throughout the Guild for this important art form.
Wilbur Held, a resident of Claremont, California, passed into life everlasting on March 24, 2015, at age 100. The AGO remembers with gratitude his service as a National Councillor (1968–1971) and dean of the Columbus (Ohio) Chapter. A celebration of his lifetime of music composition resulted in a Centenary Edition of his organ works, published by MorningStar Music in 2014.
Wilbur Held was born on August 20, 1914, in Des Plaines, Illinois. He enrolled at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, studying organ with Frank van Dusen and theory/composition with John Palmer, and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees there. Midway through his studies, he became Leo Sowerby’s assistant at St. James Church—an association that lasted seven years.
In 1946, Held joined the faculty at Ohio State University, where he became Professor of Organ and Church Music and head of the keyboard department. He remained in this position for more than 30 years, and was organist-choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus.
During his tenure at OSU, Held earned a Doctor of Sacred Music degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York and studied the organ with Marcel Dupré, André Marchal, Vernon de Tar, and composition with Normand Lockwood and Wallingford Riegger. His compositions are published by MorningStar, Augsburg, Concordia, Hinshaw, Beckenhorst, Sacred Music Press, and Hope. The Nativity Suite, published in 1959, has sold more than 25,000 copies.
In 1978, Wilbur Held retired to Claremont, where he has continued to be active as clinician, recitalist and composer.
AGO President John Walker welcomed the Indiana, Pennsylvania Chapter to the Guild during the intermission of his recital on the Pogorzelski-Yankee Organ on Sunday, March 16, 2015, at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Christine Clewell, Professor of Music and chapter Dean, and Jonathan Petty, chapter Secretary, joined him on stage to receive the chapter’s charter.
The recital included “Voluntary on the Old 100th” by Henry Purcell; “Toccata und Fugue in E-Dur” by Johann Krebs; “Concerto del Sigr. Meck” by Johann Walther; “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam, BWV 684” and “Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541” by J.S. Bach; “Sonata VI in D Minor” by Felix Mendelssohn; “Canon in B Minor” by Robert Schumann; and “Voluntary for Trumpet and Organ” by Domecq Smith, with IUP trumpet professor Kevin Eisensmith as guest soloist.
“Voluntary for Trumpet and Organ” by Domecq Smith