He got interested in the organ back in the 70’s and always had a love for jazz music.  He got enamored with organs, especially the Hammond organ, after listening to jazz organists like Jimmy Smith and Johnny ‘Hammond’ Smith.  It was exciting for him to hear some rock groups embrace and incorporate the Hammond organ in those days, like Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman.  He quickly became a huge fan of those people and that sound.
 
Jay had played piano for some years, being taught in his youth by his mother, who was a pretty good pianist.  He started playing saxophone early in school years and continued in that from Junior High through college.  His favorite school groups were jazz ensembles.
 
In the early 70’s, Jay joined a band and bought his first organ, a Hammond Model D, a huge monster of an organ.  He played keyboards and woodwinds professionally in various groups for some fifteen years or so.  
 
Currently Jay has the privilege to play organ in his church services occasionally.    In his church, ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’, (more commonly known as Mormons), there are no paid positions, which would include clergy and organists.  People are asked by ecclesiastical leaders to fulfill positions for various lengths of time.  So in his congregation, there is an organist that has been asked or ‘called’ to that position for an indeterminate length of time.  When he is not able to attend our services, he usually asks Jay to fill in. 
 
He enjoys playing hymn and chorale type music, and is working to increase his proficiency in those areas. 
 
Jay's largest challenge is sight-reading.  He didn’t do a whole lot of that playing professionally, and he feels he's playing catch-up with that now.

So in this conversation, ​Jay and I devise a 30 day hymn sight-reading challenge for him as well as other practical details for his organ playing future.

​​Enjoy and share your comments below.

​And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends.

Thanks for caring.
​
Related links:
https://www.facebook.com/jay.farnes
https://secrets-of-organ-playing.myshopify.com/products/hymn-playing-workshop
https://secrets-of-organ-playing.myshopify.com/products/organ-hymn-improvisation-level-1

Christopher Henley. He is native of Talladega, Alabama and serves as the organist of Anniston First United Methodist Church, where he provides service music for the 8:30 and 10:30 traditional worship services, manages the Soli Deo Gloria Concert Series, and accompanies various vocal and instrumental ensembles.

Prior to his service at Anniston First, he served as the organist of the First United Methodist Church in Talladega and Pell City, Alabama. He is the founder and artistic director of The Noble Camerata, an auditioned vocal ensemble, that sings choral services in the Anniston, Alabama area and seasonal concerts. In addition to his church responsibilities, he serves on the faculty of the Community Music School of the University of Alabama, where is an instructor of piano.

In March 2017, Christopher was named a member of the Class of 2017 “20 Under 30” by The Diapason magazine, an international journal of organ music, for his leadership in the field of organ and choral music. Mr. Henley is currently a senior in pursuit of the Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance at The University of Alabama where he studies with Dr. Faythe Freese.

His piano teachers have included Mrs. Pamela Thomson, Dr. Edisher Savitski, and Dr. Tayna Gille. He is also a member of the Early Chamber Music Ensemble where he plays harpsichords for various groups. As a collaborative artist, he has joined with clarinetist, Michael Abrams, to form Basilica Duo: a duo performing works for clarinet and organ.

He has accompanied various choirs, including the University Singers of The University of Alabama, the Jacksonville State University A cappella choir, and Talladega College Choir. He has also performed with the Alabama Symphonic Band and the Jacksonville State University Trombone Ensemble.

Active as a performer, Mr. Henley has performed across the United States as a soloist. Recent performances have taken him to Saint Thomas, Fifth Avenue in New York City; First Plymouth Congregational Church in Lincoln, Nebraska; Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Illinois; and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, California.

Upcoming performances include appearances in Atlanta, Georgia; Ashland, Alabama; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Washington, D.C.; New York, New York; Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Portland, Oregon.

As a competitor, he received first prize in the 2013 University of Alabama Organ Scholarship Competition, the 2013 Minnie McNeil Carr Organ Scholarship Competition, and the 2012 Clarence Dickenson Organ Festival (Beginner). In 2015, he was a finalist for the Southeast Regional Competition for Young Organists for the American Guild of Organists in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Mr. Henley is an active member of the American Guild of Organists and The University of Alabama Music Teachers National Association. In the AGO, he was appointed as a member of the executive board for the AGO Young Organists initiative for the Southeast Region. He also serves as the student affairs coordinator of the Birmingham Chapter. For MTNA, he has served the collegiate chapter of UA in the capacity of secretary.

​In this conversation Christopher shares his insights about his organ playing experiences as well as about the audience's aspect in creating art, responding to criticism, finding dialogue between fellow musicians and sharing your work with the world.

We also talked about the value of blogging for organists.

​​Enjoy and share your comments below.

​And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends.

Thanks for caring.
​
Related links:
https://christopherbhenley.blog
https://www.facebook.com/cbhenley​
​https://www.instagram.com/Christopher.Henley
​https://twitter.com/cbkhenley
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXRM_0TCuUT8FcfPq7crAng​
http://annistonfirst.info

in France. He is Professor Emeritus of Harpsichord at the Conservatory of the 18th precinct in Paris and Organist Emeritus at Saint-Jean de Montmartre Church, also in Paris.

He has recently published the 10th volume of the his comprehensive Harpsichord Method. This treatise is especially suitable for organists because harpsichord and organ in early music are very closely related - they are like cousins.

Frank wrote this method because he started teaching harpsichord back in 1992 and there was very little material available for beginners.

There were few methods that were on the market and some had good ideas but they all started from the standpoint that the beginning pupil already had some basic musical knowledge and some basic keyboard technique.

The first two or three pages were easy but afterwards they jumped to difficult things so he had always to add material making photocopies writing in his own exercises to fill these gaps.

So Frank ended up by writing his own method to make something coherent and more easily accessible to people who have never heard of harpsichord.
​
Since 1994 this method is being used in 27 countries, covering Europe, North America, South America and Oceania. Frank hopes that he also will get students from Africa in the future.

Frank has already been on our podcast talking about his Vol. 8 and now that this project has been completed it will be great to see his complete vision for students who want to learn early keyboard technique.

Enjoy and share your comments below.

If you like these conversations with the experts from the organ world, please help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends.

Relevant link:
Complete Harpsichord Method by Frank Mento:
​http://harpsichord-method.com

South Dakota. He performs with “nuance, polish, and personality” (Michael Barone, APM Pipedreams). Wyatt concertizes extensively throughout the United States by keeping an active concert schedule. he has performed in twenty-eight states throughout the US over the last seven years, and more recently in Europe.

Notable performance venues include the US Air Force Academy Protestant Cadet Chapel (Colorado Springs), St. Thomas Church (New York), St. Andrew’s Cathedral (Honolulu), St. George’s, Hanover Square (London), St. Mark Episcopal Cathedral (Seattle), the Spreckels Organ Pavilion – Balboa Park (San Diego), National City Christian Church (Washington D. C.) King’s Chapel (Boston), Trinity Church – Copley Square (Boston), Woolsey Hall – Yale University (New Haven), William Jewell College (Liberty), the Community of Christ Auditorium and Temple (Independence), the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (Los Angeles), and Overture Concert Hall (Madison).

He performed at the 2012 AGO National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee as a Rising Star, having won the AGO/Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists - Region VI in 2011. His performances have been heard on several episodes of American Public Media’s Pipedreams.

His achievements in performance were recently recognized when he was named as a member of the "Class of 2016" by The Diapason's program, "20-under-30", which recognizes young leaders in the fields of organ, harpsichord, carillon, and church music.

Wyatt has a passion for commissioning and performing new works for the organ. Over the last several years, he has commissioned and premiered works by David Cherwien, Carson Cooman, Emma Lou Diemer, Kurt Knecht, Kristina Langlois, Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, among others.

Wyatt is currently a doctoral student at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studies organ performance with Dr. Carole Terry. He received his Master of Music degree from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Yale School of Music, where he studied organ performance with Dr. Martin Jean. His Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance is from the University of South Dakota, where he was an organ student of Dr. Larry Schou.

Wyatt is the Organist at St. Alphonsus Parish in Seattle, Washington, where he plays the Fritts-Richards organ, Op. 4.

In this conversation, among many other things, Wyatt talks about his experience in playing Bach's trio sonatas, Matthias Weckmann's gigantic cycle "Es ist das Heil" and his newest research on the late works of Max Reger.

Enjoy and share your comments below.

​And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends.

Thanks for caring.
​
Related link:
http://www.wyattsmith-organist.com