He has appeared in recital for the American Guild of Organists, the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society, the Organ Historical Society, American Institute of Organbuilders, International Society of Organbuilders, at the Library of Congress, Boston Early Music Festival, Aston Magna Festival, New England Bach Festival, Portland Chamber Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, and with Ensemble Project Ars Nova, The King’s Noyse, Musica Antiqua Köln, Blue Heron, and throughout the United States, including an appearance in Boston’s Jordan Hall as a featured soloist in the Bank of Boston Emerging Artists Celebrity Series. He is frequently heard on the nationally syndicated radio program “Pipedreams.” Appearances include an all-Bach inaugural recital on a new organ built by Fritz Noack for the Langholtskirkja in Reykjavik, Iceland, Bach’s Goldberg Variations for the Cambridge Society for Early Music and at Music Sources in Berkeley, CA, Manuel de Falla's Harpsichord Concerto with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, the Schumann Piano Quintet on original instruments with the Van Swieten Quartet, Samuel Barber’s organ concerto “Toccata Festiva” and a pedal piano recital of works of Schumann and Alkan at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee. In March 2004 he was given the honor of performing the dedication recital on the newly restored 1800 Tannenberg two-manual organ in Old Salem, North Carolina, an event featured on the nationally broadcast television show “CBS Sunday Morning.” He was a member of the continuo team for the Boston Early Music Festival opera productions of Cavalli's Ercole Amante, Lully's Thésée and Psyché and Conradi’s Ariadne, and now directs its featured “Keyboard Day” mini-festival. He also appears regularly in concert and on recordings with Boston Baroque. With Christa Rakich he created “Tuesdays With Sebastian,” an independent two-year benefit concert series in which he and Ms. Rakich performed the entire keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the organ and harpsichord in thirty-four recitals. He has premiered new works by Dan Locklair, James Woodman, and Joel Martinson, and has performed well over twenty dedication recitals for new or rebuilt organs. He also performs frequently on the clavichord and was one of two featured players on this instrument at the 2009 Boston Early Music Festival. In May 2011 he performed clavichord recitals for the British and Dutch Clavichord Societies in London and Amsterdam, at Fenton House in London and the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands, and for the “Party in the City” night of concerts as part of the International Music Festival in Bath.
His solo recordings include J.S. Bach’s complete Leipzig Chorales recorded on the Noack organ of the Langholtskirkja in Reykjavik, From The Heartland - Two Nordlie Organs in South Dakota, Harpsichord Music of Couperin and Rameau, A Nantucket Organ Tour, MAXimum Reger: Favorite Organ Works, and Modern Organ Music, a disc of music by Hindemith, Heiller, Pinkham, Woodman, and Icelandic composers on the Noack organ in the Neskirkja in Reykjavik. His bestselling recording of his organ transcription of Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets was named Best of 1996 by Audio Review, a “Super CD” by Absolute Sound in 1999, and garnered accolades in every review. He appears on the Cambridge Bach Ensemble recording The Muses of Zion, performing organ works of Tunder and Buxtehude on the Fisk meantone organ of Wellesley College, the Music from Aston Magna recording of the oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth, in which he performs the first known organ concerto movement of Handel, a recording of the organ concerto Cymbale of Julian Wachner, and the Grammy-nominated Boston Baroque recordings of Handel’s Messiah, Bach's B-Minor Mass, and Monteverdi’s Vespers. His most recent solo recordings include the dedication recital on the Tannenberg organ in Old Salem, available on the Raven label, and the complete Bach harpsichord partitas, available on the Centaur label. He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Gabriel Chodos, Blanche Winogron, Mireille Lagacé, Robert Schuneman, and Yuko Hayashi, and Concordia University in Montreal, where he studied with Bernard Lagacé. In 1978 he was winner of the Chadwick Medal from the New England Conservatory for outstanding undergraduate achievement; in the same year, he was a winner of the school’s annual concerto competition, playing the Harpsichord Concerto of Frank Martin. In 1983 he was the winner of the Boston Chapter American Guild of Organists Young Artists Competition; in 1986, winner of the Second International Harpsichord Competition sponsored by the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society. He was the 1993 laureate of the Erwin Bodky Award for excellence in early music performance. In May 2005 he received the Outstanding Alumni award from the New England Conservatory for career achievement since graduation. In May 2011 he was honored by the St. Botolph Club Foundation with its Distinguished Artist Award, a major gift awarded annually to an artist who has demonstrated outstanding talent and an exceptional diversity of accomplishment; previous recipients include painter Edward Hopper, poets Elizabeth Bishop and Stanley Kunitz, sculptor Alexander Calder, and writers George V. Higgins, Annie Dillard, and Sissela Bok. The award letter characterized him as “one of the major musical intellects and imaginations of our time.” In demand as a teacher and mentor of aspiring professional performers, he is Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Historical Performance Department at Boston University. Since 1985 he has also served as Director of Music at First Church in Cambridge, Congregational. He has been adjudicator for competitions sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Bach International Harpsichord Festival in Montreal as well as the Broadwood Harpsichord Competition in London and the Miami International Organ Competition. A member of the board of the Cambridge Society for Early Music, he is a founding board member and current president of the Boston Clavichord Society. In this conversation Peter shares his insights, among other things, about his experience of playing the harpsichord, clavichord and organ, being a versatile musician, loving music making for its own sake, and imagining the sound first. 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: www.petersykes.com SOP Podcast #56 - Lynne Davis on Continuing the French Organ Tradition in the 21st century8/21/2016
Though American by birth, Lynne Davis’ career has been steeped in French music, culture, and style. Her career was launched by taking First Prize at the 1975 St. Albans International Organ Competition in England – the eighth organist to receive that honor since the competition’s founding in 1962. Now a leading international concert artist and master teacher, she has performed in nearly every cathedral in France, numerous major cities throughout Europe, and from coast to coast in the United States. Her activities have included being a featured performer and lecturer at two national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, a member of Chartres, Dallas, St. Albans, Tariverdiev (Russia), and Montréal international organ competition juries, and giving master classes and lectures about French organ literature and its history.
From the late 1970’s until 2006, Lynne Davis made France her home, having married Frenchman and Chartres International Organ Competition founder Pierre Firmin-Didot. The couple played a major role in the French organ music scene, initiating among other things the famous 1992 exhibition and recording of “Les Orgues de Paris”. Her unique living and vast working experience as well as her lineage of study in France makes her an authority in all French organ repertoire and many other European composers. She holds the “Certificat d’Aptitude de Professeur d’Orgue” awarded by the Republic of France. A highly regarded teacher, she served as organ professor at the Conservatory of Music in Clamart, near Paris from 1990-2006 and from 1997 to 2006 at the French National Regional Conservatory in Caen in Normandy. In 2006 she returned to the United States and that summer was appointed Associate Professor of Organ, holding the Robert L. Town Distinguished Professor of Organ chair at the Wichita State University School of Music in Kansas. In addition to heading the organ program, she is producer and artistic director of the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series, “Distinguished Guest Artists”, and the “Wednesdays in Wiedemann” series she created in 2007 (for which she performs monthly half-hour organ recitals) which are videotaped for YouTube. Lynne Davis’s recordings include discs, radio broadcasts and live performances, including those on the famed organ at Chartres Cathedral. Her disc, “Musique pour Cathédrales”, released on the Quantum label, won the coveted 5 Diapasons award in France. Other Chartres recordings by Ms. Davis’ include Jehan ALAIN et Maurice DURUFLE and a varied program of Raison, Bach, Vierne, Roger-Ducasse and Litaize. “Lynne Davis en Concert” was made on the world-renowned Cavaillé-Coll organ at the church of St. Etienne in Caen in Normandy. Her most recent CD, is “Lynne Davis at the Marcussen organ in Wiedemann Hall” at Wichita State University was released in 2010. All of her recitals at Wichita State University since 2006 have been recorded “live” and are archived there. Ms. Davis graduated with honors in organ performance from the University of Michigan where she studied with Robert Clark. Shortly thereafter, she moved to France and for eight years she studied with Marie-Claire Alain. While there she also studied with Jean Langlais, Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, André Fleury, Gaston Litaize, and Edouard Souberbielle and partook in classes with numerous other great European master organists. In 2011, Lynne Davis received the Excellence in Creativity Award from Wichita State University. Following the immense success of the American Alain Festival which she organized at Wichita State University to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jehan Alain, she was awarded as a French citizen the prestigious distinction of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication in 2012. In 2013, she received the medal of the city of Wichita from Mayor Carl Brewer. Lynne Davis is represented exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC. In this conversation, Lynne Davis shares her insights about continuing the French organ tradition in the 21st century. 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: lynnedavis.net Wichita State University Rie Bloomfield Organ Series
His music has been performed by The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Zürcher Kammerorchester, The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Riga Philharmonic Orchestra, South-Jutland Symphony Orchestra, violinist Nikolaj Znaider and many other ensembles and soloists.
Frederik Magle also works with film scores and crossover music/fusion, blending contemporary classical music with other genre such as jazz, rock, electronica, and even hip-hop. On October 25th 2009 the first pipe organ with tonal design by Frederik Magle was inaugurated in Jørlunde church, Denmark. The instrument has 24 stops and 1360 pipes and is built by the organ builders Frobenius on specifications by Frederik Magle, who was hired as consultant by the church council. As a soloist on piano or pipe organ Frederik Magle has played in Saint Peter's Basilica (Rome), Windsor Castle, Luzern Concert Hall, Riga Cathedral, Koncerthuset (Copenhagen Concert Hall), The Danish Radio Concert Hall, and many other places. In 1999 Frederik played at the christening of H.H. Prince Nikolai, and later he was invited to perform a solo organ concert for the Danish Royal Family and Royal Court at Fredensborg Castle. In 2002 his piece »Pact of the Baptism« was given its first performance at the christening of H.H. Prince Felix in Møgeltønder Church. Frederik Magle has also received many grants and prizes in support of his work and achievements as composer and musician, including the Grants of Her Majesty The Queen of Denmark and H.R.H. Prince Henrik, The Grant of H.H. Prince Joachim and H.H. Princess Alexandra, Countess Erna Hamilton's scolarship, Carlsberg's Prize of Ideas, Unibank's Arts Prize, the Arts Award of the Freemasons, and a grant from the Danish Arts Foundation (2014). In this conversation, Frederik shares his insights about bringing the organ alive. 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: www.magle.dk
Detroit where, in addition to playing for liturgies and concerts, he conducts the famed Cathedral Choirs. Prior to this appointment he served as the Cathedral’s Assistant Organist joining the staff in 1994. In April of 2007, he was seated as Canon Precentor of the Cathedral in thanksgiving and recognition of his role in the liturgical and musical life of the Cathedral community. He is the founding director of the Cathedral Choir School of Metropolitan Detroit.
A student of the American organist and pedagogue Robert Glasgow, Jeremy David Tarrant is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music where he earned the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance and sacred music. His other instructors include Betty R. Pursley, Corliss Arnold, and James Kibbie. He has had additional coaching with Lynne Davis. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, he was awarded First Prize in the Ottumwa National Organ Competition in 1997 and Second Prize in the Arthur Poister National Competition in 1998. Mr. Tarrant has also been a finalist in the American Guild of Organists Regional Competitions. Mr. Tarrant is in frequent demand as a teacher and clinician, and regularly serves on the faculties of the Royal School of Church Music summer courses as well as the American Guild of Organists summer Pipe Organ Encounters. An active concert organist, Jeremy has performed widely in North America in such venues as the Washington National Cathedral; St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue; St. James Cathedral, Toronto; St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York; and Chicago’s famed Fourth Presbyterian Church. He frequently appears with the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and has performed in regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. In 2008, Mr. Tarrant made his European solo debut with a recital in the Cathedrale de St. Etienne in Meaux, France, and in 2011 he played the closing recital of International Organ Week in Dijon, France. In 2012, he was a featured artist in the Pine Mountain Music Festival, presenting three solo recitals in Michigan’s upper peninsula. In July, 2014 Jeremy conducted the Cathedral Choir during their tour of England where they were in residency at Chichester Cathedral. This tour also included concerts and services in Canterbury and Southwark Cathedrals. In this conversation, we talk about his experience with organ registration, adapting to large instruments, working with choirs, the importance of playing the piano and working on ear training 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: Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit, Michigan YouTube channel of Jeremy David Tarrant Detroit Cathedral Music Page on Facebook |
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AuthorVidas Pinkevicius' conversations with internationally renown experts from the organ world - concert and church organists, improvisers, educators, composers, organ builders, musicologists and other people who help shape the future of our profession. Archives
November 2017
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