An Eventful Semester with Many "Firsts"

My last exam for the fall semester was on Thursday, December 17, and this was followed closely by Christmas.  This was a very eventful semester for me with many “firsts” in both school and my church music internship.  Some of the highlights were:

• Choral Conducting:  I conducted three choirs in rehearsals and in multiple settings: the Collegiate Chorale in two pieces in the November 14 concert, and in one piece at the December 6 Yuletide concert; the St. John’s Youth Choir in two pieces in two concert performances and Christmas Eve Mass; and the St. John’s Adult Choir in one piece in the Christmas concert and in Christmas Mass.  I learned a lot from these experiences and from my mentor for Collegiate Chorale, Francis Vogt, and my mentor for the St. John’s Choirs, Kevin Birch.  I would also like to recognize Clayton Smith, the accompanist for Collegiate Chorale.  Clayton mentored me in how to work with an accompanist.  Conducting is learned by doing and I appreciate these opportunities.

At the end of the November 14 Collegiate Chorale concert 

with some of my fellow student conductors:  

Rob Gelinas, Morgen Campbell, and Shane Cloutier

With Fran Vogt after the November 14 Collegiate Chorale Concert

Conducting the joint choirs of St. John’s 

at the December 20 Music Sacra Christmas Concert

Photo courtesy of Gayle Baber

• Service Playing:  I played for Masses at St. Teresa’s Church twice a month.  This gave me the opportunity to apply some of the music I was learning in my organ lessons in a liturgical setting, and to learn more hymns and other service music.  One of the highlights was the November 23 feast of Christ the King.  At this Mass, I was joined by Anthony Viselli on violin and Julia Alexander on flute.  We played a Mozart trio as a prelude and a violin and organ duo of Hanff’s Ein feste Burg during the Mass.

• Choral Singing:  I performed with the St. John’s Chamber Choir in our Advent concert on December 5 when we sang a Monteverdi Motet and Mass and the Vivaldi Magnificat.  The choir was joined by Heidi Powell and Richard Hsu on violin, Marisa Solomon on cello, and Abraham Ross on organ.  I feel blessed to be able to sing such beautiful music.

• Junior Standing:  One of my requirements for graduation is to pass Junior Standing.  This is my performing on the organ for a minimum of five faculty and their evaluation of my performance.  I am happy to report that I passed!  This is the program I played:

Prelude and Fugue in G Major (BWV 557)	Attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott   (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God) with Anthony Viselli, violin	Johann Nicolaus Hanff (1665-1711/12) Arranged by Benjamin M. Culli for violin and organ
Wondrous Love: Variations for Organ	Daniel Pinkham (1923-2006)
Vom Himmel Hoch da komm ich her (From Heaven above to Earth I Come)	Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
Fanfare	Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881)

I also played the Hanff Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott with Anthony Viselli at Recital Lab on November 23.  Here is a video of our performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1i0uPmlL7o&feature=youtu.be

• Organ Toccata:  This semester I learned to play Fanfare by Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881).  This is a toccata that moves very quickly.  When I first started to learn it I thought that I would never be able to play it up to tempo – there were so many notes!  I finally had a breakthrough with this piece when I memorized the parts of it that were difficult for me.  To memorize the piece I had to learn it more thoroughly, and with it memorized, I could watch my hands and my feet if needed.  I feel like I have moved up a level in organ playing by being able to perform this challenging piece.  In addition to playing Lemmens’ Fanfare for my Junior Standing, I played it as the postlude at the St. John’s Christmas Concert on December 20.

• Research skills:  Two of my courses this past semester had research components.  When I was an undergraduate for my first degree (BS Mathematics, 1973, University of Delaware), libraries still had card catalogs and were not yet computerized.  It was very valuable for me to learn how to use the computer to access many of the resources of the extensive Folger Library at the University of Maine.  I was part of a team with Hannah Babcock and Colin Graebert assigned to write a research paper on  Music of the Spheres  for our music history class.  Music of the Spheres is a scientific and philosophical concept, first articulated by Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher of the 6th century B.C.  Pythagoras believed that the universe has a mathematical root and that the proportions of the universe are related to the musical scale.  Thus the laws of music rule the entire universe.  Professor Stuart Marrs liked our paper so much that he requested to use it as an example for next year’s class.

With Hannah Babcock and Colin Graebert in the Student Union 

working on our research paper on Music of the Spheres

I feel very blessed by the opportunity to be learning so much.  I feel supported by my family, especially my husband, John, my friends, and my community as I learn the skills to become a church musician.

I am looking forward with excitement to the spring semester and my graduation in May!  I will be preparing and performing my senior project.  More on that later.

Fall Semester Classes, Concerts, and Internship

My fall semester classes are going very well.  It’s hard to believe that we have been in classes for over a month and are already in autumn break.  I am taking 7 courses this semester:

·      Music History (Western music history from the beginning until 1750)

·      Music Literature Lab (a course covering research in music, how to use music notation software, and how to record and edit music audio files)

·      Piano Literature from J.S. Bach (1685-1750) through Chopin (1810-1849)

·      Collegiate Chorale – one of five student conductors.  Our concert is on Saturday, November 14, at 7:30 pm in Minsky Hall at the University of Maine.  I will conduct two pieces. 

o   “Antiphon” from Five Mystical Songs by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), which was first performed in 1911

o   “Shiloh,” an a cappella Christmas song by American composer William Billings (1746-1800), published in 1786 in The Suffolk Harmony.

·      Organ Lessons with Kevin Birch

·      Piano Lessons with Phillip Silver

·      Voice Lessons with Marcia Gronewold Sly.

In addition to my coursework at school, I am serving as music intern at St. John’s and St. Teresa’s Catholic Churches, where, in addition to service playing, I am gaining more experience in choir training and program administration.  I am playing the organ for services at St. Teresa’s twice a month, and I am assisting Kevin Birch with the St. John’s Youth (first through eighth grades) and Adult choirs.

I sing in the St. John’s Chamber Choir, the St. John’s Adult Choir, the St. Teresa’s Schola, and the St. John’s Voices of Love (which sings at funerals).

The St. John’s Chamber Choir will present Musica Sacra – Advent 2015 on Saturday, December 5, 2015, at 7:30 pm at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York Street, Bangor.  We will be performing Italian Masterworks of the 17^th and 18^th Centuries:

Mass for Four Voices (in F) - Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Motet: Beatus Vir qui timet Dominum - Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Magnificat in g - Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

We will be joined by guest artists:  Heidi Powell (violin), Richard Hsu (violin), and Abraham Ross (organ)

St John’s Chamber Choir 

in front of the altar at St. John’s Catholic Church, Bangor

Service Playing

This past summer I played the organ for eleven services at four churches.

At the console of E. & G. G. Hook, Opus 288 (1860), St. John’s Catholic Church, Bangor

At one of the Masses at St. John’s this summer I played some duets with Anthony Viselli, violinist.  Anthony is a fellow music student at the University of Maine.

With Susan White, oboeist, at St. Teresa’s Catholic Church, Brewer.  We often play duets together.

Hook & Hastings, Opus 2223 (1909), Hampden Highlands United Methodist Church

I am also privileged to practice regularly on this historic organ, which is 5 minutes from my home.

At the console of the Karl Wilhelm, Inc. (2000) organ, St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church, Blue Hill

McGill Summer Organ Academy in Montreal

Along with about 50 other organists, I attended the McGill Summer Organ Academy in Montreal July 20-30.  This Academy is held every two years and this was the 10^th Academy offered.

http://msoa.ca/

This academy offered 9 courses with 8 faculty from Canada, the United States, Italy, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands.  The courses were held over two weeks and participants could register for the same or different courses for each week.  The courses were Master Classes and participants could audit or be an active participant in each course.  Active participants prepared organ pieces ahead of time to perform for the professor and the class.  I was active for two weeks in the Continuo class with Hank Knox, and active for the first week and audited the second week in the French Classical course with John Grew.  I learned a tremendous amount in both classes and I plan to attend again in two years.

In the Continuo Class I learned the standard 17^th and 18^th Century sequences and cadential formulas and to recognize the common figured bass chord symbols.  We used a harpsichord for this class and we accompanied a singer near the end of the class.

With Hank Knox at the harpsichord in Schulich Hall

In the French Classical class, we learned about the music of Clérambault and Couperin in the first week, and the music of de Grigny, and d’Anglebert in the second week.  This class included how to interpret this style of music: the articulation, fingering, various types of ornaments and notes inégales.  We were very fortunate to have our classes on the Hellmuth Wolff French classical organ, Opus 24 (1981) in Redpath Hall.  In preparation for the class, I learned three pieces by Clérambault: the Récit de Nazard and the Duo from his second suite, and the Fugue from the first suite.

With John Grew at the console of the Hellmuth Wolff organ in Redpath Hall

The McGill Academy included 10 faculty concerts, so we had a concert almost every evening, and two concerts on Saturday and two on Sunday.  Some of these concerts were at McGill University in Redpath Hall, and some were in area churches.  One of the most memorable concerts was presented on July 22 by William Porter and Edorardo Bellotti in Redpath Hall.  This concert began with Bellotti playing music of Pasquini and Storace on the harpsichord.  Then Porter played music of Nivers, Jullien, and de Grigny on the organ.  The highlight of this concert was Bellotti and Porter on two harpsichords improvising on the theme “Follia.”  This was billed as competition between the Italian and French styles.  This was delightful and the audience gave them a standing ovation.

On Saturday, July 25, the class took a field trip on a bus to the St. Benoit du Lac Abbey for an all-Bach concert by William Porter on the Karl Wilhelm organ and then to the Old Brick Church in West Brome for a concert by Edoardo Bellotti.  He played music of Frescobaldi, Merula, Zipoli, and Marcello on a replica of an early Italian organ and music of Frescobaldi and Pasquini on the harpsichord.

Replica of an Italian Organ at the Brick Church, West Brome

The McGill Academy was also an opportunity to meet organ lovers from around the world.  About half of the participants were students in a degree program and the other half were working organists.

With Linda Raney, Music Director at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Organ Historical Society Convention in Western Massachusetts

I spent June 28 through July 2 in western Massachusetts at the 60^th annual Organ Historical Society (OHS) convention along with 300 other people who love organs.  It was a chance to connect and reconnect with good friends and to see and hear 26 organs played by skilled organists.  The mission of the OHS is to celebrate, preserve, and study the pipe organ in America, in all its historic styles, through research, education, advocacy, and music.

We visited organs at Mount Holyoke College, 22 churches, and a Jewish Synagogue.  Each organist includes a hymn in her/his program, so the churches and auditoriums are filled not only with beautiful organ music, but also with robust singing.  The convention attendees ride busses to the various venues and bus rides are often a place to meet new friends and catch up with current friends.  We all received a book that lists the organists’ programs and the organ’s builders and stop lists.  The organs were created anywhere from 1850 to 2014, with more than half of them built in the 19^th Century.  Six of the organs were built by William A. Johnson, five by Ernest M. Skinner, and five by Casavant Frères.  Barbara Owen gave a lecture about the organ builders of the area with a special focus on William A. Johnson, who was the first organ builder in the area. Fourteen of the organs had two manuals, five had three manuals, four had four manuals, and three had one manual.

There was a wide variety of music from renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary time periods, all played expertly.  The performers often chose at least some music for their programs that was written about the time that the organs were built.

You can see some photos from the convention at:

https://www.facebook.com/OrganSociety?fref=ts

I met two women who began studying the pipe organ after they retired from another career, just like I did!  Vicki Anderson is a retired physician who lives in Minnesota and she takes private organ lessons and sometimes plays for services at her church.  Renate McLaughlin is a retired university professor and administrator who lives in Michigan.  She earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in organ and church music after she retired.  She continues to learn new repertoire and she often plays services as a substitute organist.  Their enthusiasm for the pipe organ is contagious and I was encouraged by their experiences.

With Renate McLaughlin in the Chapel at Mount Holyoke College

The OHS provided a live webcast of the July 2 recital by Nathan Laube at Mount Holyoke College playing two different organs.  He played music of Buxtehude, Cabanilles, Poglietti, Rossi, Noordt and Goudimal on a 2-manual C. B. Fisk (Opus 84, 1986) Italian/German baroque organ Laube and played music of Rachmaninoff, Duprè, Howells, and Jongen on an organ that was built in 1898 by Hutchings (Opus 436).  This organ was then expanded by Skinner in 1922 (Opus 367) and 1938 (Opus 511) and then restored by Baker in 2001 and Czelusniak et Dugal in 2013.  Although webcasts from previous OHS conventions are on the OHS website, the recording of this July 2 Laube performance is not yet posted as of the date of this post.  If the recorded performance is posted in the future, it will be at this website:

http://www.organsociety.org/2015/

The Western Massachusetts convention handbook can be downloaded:

http://organsociety.org/html/convention/downloads/2015-Handbook.pdf

With my friend from New Jersey, Fran Morton, in the Chapel at Mount Holyoke College