Join us for our annual concert to celebrate the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.
We are thrilled that concert organist David Eaton is able to perform for us this year.
He presents this program of works by Johann Sebastian Bach, with proceeds benefiting Old West Organ Society.
More information and tickets may be found here.
In celebration of the life of Yuko Hayashi, founder of the Old West Organ Society and Professor at New England Conservatory, please join us for the fourth annual Yuko Hayashi Memorial Recital.
Performed by former Hayashi student, concert organist Mark Dwyer, we will hear works of composers Hayashi championed.
This is a benefit recital. All ticket proceeds directly benefit Old West Organ Society. Even if you can’t attend, please consider making a donation.
{Photo © Ryoichi Yamashita}
The 2023 Old West Organ Society Summer Series concludes with a performance by Rhonda Sider Edgington. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Rhonda Sider Edgington is often commended for her innovative programming, colorful use of registrations, and exciting playing. Seven years spent studying, working and performing in Bremen, Germany (originally with a Fulbright scholarship), led to her passion for the repertoire and organs of 17th century Germany, as she worked closely with Prof. Harald Vogel.
Edgington has played recitals at venues such as St. Paul’s Cathedral in Pittsburgh, West Point Cadet Chapel in NY, and Arizona State University, as well as on important historic instruments in Germany. She has performed at numerous national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society and has been heard on the radio program Pipedreams. Rhonda co-lead an educational tour for the European chapter of the AGO to visit organs of Northern Germany, and was AGO Dean of the Holland (MI) chapter for 8 years.
She has envisioned and realized programs as creative as Music of Japan: for organ, marimba, and Taiko drums, with her duo Thunder & Wind (Carolyn Koebel, percussion); Jazz and the Organ, with Hammond B3 master Tony Monaco; programs of music by all women for organ and trumpet with Great Lakes Duo (Dr. Brian Reichenbach, trumpet), and collaborations with many unique duos (including tuba, bassoon, clarinet, and french horn).
Edgington is the Organist and Music Director at Hope Church, and teaches organ at Calvin University, while traveling to perform regularly around the US and in Europe. She also enjoys riding her bike, visiting farmer’s markets, and writing a monthly column in the Holland Sentinel, her local newspaper.
You can find her pipe organ photos on Instagram at i_luv_schnitgers, and her writings on her website rhonda.edgington.info under Musings.
The 2023 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Bridgette Wargovich. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Bridgette Wargovich is Director of Sacred Music and Organist at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Maine. A native of Massachusetts, she earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Organ Performance in 2018 and a Master of Sacred Music degree summacum laude in 2014, both from Boston University. Her doctoral dissertation was entitled, “The King of Musical Instruments and the Spirit of the Liturgy: The Pipe Organ and Its Liturgical Repertoire Analyzed in Light of Ratzinger’s Theology of Liturgical Music.” The dissertation explored the theology of Pope Benedict XVI, linking his main themes to the pipe organ and its repertoire. Her principal organ teacher was Peter Sykes. Bridgette has a special love for sacred and liturgical music; she is dedicated to preserving and promoting this musical treasure.
The 2023 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Raymond Hawkins. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Since beginning his musical training at age ten, Raymond Hawkins has honed his skill at the organ through an active career in both solo performance and sacred music. As a performer, Mr. Hawkins has given recitals at venues across the United States, including the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco and Adolphus Busch Hall at Harvard University. His performance at the 2015 Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina was praised in The American Organist as being “superbly played and registered.”
Since 2019, Mr. Hawkins has served as Director of Music and Organist at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the oldest Episcopal Church in New England still standing on its original site (1714). There, he oversees choral and organ music for weekly Mass, monthly Evensong, and a variety of other occasions. Mr. Hawkins began his career in church music at the age of fourteen as organist at the First Baptist Church of Holly Hill, South Carolina. While studying in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he served as music intern at Augsburg Lutheran Church and subsequently as organist at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. Mr. Hawkins also serves as Member-at-Large and Newsletter Editor for the Merrimack Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
Mr. Hawkins has also won prizes in a number of regional and national competitions. As a high school junior, he received First Prize and the Hymn-Playing Prize in the 2014 UNCSA/Salem College High School Organ Competition as well as Third Place and the Hymn-Playing Prize in the American Guild of Organists Greater Columbia Chapter Young Organist Competition; the following year he earned Second Place in the same competition. In 2014, he won Second Place in the Senior Division of the Peter Perret Youth Talent Search and consequently performed with the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra.
In 2019, Mr. Hawkins completed his undergraduate degree in organ performance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied as a Kenan Organ Scholar under Dr. Timothy Olsen and had previously received his high school diploma. Earlier on, he studied organ with Donna Swanson, Angela Kraft Cross, and Porter Remington. Mr. Hawkins has also studied abroad in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, advancing his skills as both musician and language aficionado.
Mr. Hawkins’ particular affinity for the music of French composer, Louis Vierne, led him to celebrate the composer’s sesquicentennial birth year in 2020 by recording Spicy Sauce, an album featuring a selection of Vierne’s organ works. This album, as well as more information about Mr. Hawkins, can be procured on his website, www.raymondhawkinsmusic.com.
The 2023 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Jonathan Wessler. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Jonathan Wessler has served since 2016 as the Kantor at First Lutheran Church of Boston, where he oversees a thriving music program specializing in the finest liturgical music of the Lutheran tradition. Under his direction, the FLC choir and orchestra present music of Bach, Praetorius, Schütz, Handl, Hassler, Senfl, and others, as well as liturgical chant as retained in the Lutheran missals. He is honored to play the church’s fine Baroque pipe organ, built in 2000 by Richards, Fowkes & Co. Known as “Boston’s Bach Organ,” it renders the music of Bach and his contemporaries with the utmost authority. Wessler also serves as the artistic director of the annual Boston Bach Birthday, which draws hundreds in celebration of Bach’s contributions to sacred music. He additionally conducts research in early Lutheran liturgy and music.
Wessler received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music, studying with William Porter. He previously earned the Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying with David Boe, and the Master of Sacred Music degree from the University of Notre Dame, studying with Craig Cramer. He additionally mentored under Sherry Seckler and Christiaan Teeuwsen. He holds the Associate certificate from the American Guild of Organists and was a finalist in the 2007 Arthur Poister Organ Competition.
Wessler previously worked as the Assistant Organist at the Church of St. Paul in Harvard Square and St. Paul’s Choir School, where he accompanied the Choir of St. Paul’s, trained the Probationers, directed the St. Paul Parish Choir and the Schola Cantorum, and taught music theory in the Choir School.
Wessler lives in suburban Boston with his wife, Joy, and their children, Julia, Matthew, Benjamin, and Lucas.
The 2023 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Richard Benefield. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Richard Benefield (DMA, MM, BM) has had parallel careers in both art museums and classical music, beginning his training in art and piano at the age of six. He has performed as organist, singer, and conductor across the United States, and in more than 30 years in the art world, has served in leadership roles for art museums at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Harvard University, as well as the Walt Disney Family Museum and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (de Young and Legion of Honor). Even with a busy career in arts management, he has served as organist-choirmaster of St. Peter’s Church, Osterville, MA; St. Stephen’s Church, Providence, RI; and Old First Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, CA, among others. He has had the distinction of overseeing famous organs at two of the museums under his leadership: the great Spreckles Organ (E.M. Skinner) in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and the renowned D.A. Flentrop Organ in Adolphus Busch Hall at Harvard.
In 1977, Dr. Benefield began a long and fruitful professional relationship and friendship with composer Daniel Pinkham when he was contracted to sing the role of Simon in the Southwest (Dallas, TX) premiere of Pinkham’s The Passion of Judas, a “chancel opera,” which the composer conducted. Subsequently, in the 1984-85 season, he performed the same role for the Peabody-Mason Music Foundation at Harvard University, with the composer conducting. That performance was broadcast from Sanders Theater over the NPR affiliate, WGBH radio in Boston. Benefield conducted the New England premieres of Pinkham’s Advent Cantata (1992) and A curse, a Lament, and a Vision (1985), and the world premieres of Pinkham’s The Small Requiem (1992) and The Guiding Star (1993). He has played many keyboard works by Pinkham including the world premieres of Sonata No. 3 for organ and strings (1987) and The Garden of the Muses for solo organ (2006).
Dr. Benefield has written on the music of Daniel Pinkham for The American Organist. He is also the author of Motets for One Voice by Franck, Gounod, and Saint-Saëns: The Organ-Accompanied Solo Motet in Nineteenth-Century France, published in 2003 by A-R Editions of Madison, Wisconsin, in its series “Recent Researches in Musicology.”
He currently serves as executive director of the George Rickey Foundation, Inc., and lives with his husband John Kunowski and their two Lagotti Romagnoli, Rupert and Lizzy, in the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire.
The 2023 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Justin Brueggeman. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Originally from East Tennessee, Justin Brueggeman began his piano studies in 2009 and organ studies in 2013. During high school, Justin served as Organist/Choirmaster at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and Organist at St. Dominic Church in Kingsport, TN. As an active recitalist, he has played recitals nationally throughout East Tennessee, Connecticut, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, as well as internationally in England and Romania. In 2017, he performed the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony along with the Symphony of the Mountains Youth Orchestra and made his European debut in Medias, Romania, performing in the 17th annual Orgelsommer International Organ festival as the youngest organist to have performed in the festival’s history. Justin has competed in national organ competitions in North and South Carolina, including the Columbia AGO Chapter Competition, where he placed 3rd (2018), and the East Carolina University Young Artist’s Organ Competition, where he placed 2nd (2018). His previous teachers include Dr. Joby Bell and Dr. Edie Johnson. Justin holds a BS in Biochemistry and Cellular Biology (with a minor in organ performance) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He now resides in Boston, where he is a PhD student in Biomedical and Biological Sciences at Harvard Medical School, working in the fields of immunology and cell biology.
The 2023 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Jacqueline Nappi. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Hailing from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, Jacqueline Nappi is an organist, harpsichordist, pianist, and teacher. She is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music studying organ performance.
Previous collaborations include Duke Performances, the North Carolina Symphony, the Duke Chapel Bach Cantata Series & Vespers Choir, Duke University's Dance Program, the North Carolina Historically Informed Performance (HIP) Music Festival, the Mallarmé Chamber Players, the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Music Department, Boston Early Music Festival fringe concerts, and piano improvisation for yoga classes at Global Breath Yoga Studio in Durham.
Before beginning her studies at Yale, Jacqueline was Minister of Music at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Durham and taught basso continuo lessons at UNC-Chapel Hill. Jacqueline was also Dean of the Durham-Chapel Hill Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and a member of the Board of Directors for the Mallarmé Chamber Players.
Jacqueline holds a Master of Music degree in Harpsichord Performance from SUNY Stony Brook where she studied with Arthur Haas, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from The Hartt School.
In her free time, Jacqueline enjoys training for Triathlons and improving her fluency in Spanish and German.
The 2023 Old West Organ Society Summer Series commences with a performance by Thomas Vozzella. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Thomas R. Vozzella, DMA, is Director of Music-Organist at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Missouri and a Staff Organist at the Community of Christ World Headquarters, Independence, Missouri. He has served AGO as Dean (Black Hills Chapter), ACDA (Regional and National Chair for Music in Worship). Alliance, Augsburg, Abingdon, Selah, CanticaNOVA, St. James Music Press, Sheet Music Plus and Music Notes publish his compositions receiving five ASCAP Plus Awards. As a presenter/performer he has presented at state, regional and national ACDA and AGO Conventions, toured in twenty-six states, the District of Columbia and eleven countries, most recently Ukraine, Spain, and Germany. His choirs have sung for Tennessee ACDA, The White House by invitation of President and Mrs. George W. Bush, The Harlem Globetrotters, and received invitations for Kansas MEA and Texas ACDA conferences. Thomas holds degrees from the University of South Carolina, The University of Louisiana-Monroe, and Eastern Nazarene College. Additional work completed at The Royal School of Church Music-UK, University of Missouri-Kansas City and Nazarene Theological Seminary, with advanced conducting study at the Conductor’s Institute of South Carolina; in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Russia. Organ study has been with Lambert Brandes, John Ditto; masterclasses with Peter Hurford, Marie-Claire Alain, and John Obetz; organ improvisation with Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvard, Samuel Liégeon, Frédéric Blanc.
Join us for our annual concert to celebrate the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.
We are thrilled that concert organist Bryan Ashley is able to perform for us this year.
He presents this program of works by Johann Sebastian Bach, with proceeds benefiting Old West Organ Society.
More information and tickets can be found here.
In celebration of the life of Yuko Hayashi, founder of the Old West Organ Society and Professor at New England Conservatory, please join us for the third annual Yuko Hayashi Memorial Recital.
Performed by former Hayashi student, concert organist Gregory Crowell, we will hear works of composers Hayashi championed.
This is a benefit recital. All ticket proceeds directly benefit Old West Organ Society. Even if you can’t attend, please consider making a donation.
Face masks are required inside Old West Church.
{Photo © Ryoichi Yamashita}
The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series concludes with a performance by Mary-Katherine Fletcher. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Mary-Katherine Fletcher is the director of music and organist at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, MA and serves as treasurer for the Southeastern Massachusetts chapter of the American Guild of Organists. A recent graduate, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Bridgewater State University. During her time at Bridgewater, she studied both the piano and organ, before choosing to focus on the organ, which she studied with Dr. Steven Young. She continues to study with Dr. Young this summer as she prepares to enter graduate school in the fall. She will be pursuing a Master of Sacred Music degree from Boston University, where she was awarded a Dean’s Fellowship, and will study the organ with Peter Sykes.
The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Jacqueline Nappi. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Hailing from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, Jacqueline Nappi is an organist, harpsichordist, pianist, and teacher. She is currently a graduate student at the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music studying organ performance. Jacqueline serves as Minister of Music at Trinity Lutheran Church in Milford and is Piano Faculty & Music Coordinator at Durham Academy.
Previous collaborations include Duke Performances, the North Carolina Symphony, the Duke Chapel Bach Cantata Series & Vespers Choir, Duke University's Dance Program, the North Carolina Historically Informed Performance (HIP) Music Festival, the Mallarmé Chamber Players, the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Music Department, Boston Early Music Festival fringe concerts, and piano improvisation for yoga classes at Global Breath Yoga Studio in Durham.
Before beginning her studies at Yale, Jacqueline was Minister of Music at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Durham. She was also Dean of the Durham-Chapel Hill Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and a member of the Board of Directors for the Mallarmé Chamber Players.
Jacqueline holds a Master of Music degree in Harpsichord Performance from SUNY Stony Brook where she studied with Arthur Haas, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from The Hartt School.
The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Jonghee Yoon. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Jonghee Yoon is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Sacred Music and Organ
Performance at East Carolina University, and she is organ scholar at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greenville North Carolina, studying and working with David Arcus. Jonghee graduated from EWHA Woman’s University in Seoul, South Korea and studied organ there with Okjoo Park, and Min-Jung Gaang.
Jonghee is an active musician, and has performed in South Korea, the Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark and the United States. She was selected a Rising Star and played a solo in concert with the Raleigh Symphony. She was invited to play a concert at the Haderslev Cathedral in Denmark. Jonghee has played a solo concert on the St. Paul’s Greenville. She has served as organist at the Daeshin Church in Seoul and has been music director in several musical theatrical productions. She has given a recital for the Nevelson Chapel Recital series in NewYork City. She played her debut recital at St. Peter’s Church in New York City in 2019.
In addition to peforming her solo repertoire, Jonghee has developed an interest in chamber music; she has played continuo in Bach’s Cantata with the Saint Peter’s Bach Collegium and played the solo organ with the Gödi Baroque Ensemble in Hungary. She has played with the Early Music Collective Concert with the ECU Baroque Ensemble, the Bach Birthday concert at St. Paul’s, and is organ accompanist for the ECU Chamber Singers Choir. Jonghee has also performed with Eastern and Western instruments in the chapel of Ewha Women’s University.
She spent a semester in the US studying organ with Bryan Ashley in Boston and Bálint Karosi in New York City, and organ building at the Fisk Shop in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she observed and participated in pipe making, design, installation, and tuning. These experiences broadened her understanding of the organ and the relationship between instrument and music.
Jonghee took part in masterclasses with Peter Westerbrink in Holland, Christiaan Teeuwsen in Holland and Germany, and Franz Liszt Academy of Music Professor of Organ and improvisation, Pálúr János in Hungary. Participating in these, as well as her experience at the EROI conference in Rochester and the ISO conference in Udine, Italy, had a great appreciation for studying at an institution that provides the instruments and the support needed to play the repertoire on appropriate instruments.
The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Matthew Dion. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Matthew Dion, 23 is a native of Somerset Massachusetts and a M.M. candidate in Sacred Music/Organ at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music where he studies organ with Daryl Robinson and serves as a musicology teaching assistant.
Matthew received his Bachelor of Music degree in Organ and a Minor in Music History at the OberlinConservatory of Music in Oberlin, OH where he studied organ with Dr. Jonathan Moyer, James David Christie, and Arvid Gast.
His other teachers include Jean-Baptiste Robin, Dr. Steven Young, Madeleine Grace, and Normand Gingras for organ; Erik Thompson for piano; and Mark Edwards for harpsichord and continuo. He has also traveled to France to coach with numerous French organists including Marie-Louise Langlais and Vincent Warnier.
Matthew additionally has been involved in masterclasses for many keyboard organizations including TheMontreal Organ Festival, American Guild of Organists, and the Westfield Keyboard Society. He has appeared in classes taught by Kola Owolabi, Cherry Rhodes, Peter Sykes, Christa Rakich, Nicole Keller, Alan Morrison, Ken Cowan, and Matthew Dirst. Matthew is also an active member of the American Guild of Organists, currently serving as sub-dean of the Southeastern Massachusetts Chapter.
Matthew performs as a solo organist throughout the United States. As a collaborative musician, he has recently been a featured accompanist and soloist with the West Shore Chorale in Lakewood, OH, the Oberlin College Choir/Musical Union, and the Oberlin Arts and Sciences orchestra. At Oberlin, he performed and recorded the Saint-Saëns "Organ Symphony" (2019) and movements of Cécile Chaminade's Messe pour deux voix égales (2021). In addition, Matthew is a founding member and organist in Reeds and Keys, an oboe and organ duo where he performs with his partner and oboist, Anne Pinkerton.
Some notable performance venues include National City Christian Church, Washington DC, Christ ChurchCathedral, Houston TX, Old West Church, Boston, MA, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA, Village Church UCC,Wellesley, MA, Grace Episcopal Church, Providence, RI, Saint Anne's Church and Shrine, Fall River, MA, Saint Anthony's Church, New Bedford, MA, Saint Mary's Church, Newport, RI, Saint Stanislaus Church, Cleveland, OH, Trinity Lutheran Church, Cleveland, OH, and Church of the Covenant, Cleveland, OH.
Matthew is a 2019 winner of the Audrey Mollard Scholarship for Organ from the Tuesday Musical Association in Akron, OH. He is also a 2019 Second prize winner of the AGO RCYO/Quimby Organ Competition (chapter round) held in Boston, Massachusetts.
Matthew serves as Organ Scholar at Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal) in Houston, Texas. In addition to his duties as organist at the Cathedral, he also serves as accompanist of the Treble Choir of Houston. Mostrecently, Matthew served as organist and director of "Music under the Steeple" concert series at FirstPresbyterian Church in Huron, OH.
The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Chris Rakovec. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Chris Rakovec is a music minister and educator. An Ohio native, he has been playing throughout Greater Boston for over a decade. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Boston College and is currently pursuing a Master of Sacred Music degree at Boston University. Chris serves as Coordinator of Liturgical Music at St. Columbkille Church in Brighton and accompanist for the Liturgical Musicians at Boston College High School. As a modern language faculty member at BC High, Chris teaches all levels of Spanish.
The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Carson Cooman. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Carson Cooman is an American composer and organist. He holds degrees in music from
Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University and since 2006 has held the position of Composer in Residence at the Memorial Church, Harvard University. As an organ recitalist, Cooman specializes in the performance of contemporary music. Over 300 new compositions by more than 100 international composers have been written for him. Cooman has made many recordings as organist, including more than 10 complete CD releases of music by Thomas Åberg, Paula Diehl, Carlotta Ferrari, Lothar Graap, Eva‐Maria Houben, Marian Sawa, and Andreas Willscher, along with several multi‐composer albums. His recordings of more than 4,000 additional contemporary organ compositions can be heard freely from YouTube and his website. As a composer, Cooman has created a catalog of works in many forms—ranging from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. His work has been performed on all six inhabited continents and appears on over forty recordings, including more than twenty‐five complete CDs on the Naxos, Albany, Artek, Gothic, Divine Art, Métier, Diversions, Convivium, Altarus, MSR Classics, Raven, and Zimbel labels. For more information, visit carsoncooman.com
The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Jonathan Schakel together with soprano Megan Sharp. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Megan Sharp earned her undergraduate degree in music from the College of Wooster in Ohio and holds a master's degree in opera from the Boston Conservatory. Following graduation and a period of intense study of Baroque singing with Sally Sanford, Baroque dance with Ken Pierce, and French art song with Carole Bajac, her career has focused on performing, especially early music, and increasingly on choral conducting. She has sung with the Boston Early Music Festival, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, Ensemble Chanterelle, the Schola Cantorum, and Longwood Opera. Ms. Sharp often collaborates with organist and harpsichordist Jonathan Schakel, including concerts in Germany, the Netherlands, Boston, Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia. In 2011 Ms. Sharp was named music director of the Charlottesville-based vocal ensemble Zephyrus. She has led Zephyrus in summer residencies at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh; Trinity Cathedral in Dublin; and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Ms. Sharp has directed choirs in churches and schools for over 20 years, and currently serves as director of fine arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville. In addition, she maintains a private voice studio and teaches T'ai Chi at the Charlottesville T'ai Chi Center.
Organist and harpsichordist Jonathan Schakel earned a doctoral degree in performance practice at Cornell University, where he studied with Annette Richards and David Yearsley. He holds a master’s degree in organ and early music from Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, where he studied organ and harpsichord with Peter Sykes and continuo with Frances Conover Fitch. He has pursued additional studies with Lorenzo Ghielmi, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, and Olivier Latry, and has participated in the summer organ academies in Smarano, Italy; in Haarlem, the Netherlands; and at McGill University in Montreal. He has given organ recitals in the Netherlands, Germany, Scotland, and many of the United States, including performances at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC; Harvard University; Princeton University; Trinity Church, Boston; St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh; the Ludgerikirche, Norden, Germany; and de Engelse Kerk, Amsterdam. His editions of Renaissance vocal music have been performed in the US, England, and Germany, and he serves as artistic director for the early music vocal ensemble Zephyrus. He is currently organist at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Jennifer McPherson. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Jennifer McPherson serves as Director of Music and Liturgy at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, NH. She holds a Master of Music in Historical Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and received her undergraduate degree from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, where she was Organ Scholar of the class of 2013.
As a recitalist, Ms. McPherson has performed throughout the United States and Canada including Methuen Memorial Music Hall (Methuen, MA), Cathedral of the Sacred Heart (Richmond, VA), First (Scots) Presbyterian Church (Charleston, SC), and Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal in Montreal, QC, Canada. At the age of 21, she was awarded Third Prize in the 2012 International Organ Competition Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in Amsterdam. She won First Prize in the 2013 American Guild of Organists Quimby Competition and was featured as a Rising Star at the 2014 National AGO Convention. As a collaborative artist, Ms. McPherson has performed with fellow students of the Oberlin Conservatory at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, at the Boston Early Music Festival, and has been featured with the Bach Society of Charleston, SC.
A committed teacher of young musicians, Ms. McPherson is co-director of The Choir School at St. John’s, an after-school tuition-free music program for children grades 3-8. She also serves on the board and as an instructor for the Young Organist Collaborative, based in Portsmouth, NH. She has been a judge for the Young Organist Competition of the Columbia, SC AGO, and has served on the board for the L’Organo Series of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series commences with a performance by Douglas Witte. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Douglas Witte received his organ training with Victoria Wagner, and subsequently, Peter Sykes, at the Longy School of Music, and later attended the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, studying with Jacques van Oortmerssen, followed by independent studies in Ost-Friesland under the auspices of the North German Organ Academy. He has been the Music Director at St, John's Episcopal Church in Charlestown since returning to the United States in 1993. Besides harboring an abiding passion for the music of 17th century Northern Europe, Douglas is also keenly interested in non-Western musical traditions, and has recently taken up learning to play the Turkish saz.
Join us for our annual concert to celebrate the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.
We are thrilled that concert organist Jeremy S. Bruns was able to reschedule for 2022, following the cancellation of the 2020 program (due to the Covid-19 pandemic).
He presents this program of works by Johann Sebastian Bach, with proceeds benefiting Old West Organ Society.
Purchase or donate tickets here.
Named “a coolly aristocratic player” by The Dallas Morning News, JEREMY S. BRUNS has been heard on the nationally syndicated radio show Pipedreams, BBC Radio, and the Pro Organo label. He has been featured at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston SC, and has performed numerous recitals with engagements including St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London, Canterbury Cathedral, Washington National Cathedral, St. James’ Cathedral in Toronto, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Methuen Memorial Music Hall, St. Paul Cathedral and Heinz Memorial Chapel in Pittsburgh, Adolphus Busch Hall, and the Fasor Reformed Church in Budapest, Hungary. As a church musician, Bruns has held positions in Boston MA, Pittsburgh PA and other locations, including three years as Associate Organist of Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, where he worked daily with the late John Scott and the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. He has also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Music at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches TX. He studied with David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY, earning the M.Mus. and the Performer’s Certificate. Mr. Bruns is Dean of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and is represented by Concert Artist Cooperative.
“…impeccable…virtuosic, physical and simply thrilling.” The Press, York (UK)
In celebration of the life of Yuko Hayashi, founder of the Old West Organ Society and Professor at New England Conservatory, please join us for the third annual Yuko Hayashi Memorial Recital.
Performed by former Hayashi student, concert organist Christa Rakich, we will hear works of composers Hayashi championed.
This is a benefit recital. All ticket proceeds directly benefit Old West Organ Society. Even if you can’t attend, please consider making a donation.
Face masks are required inside Old West Church.
Christa Rakich has recently recorded a disc in tribute to Yuko Hayashi.
Order now by clicking on the photo, or purchase at the concert!
The 2021 Old West Organ Society Summer Series concludes with a performance by Jennifer Hsiao. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Jennifer Hsiao
Jennifer Hsiao is organist at Old West Church in Boston, MA, where she plays at weekly services. She began her organ studies with Eric Plutz at Princeton University and continued them at the Yale School of Music with Chelsea Chen. She continued her studies at Harvard with Christian Lane. She has played in recitals in the Boston area and has performed as a guest organist with the Bay Colony Brass.
Jennifer is also a pianist and violinist. She has won numerous competitions and has performed concerti as both a piano and violin soloist with numerous orchestras including the Princeton University Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra, Connecticut Youth Symphony, and Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra. As a pianist she has studied with Margreet Francis, Jennifer Tao, Abbey Simon, and Peter Frankl. She began her violin studies with Teri Einfeldt, continuing with Brian Lewis and Dorothy DeLay. As an undergraduate at Princeton, she was the first violinist of the Princeton University String Quartet and concertmaster of the Princeton University Orchestra; there she studied with Anna Lim, Stephen Clapp at the Juilliard School, and Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet. At the Yale School of Music, she studied with Ani Kavafian.
Jennifer holds an A.B. in Chemistry and certificates in Latin and Music Performance from Princeton University and a Masters of Music Performance (violin) from the Yale School of Muisc. She completed a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard University, where she also serves as concertmaster of the Dudley Orchestra and Resident Tutor in biology and music at Dunster House.
The 2021 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Carolyn Craig. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Carolyn Craig
Carolyn Craig, of Knoxville, Tennessee, graduated summa cum laude from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music with a Master of Music in Organ in 2021, and is pursuing a Master of Musical Arts at Yale in 2021-2022. At Yale, she has studied organ with Jon Laukvik and Martin Jean, improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart, and conducting with Marguerite Brooks and David Hill. Carolyn held the two-year post of Organ Scholar at Trinity on the Green under Walden Moore. She is excited to become the Organ Scholar at Christ Church and the Director of Music at The Episcopal Church at Yale for 2021-2022. Awards from her time at Yale include the Mary Baker Award in Organ Accompaniment for her work with Yale’s Schola Cantorum, and the Audience Prize in the 2020 Arthur Poister Scholarship Competition in Organ Playing, held online with no judges’ prizes due to Covid-19. Prior to attending Yale, Carolyn spent a formative gap year as the 2018-2019 Organ Scholar at Truro Cathedral. This experience followed an undergraduate degree at Indiana University, where she held the university’s most prestigious academic scholarship, the Wells Scholarship. Carolyn graduated from IU summa cum laude with a BM in Organ Performance, in the studio of Chris Young, and minors in Conducting and German. Carolyn was the Undergraduate Organ Scholar at Trinity Episcopal Church with Marilyn Keiser. During her undergraduate degree, she studied in Graz, Austria for a summer and in Vienna for a semester. Carolyn is excited to return to Boston. She was honored to be a Rising Star in recital at the Boston National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in 2014, and she thoroughly enjoyed performing at the Methuen Memorial Music Hall in 2020. Carolyn has also given solo recitals at St. Paul’s, Truro, Winchester, and Wells cathedrals in the UK; for Lund, Västerås and Kalmar Cathedrals’ “World-leading organists from all corners of the earth” virtual series; in many other venues in the US and Europe; and on the radio program Pipedreams. A winner of a number of competitions, Carolyn will head to Russia in September as a semifinalist in the Tariverdiev International Organ Competition. During the pandemic, Carolyn co-founded Amplify Female Composers with Janet Yieh, and became a contributor to the inclusive liturgical music planning resource, A Great Host of Composers. For more information, visit amplifyfemalecomposers.org and greathostcomposers.org
The 2021 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Justin Murphy-Mancini. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Justin Murphy-Mancini
Justin Murphy-Mancini is a keyboardist and composer living in Boston, MA. He serves the First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist, of Newburyport, MA as Director of Church Music and director of the Candlelight Chorale. He has appeared regularly in concert around the United States both as a soloist on the organ and harpsichord and also as a chamber musician and chorister. His compositional work spans both the traditional and the avant-garde and has been performed internationally. Justin trained at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, where he earned degrees in organ performance, composition, historical performance, and philosophy; his principal teachers include Jack Mitchener, Marie-Louise Langlais, Webb Wiggins, Lisa Goode Crawford, and many others. He earned a Ph.D. in composition from the University of California, San Diego, where he was mentored by Katharina Rosenberger.
The 2021 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Heinrich Christensen and David Eaton. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Robert A. Harris
Elegy for the Time of Change
Elegy for the Time of Change, composed in June 2020, is in part a reaction to the horrific death of George Floyd, who was murdered as the entire world witnessed his cruel suffocation by a police officer. Floyd was forced to the ground and struggled to breathe for 9 minutes and 29 seconds—calling out for his mother—before taking his last breath and dying. The impetus for writing this piece was a sermon delivered shortly after this lamentable event by the Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church. In that sermon, Bishop Curry delivered words of solace, love, and the hope that the United States, struggling with polarization, mistrust, and disparity, might come together as a unified nation of brotherhood, peace, and equality. Most moving and memorable were his recurring references to words of the spiritual There is a Balm in Gilead. Those words of assurance, woven into his beautifully crafted sermon, were the real inspiration for Elegy, which I began to write immediately after the sermon’s conclusion. Brief musical quotes from the spiritual occur throughout the piece, representing the aspiration that we as a people will soon unite, revive our collective spirits, and heal the wounded, sin-sick soul of our nation.
In Memoriam ...
Tanisha Anderson, Sandra Bland, Rayshard Brooks, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, Michelle Cusseaux, George Floyd, James Floyd, Janisha Fonville, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Akai Gurley, Justin Howell, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, Trayvon Martin, Sean Monterrosa, Gabriella Nevarez, Tamir Rice, Aura Rosser, Alton Sterling, Breonna Taylor, et al. ...
Heinrich Christensen
Heinrich Christensen is the music director of King’s Chapel in Boston. His proudest achievement and greater life mission is to serve on the board of the Old West Organ Society.
David Danielson Eaton is an active performer, church musician, and educator. He has served on the Old West Organ Society board of directors since 2015 and is cathedral organist at Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh, NC.
For a detailed biography, please visit: www.DavidDanielsonEaton.com
David Eaton
The 2021 Old West Organ Society Summer Series commences with a performance by Geoffrey Wieting. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Geoffrey Wieting
Geoffrey Wieting is organist at First Parish Church, Weston, and an active recitalist, choral singer, vocal coach, and collaborative pianist. He has participated in 27 annual Ogontz Choral Symposiums as choral singer and pianist, working with esteemed conductors Sir David Willcocks, Richard Marlow, David Hill, and George Kent. He studied the organ with Lynda Copeland at Phillips Exeter Academy and with Haskell Thomson at Oberlin Conservatory where he was awarded the Selby Houston Prize in organ performance. Geoff has written concert reviews for The Boston Musical Intelligencer (classical-scene.com) since 2009 and in his spare time is a passionate devotee of cats, classical literature, and crock pot cuisine.
In celebration of the life of Yuko Hayashi, founder of the Old West Organ Society and Professor at New England Conservatory, please join us for the second annual Yuko Hayashi Memorial Recital.
Performed by former Hayashi student, concert organist Kevin Birch, we will hear works of composers Hayashi championed.
This is a benefit recital. All ticket proceeds directly benefit Old West Organ Society. Even if you can’t attend, please consider making a donation.
Order tickets from this page.
Kevin Birch
Kevin Birch began organ studies with Yuko Hayashi on the C. B. Fisk organ at Old West Church in 1979 and earned the Bachelor of Music Degree at New England Conservatory (with Distinction in Performance) in 1987. He continued studies with Klaas Bolt at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and later with Delores Bruch at the University of Iowa where he earned the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees.
Since 1992 he has served as Director of Music at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor, Maine where he also serves as Executive Director of St. John’s Organ Society - a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of E. & G. G. Hook’s Opus 288 built for St. John’s Church in 1860.
Kevin is a member of the music faculty at the University of Maine’s School of the Performing Arts in Orono and serves on the Liturgical Commission for the Diocese of Portland.
He has performed solo recitals in the US, Canada, Europe, and in South America, and for several national conventions of the Organ Historical Society. He is especially devoted to the many fine historic organs in Maine on which he enjoys frequent opportunities to study and perform.
The 2019 Old West Organ Society Summer Series concludes with a performance by Mária Budácová. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Mária Budáčová is an organist from Slovakia. In 2009, she graduated with a diploma in organ and choral conducting at the Conservatory in Bratislava. In 2011, she began studies at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Prague, under the guidance of Pavel Černý. She also studied in Vienna as an ERASMUS student at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst with Professor Pier Damiano Peretti.
Mária holds a Bachelor´s degree from the Academy of Music in Prague. Maria has recieved a number of awards, including the CSPBA award through Canadian Slovak Professional and Business Association, Donald Mackey Memorial Award, Schulich Scholarship, W Douglas Clarke Award through McGill University.
Mária was among five finalists in the prestigious Canadian International Organ Competition in 2014 and 2017. She is a first-prize winner of the Lynwood Farnam Organ Competition in Montreal. She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in Organ Performance at McGill University´s Schulich School of Music under the direction of Hans-Ola Ericsson and Christian Lane.
She is currently the organist of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius Roman Catholic Church and Mission St. Irénée de Lyon in Montreal.
