LETTER FROM THE DEAN! PAGE 2

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1 NEWSLETTER of the Cincinnati Chapter /American Guild of Organists ESTABLISHED IN 1913 LETTER FROM THE DEAN With Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Advent, and Christmas behind us, perhaps we should all pause momentarily and reflect on the beauty of this past year. I am personally thankful for many things, but especially for the wonderful programming that the Executive Committee and various members have helped implement. The historic organ crawl was a wonderful event, full of beautiful music played on four historic instruments of high quality, and anchored by a wonderful spirit Photo Credit: Dan Pater of community as we lunched overlooking the Ohio River and its landscape. The first organ recital in our new series was inaugurated very well by Paul Thornock, Director of Music at St. Joseph s Cathedral in Columbus and the proud custodian of the fabulous Paul Fritts organ there. His selections showed his skill, musicianship, and versatility as an organist. In November, we had a great turnout at Crestview Presbyterian Church for Rodney Barbour s demonstration of the capabilities of MIDI technology. A brief report by Don Auberger is included in this edition of the newsletter. Now it is time to look ahead to the coming year. You will soon be receiving a postcard about our workshop to be held on Monday, January 11, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Covington, Kentucky. This workshop comes in response to member requests for more programming for beginning and intermediate church musicians. It will help anyone learn many important aspects of hymn-playing stop selection and registration, supporting the congregation well and service music selection, uses, problems and problem-solving. Finally, it will provide instruction on improvisation. While some may be believe that only highly trained musicians could ever begin to improvise, this workshop will show techniques that even beginning organists can use. There will also be a selection of publications from Lois Fyfe Music in Nashville and Selah Publishing in Pittsburgh that you can buy or order: books of alternative hymn accompaniments, books on improvisation,

2 LETTER FROM THE DEAN! PAGE 2 and related subjects. We are fortunate to have three chapter members of extraordinary talent and experience lead this workshop: John Deaver, O/C at Trinity Church in Covington; Howard Helvey, O/C at Calvary Episcopal Church in Clifton; and Stephan Casurella, O/C at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati. Please mark your calendar now and please bring a friend who may not know what the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Guild of Organists is doing. On January 16, Nicholas Bideler will play the 2nd recital in our new recital series, co-sponsored by Christ Church Cathedral. Nick is a former chapter member, now located in Kansas City, Missouri, and a fine musician. We hope to see you there; and, once again, please bring a friend along with you. The recital is at 5:00 PM with a reception following in the east narthex. This fall, a student team from the Arts Management Minor in the School of Fine Arts at Miami University has undertaken a marketing study of our chapter. Results from this study will be published in the next newsletter and should provide the basis for some interesting discussions. Part of the study involved a scrutinizing of the member survey we sent out last summer. All of this is being done to help the Executive Committee be more responsive to chapter needs. We have a lot more to look forward to in the coming months, so please mark your calendars and plan to attend as many chapter events as you can. We are currently soliciting ideas for future programming. We would like to hear from you before we start making final plans for the coming year ( ) this March. I look forward to seeing you, to meeting you (if we have never met before), and hearing your ideas about AGO and the way it can best serve you, whether you are a volunteer church musicians, a part-time church organist, a musician with degrees in performance, or whether you simply love good organ and choral music. The chapter intends to provide programming for this broad range of organists and directors of music; but only you can help us find out how to serve you! With best wishes for the holiday season, Robert A. Benson, Ph.D., Dean Cincinnati Chapter, American Guild of Organists New Acting Registrar - Dale Harris We are pleased to announce that chapter member Dale Harris, new to the Cincinnati Chapter this past year, has agreed to serve as Acting Registrar this spring in order to lighten the heavy load that Don Auberger has been carrying for several years as both Treasurer and Registrar. Dale is a former member of the Dallas Chapter where he served as Treasurer. He has agreed to have his name placed on the ballot this coming summer for the position of Registrar. Dale is a life-long musician and sings in the choir at Christ Church Cathedral. HELP NEEDED at Recital Series We need volunteers to help prepare, set up and clean up the receptions after the organ recitals at Christ Church Cathedral. Your help could come in several ways, so if you can contribute some time on the day of one of the recitals, please call executive committee member Isaiah Hyman at ( ). Isaiah is very familiar with the facilities at the cathedral and is coordinating the cathedral s support with our contribution.

3 CHAPTER NEWS PAGE 3 Cincinnati Chapter Scholarship Competition Winners The winners of the Chapter Scholarship Competition this year are Thomas Heidenreich and Mitchell Miller, who also won last year. Both Thomas and Mitchell were accepted by audition to the very competitive NYC Chapter s Pipe Organ Encounter (POE) last summer. They are both very serious musicians. Please read the article that Mitchell has written about his experience at the POE this past summer. Cincinnati Chapter MIDI Workshop Held Written by Donald C. Auberger, Jr. Over 25 members were present the evening of November 8th at Crestview Presbyterian Church for a 90 minute MIDI workshop led by organist Rodney Barbour. He is well known throughout our area and well beyond for his creativity in the use of MIDI and for presenting fine organ recitals and workshops. He started with a few helpful comments for us al be creative in our arrangements for the sake of attracting and maintaining our congregations interest, don t try to use too many MIDI voices at once but rather set a goal of familiarizing yourself with one new MIDI voice per month, and think orchestrally. Many of the pieces used to demonstrate the use of organ and MIDI were from the standard organ repertoire, and provided a fresh take for all on how these pieces might be performed. A spritely baroque piece using MIDI orchestral strings and a MIDI orchestral trumpet was quite revealing and Rodney s performance of another selection using the MIDI Spanish guitar with fret noise was unforgettable. The organ used for the workshop was Crestview s Allen Quantum Q380 model-----a sizable 3 manual drawknob console organ of 80 stops, complete with the Allen Vista MIDI module. At the conclusion of the workshop, a drawing was held for a copy of Geoffrey Stanton s The Digital Musician, published by Wayne Leupold------four copies were available for four lucky winners. In addition, Rodney s complete presentation along with suggested arrangements for organ and MIDI was made available to all participants. FREE PARKING is always available across from Christ Church during our Organ Recital Series

4 HISTORICAL ORGAN CRAWL! PAGE 4 Historical Organ Crawl Roundup Written by Isaiah Hyman The Cincinnati Chapter presented a Historical Organ Crawl of Tracker organs in Brown County, Ohio and Mason, County, Kentucky, navigated by Dr. Linda Fulton. The day began in Ripley, Ohio by visiting the First Presbyterian Church, which houses an A. B. Felgemaker & Co. of Erie, PA, opus 472, 1886, two manuals, 12 ranks (pictured above), the organ was originally built for the First Scots Presbyterian Church in Charleston, SC, but was not delivered due to a massive earthquake in August, The organ was being transported down the Ohio River and the boat captain pulled up to the docks in Ripley and offered the organ for sale. Ripley First Presbyterian Church purchased the organ for $1500. An article about the church was printed in Life magazine, May 11,1942, entitled "Small Town Choir", its shows several photos of the sanctuary and organ. After a short presentation/demonstration and singing of a hymn, the group continued on to the Centenary United Methodist Church which has an organ built by The Votteler-Hettche Organ Co. of Cleveland, OH, 1904, two manuals, 10 ranks (shown top of page, upper right), which was originally hand pumped, still extant. This organ is a "Carnegie" organ- half of the $1500 cost was underwritten by philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, who also provided $10,000 for the construction of the Ripley's public library. The organ was demonstrated by Richard Watson of Watson- Meek Co. bell foundry. Twenty Five members of the group lunched at Moyer's Winery and Restaurant on the banks of the Ohio River in Aberdeen, Ohio. The crawl continued in the afternoon with visits to St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Maysville, KY, which houses a George Kilgen and Son of St. Louis, MO, ca 1899, but was in stalled as a used organ in 1931, two

5 HISTORICAL ORGAN CRAWL ORGAN 101A! PAGE 5 away and the family wants you to play the service. The first approach is to call the church and find out as much about the organ as possible and to get the number of the current organist. Photo Credit: Dan Pater manuals, 10 ranks. Our last stop on the crawl was the First Baptist Church, home of a Henry Pilcher & Sons, 1902, opus 422, 2 manuals, 13 ranks. Special thanks to Betty Campbell and Wilma Insko, Centenary UMC, Ripley, Mary Ann Culp, St. Patrick's RCC, Maysville, Pastor Tony Liess, First Baptist Church, Maysville, Richard Watson for assisting with the stoplists and organ demos, and the Presbyterian Women for providing refreshments. Organ 101A for the Non Organ Major Written by Mark A. Behnken This column is for the vast majority of organists that are really pianists pushed into the position. Many churches believe that, if you can play a keyboard, then you can play the organ with just a little practice. Some pianists take the position just until they find someone else (a friend of mine retired after forty years of them not finding someone else. ) You will gradually get more comfortable in your role as organist thru experimentation & trial and error on your particular instrument. Sooner or later the inevitable will happen, cousin Myrtle Mae is getting married and wants you to play the organ in another city, or Uncle Elwood passes I once played a wedding in Illinois where they had no current organist but the secretary assured me it was a large organ with pipes that stretched across the front of the sanctuary that seated over a thousand. When I got there I found a rickety, two manual Conn with fake pipes attached to speaker cabinets. Always check with the organist to find out where they hide the key, how to turn the organ on, do you turn on the lights and PA system, where are the lights for the manuals, music stand, pedals, are there any presets that you can program yourself, and any quirks (every organ has some) and things to know about this particular instrument. I recently played a funeral on a fantastic organ of over a hundred ranks that when you turned it on the B flat on the state trumpet would play for thirty seconds (which felt more like five minutes) till it finally stopped. In this case you have to turn on the organ before anyone else arrives. The organ will have either two, three or four manuals. On a two manual the Great will be on the bottom and the Swell the top. On a three manual the Choir will be on the bottom, Great in the middle and the Swell on top. On a four manual the Choir will be on the bottom, then the Great, then Swell, and the Photo Credit: Jeff Scofield

6 ORGAN 101A NEW YORK CITY POEA! PAGE 6 top manual will either be a Solo division or an Antiphonal/Gallery division or both. The stops will be set up in one of three ways, button stops on the right and left, rocker tabs on the right and left or tabs across the top along with coupler tabs. Your general memory pistons, which control the entire organ, will be on the left under the Swell/Great manuals. There will be between 1-6 or 1-8 or 1-10 or more. Under each manual will be divisional presets which will only control the manual directly above it. Check what sounds are on the general presets, hopefully it is set up with #1 being the most quiet up to #10 which will be the loudest. If you do not like the stop combinations that are there, and the organist will not let you have any presets to use, you can do one of three things: 1. Set up everything by hand. 2. Use their presets but remember what stops you want to add or take off from that particular setting. 3. Find the preset with the least amount of stops, write them down, do your own thing and then return them the way they were after you are done. Practice and get to know the organ as much as possible. I know of an organist that had to play a funeral in the chapel of a large church on a marvelous organ donated by the family (it was a large home organ with a rhythm box.) During the funeral, she reached down to change a setting and accidentally turned on the rhythm box, after going through several rock rhythms, she got off the bench, walked around the organ, unplugged it and walked out of the chapel. Get to know the instrument. On a pipe organ, as opposed to an all electronic, the Great usually is not under expression or enclosed (gets louder or softer with a pedal.) You may find several pedals one for each division (manual) you also may find a button that states all swells to swell which means you can get louder or softer using just the swell pedal. The far right pedal is the crescendo pedal which gradually adds stops up to full organ. This is a tricky pedal to use and unless you are Diane Bish and look good in sequins, you should probably avoid this pedal. Above all else, relax and enjoy yourself but after everything is said and done remember the organist s 11th commandment, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor s instrument, position, salary, or house of worship. Mark A. Behnken Former College Professor of piano and organ Current organist of College Hill Presbyterian Church New York City POEA Written by Mitchell Miller This past July, I had the privilege of attending the Pipe Organ Encounter Advanced (POEA) in New York City along with Thomas Heidenreich, a fellow Cincinnati Chapter student member, and 20 other young organists. I came to know of this program through last year s scholarship competition when Thomas, the judges, and I were gathered after the competition. Thomas mentioned the POEA because he was considering it, and so I checked into it and decided I would like to attend. We arrived at the St. Thomas Choir School on the 18th of July, which was our home base for the entire week. As soon as I checked in, I had the opportunity to meet all of the other participants and chaperones.

7 NEW YORK CITY POEA! PAGE 7 All of the participants were between the ages of 14 and 18. It was a great experience to be able to talk with and be with other organists who were my same age. After we arrived and got settled, we left for St. Ignatius of Loyola Church, which has a gorgeous 91 rank Mander tracker action organ. A recital was put on by local New York chapter organists, including Stephen Tharp, Nancianne Parrella, Mary Huff, Andrew Henderson, and Renee Anne Louprette. Afterward, we were allowed to play the organ, and it turned out to be my favorite organ all week. If you have heard good things about that organ, I can tell you, they are all true. Every morning we had lessons with our instructor, each instructor having two students. I was lucky enough to be paired with Dr. Matthew Lewis, XXXX at Julliard School of Music. The only day we didn t have lessons was on Wednesday, when we were supposed to go to Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were delayed by a crazy sequence of events that I will explain later. On Monday, we had an organ-building workshop put on by local organ builder, Sebastian Gluck, at First Presbyterian Church. Following that, we had a recital there by John Walthausen, a student at Oberlin. After console time following the recital, we left for St. Paul s Evangelical Lutheran Church, and a workshop on Plainsong with our director, Paul Murray. On Tuesday, we had two workshops at St. Michael s Episcopal Church. One was on Bach fugues, given by Walter Hilse, and one on choral conducting, given by Dennis Keene. After those workshops, we walked to St. John the Divine, and an organ crawl, given by James Wetzel, the organ scholar there. We began in the rear of the cathedral, directly under the State Trumpet stop, and walked up through the nave as Mr. Wetzel improvised. We were then given a short demonstration and were allowed to sample the organ, because everyone there wanted to play. We

8 NEW YORK CITY POEA! PAGE 8 had dinner in the rectory of the cathedral, and proceeded to Christopher Creaghan s recital at Riverside Church. Wednesday, the day we didn t have any lessons, the group was scheduled to go through Central Park, and then proceed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. However, we were delayed due to 16 of us, myself included, finding ourselves stuck in St. Thomas Choir School s elevator for 23 minutes. Each morning, it was a habit of ours to get on the elevator at the 7th floor, where the boys slept, and pick up any girls on the 6th floor, where the girls slept, and ride the elevator down to the main floor and to whatever activity was beginning. Well, we had an abnormal amount of people in the elevator that day, so when we reached the bottom floor, the elevator door never opened. The director ended up having to call the elevator company to come, lower the elevator to the basement, and get us out. Upon arriving back on the main floor, Mr. Murray welcomed us back from the Tower of Terror and we left to go to the Museum, skipping our trip to Central Park. Later that day, we had workshops on hymn-playing and French Classical repertoire, given by David Enlow and Andrew Henderson, respectively. The end of the day brought a hymn-singing festival at Holy Family Church, led by Robert Ridgell, organist of Trinity Church Wall Street. It was 2 straight hours of hymn-singing goodness. Thursday brought two more workshops, on Improvisation and Choral Accompaniment, led by McNeil Robinson and John King, respectively. Our last full day closed with a recital by Fred Teardo at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. Mr. Teardo played on both organs, the Taylor and Boody in the rear, and the great Aeolian-Skinner in the front. I was given the opportunity to pump the Taylor and Boody organ for the first part of the recital, while Mr. Teardo played. We were given console time and then returned to the Saint Thomas Choir School. We finished up our week on Friday with the student recitals. There were two recitals that happened simultaneously, one at Rutgers Presbyterian Church and one at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. I was at Madison Avenue, and there were a total of 12 of us there. There were also some very prominent people in the audience, including Paul Jacobs, Stephen Tharp, Fred Teardo, and McNeil Robinson. It was a very positive experience to perform for these people and for all the audience members. The week had many very educational aspects to it, and I really look forward to going on the next POEA this coming summer. Find Us on

9 ORGANLIVE.COM! PAGE 9 ORGANLIVE MAKES IT EASY TO EXPERIENCE THE MUSIC OF THE ORGAN Organlive.com is an Internet audio station dedicated to the music of the classical organ. Broadcasting since 2003, Organlive has become the most-heard organ station on the Internet. The broadcast is completely free to anyone with a broadband Internet connection and is now easier than ever to tune in. Listeners simply need one click at to hear the broadcast through Windows Media Player, WinAmp, itunes, Quicktime, RealPlayer, or any streaming MP3 player. Additionally the stream may be heard on most mobile devices such as the iphone or Android based phones. The station is also listed in the classical radio stations on itunes. 6 A new website makes it easier to search the the evergrowing library of organ music, which currently holds over 10,000 tracks from more than 850 albums of music recorded by organists all over the world. Listeners can log in to rate tracks and albums as well as leave comments on the same. Organlive plays albums recorded on pipe, digital, and combination organs played by the world s best concert organists, as well as tracks recorded and submitted by less renowned organists. Included are pairings of organ and orchestra, solo instruments, choir, or vocal solos. The listener is presented with the work title, composer, album title, a link to purchase the album or MP3 online, the organ, it s builder, size, and location, and a link to the specification of the organ being heard, and often a link to public domain copy of the sheet music of the work. Listeners may browse the entire library searching by work, composer, organist, album, or organ and request tracks to be played. On Sundays the station features hymns, choral anthems, and music of the church. Monday's playlist consists of music from the 19th and 20th centuries. Wednesdays are all-baroque music, and Fridays feature the best music from our library, as rated by the listeners. The station has been continually funded by the listeners and an annual budget covering all operating expenses is raised every spring. Organlive is always accepting submissions for new music from organists, composers, and publishers. To listen to Organlive, or for more information on submitting your music, visit CONTACT: Brent Johnson, Organlive.com comments@organlive.com

10 CHAPTER HAPPENINGS! PAGE 10 FREE PARKING is available at the Queen City Club s lot on Forth Street across from Christ Church FALL 2010

11 CHAPTER HAPPENINGS! CONCERT CALENDAR PAGE 11 Local Concerts 2011 Music Live at Lunch Christ Church Cathedral 318 East Fourth Street, downtown Cincinnati. Music Live at Lunch, Christ Church Cathedral's weekly concert series, will feature the following performers in January. January 11: Katherine Evans, flute; Elizabeth Motter, harp (nave) January 18: Brianna Matzke, piano January 25: Janice Trytten, native flutes These free concerts are presented on Tuesday at 12:10 p.m. Patrons may bring their lunch or buy one at the cathedral for $5. Organ Concert Series at Hyde Park Community UMC REMINDER! Workshop and Demonstration on Hymn-playing, Service Music, and Improvisation Monday, January 10, :30 PM at Trinity Episcopal Church 326 Madison Avenue Covington, KY Led by John Deaver, Howard Helvey, and Stephan Casurella. It will be geared to all skill levels, including beginning and intermediate organists. Learn about: Supporting congregational singing Selecting stops Planning service Improvising on hymn tunes February 27, RAÚL PRIETO RAMÍREZ As Organist-in Residence at the National Concert Hall in Madrid, Spain, Raúl Prieto Ramírez increased attendance at the hall's organ recitals by a multiple of 30 in his first six months. April 10, ISABELLE DEMERS Performances are on Sunday afternoons at 4:00 p.m. in the sanctuary at 1345 Grace Avenue at the corner of Grace and Observatory Avenues in Hyde Park. Concert Series at Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral 325 West 8th Street, Cincinnati Sunday, February 27, :00 PM A program of choral and orchestral works by one of the city's finest choirs. Friday, March 11, :30 PM CHANTICLEER Hailed by the New Yorker magazine as 'The world's reigning male chorus. Monday, March 7, 2011, 7:30 p.m. Cincinnati Museum Center presents Thomas Murray, with Rick VanMatre, Soprano Saxophone Cost: $ Free Parking For more information, call (513)

12 PIPEDREAMS is now on WGUC 90.9 FM Sundays at 10:00 PM Produced by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) for the Public Radio International network, Pipedreams is a program on the King of Instruments that draws a weekly audience exceeding a quarter-million listeners. It is produced and hosted by veteran public radio broadcaster, and Oberlin Conservatory graduate, Michael Barone. Pipedreams often includes interviews, features, and recorded-live performances from around the globe, with a particular emphasis on American performers. You can hear it online at or We would like to encourage you to send a letter of appreciation to WGUC 90.9 FM Central Parkway Cincinnati, OH The funding was underwritten by the Harley Piltingsrud Foundation. Harley is a member of our Chapter! AGO Mission Statement The purpose of the American Guild of Organists is to promote the organ in its historic and evolving roles, to encourage excellence in the performance of organ and choral music, and to provide a forum for mutual support, inspiration, education, and certification of Guild members. CINCINNATI CHAPTER AGO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2011 Dean: Dr. Robert Benson Sub-Dean: Sanford Martin Secretary: Kim Heindel Treasurer: Donald C. Auberger, Jr. Registrar: Dale Harris Webmaster & Newsletter Editor Larry Klug Members-at-large: Class of 2011 Kristy Swift Tom Graler Shari Rasch Class of 2012 Isaiah Hyman Winston Vaughan Barbara Liszniewski Class of 2013 Richard Redmon Mark Behnken Sylvia Jo Plyler Student Member: Mitchell Miller The American Guild of Organists (AGO) is the national professional association serving the organ and choral music fields. The Guild serves approximately 20,000 members in 330 chapters throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Founded in 1896 as both an educational and service organization, the Guild seeks to set and maintain high musical standards and to promote understanding and appreciation of all aspects of organ and choral music. The purposes of the American Guild of Organists are: 1. To advance the cause of organ and choral music, to increase their contributions to aesthetic and religious experiences, and to promote their understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment. 2. To improve the proficiency of organists and choral conductors. 3. To evaluate, by examination, attainments in organ playing, choral techniques, conducting, and the theory and general knowledge of music, and to grant certificates to those who pass such examinations at specified levels of attainment. 4. To provide members with opportunities to meet for discussion of professional topics, and to pursue such other activities as contribute to the fulfillment of the purposes of the Guild. Cincinnati Chapter / American Guild of Organists Larry Klug - Editor 9925 Crusader Drive Cincinnati, OH 45251