Category Archives: Organist

Marcel Dupré

by

0

Marcel_DupréIn 1926, Marcel Dupré was appointed professor of organ performance and improvisation at the Paris Conservatoire, a position he held until 1954. In 1934, he succeeded Charles-Marie Widor as titular organist at St. Sulpice in Paris, a post he held until his death in 1971. He taught two generations of well-known organists such as Jehan Alain and Marie-Claire Alain, Jean-Marie Beaudet, Pierre Cochereau, Jeanne Demessieux, Rolande Falcinelli, Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, Jean Guillou, Jean Langlais, Carl Weinrich and Olivier Messiaen.

Full bio. You can hear him on Spotify.



Books:

Cours Complet D’improvisation a L’orgue/vol 1: French and English
Cours Complet D’improvisation a L’orgue/vol 2 English
Manuel d’Accompagnement du Plain-chant Grégorien

Recordings:

Organ Masterpieces: Marcel Dupré Recital (Live, 1953)
Includes and improvised symphony and other written compositions performed by Dupré.


Norbert Moret – Marcel Dupré – Guy Bovet: Les orgues de la collégiale de Neuchâtel
GALLO CD 943 1996
Includes: Norbert Moret- Premier concerto pour orgue et orchestre
Marcel Dupré- Improvisation sur des thèmes de Samuel Ducommun
Guy Bovet– Improvisation sur un thème de S. Ducommun à l’orgue de 1952 & Improvisation sur un thème de S. Ducommun à l’orgue de 1996

Audio:
Marcel Dupré – Improvisation on ‘Veni Creator Spiritus’ – St. Sulpice

Videos:
I have yet to see a video of Dupré improvising, but there are several audio recordings that have made their way on to YouTube here.
Marcel Dupré – Improvised Double Fugue on Kyrie XI ‘Orbis Factor – Recorded 1957
Marcel Dupré – Veni Creator – St. Sulpice, Paris

Wolfgang Seifen

by

0

Wolfgang SeifenIn 2000 Wolfgang Seifen was appointed professor of improvisation at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, and in 2004 he was appointed the organist of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.

Official Website:
http://www.wolfgangseifen.de/

Full bio. You can hear him on Spotify.

He has his own channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWI8vAAevvH99Vaht8a_cxw


Videos:
Suite in French Style – Marienbasilika – Kevelaer

Recordings:
Wolfgang Seifen and Ensemble “Virga Strata”
Gregorian Chant and Organ Improvisation

ohscatalog_2270_67269471Wolfgang Seifen Improvises, Live Concert
UM-20341
Wolfgang Seifen improvises in a live concert at Holy Ghost Church in Mannheim, Germany.

Peter Planyavsky

by

0

PlanyavskyFrom 1969 to 2004, Peter Planyavsky was organist at Vienna’s cathedral Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral), and in the years 1983 to 1990 was Dommusikdirektor, director of music with overall responsibility for the church music at the cathedral.

Full bio.


Recordings:
Peter Planyavsky Improvises
Motette Records, 2004


Improvises on the Vienna Stephansdom Organ

ohscatalog_2270_29840059Planyavsky Improvises In Cathedrals at Bremen & Brixen
MotetteCD-10541


Audio:
Peter Planyavsky – Entry in the 21st Haarlem Improvisation Competition

Bruce Neswick

by

0

NeswickBruce Neswick is an associate professor of organ at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and previously was director of music at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. He was formerly the organist and choirmaster of St. Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta for many years.


Recordings:

Bruce Neswick: Organist
Includes an improvised suite on ‘Urbs Beata Jerusalem’

Videos:
Improvisation – Fisk organ in Auer Hall, Indiana University

Ansgar Wallenhorst

by

0

Ansgar WallenhorstOfficial Website:
http://www.ansgar-wallenhorst.de/

Ansgar Wallenhorst pursued his music degree at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, where he studied organ and improvisation with Professor Günther Kaunzinger. He broadened his improvisation skills with Thierry Escaich and in the class of Olivier Latry in Paris, while Maître Jean Guillou provided him with further guidance on interpretation and improvisation.

Tom Trenney

by

0

TTrenneyTom Trenney serves as Minister of Music to First-Plymouth Congregational
Church (United Church of Christ) in Lincoln, Nebraska. He became the first organist to be awarded First Prize and Audience Prize in the American Guild of Organists’ (AGO) National Competition in Organ Improvisation in 2006.


Recordings:

Organ Ovations & Improvisations
Includes an improvised suite on the tune Hyfrydol.

Videos:
Excerpts from a masterclass by Tom Trenney given at the AGO National Convention in Nashville, TN, July 2012:
Tom Trenney – Improvisation Masterclass, Part I – Nashville, TN
Tom Trenney – Improvisation Masterclass, Part II – Nashville, TN
Tom Trenney – Improvisation Masterclass, Part III – Nashville, TN

“Duke Street”, April 28, 2013 at First-Plymouth Church
“Come Down, O Love Divine” – First-Plymouth Church
Tom Trenney – Improvisation on ‘ENGLEBERG’ – First Plymouth Church, Lincoln, Nebraska

Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra

by

0

Pamela Ruiter-FeenstraOfficial website:
http://www.pamelaruiterfeenstra.com/

From 1996–2002, Ruiter-Feenstra served as Senior Researcher at the Göteborg Organ Art Center, learning much about historic instrument construction, sound, and music from colleagues and instruments, teaching improvisation courses at Göteborg University, and launching research on Bach and improvisation. As Professor of Music at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas (1989–1996) and Eastern Michigan University (1996–2008), Ruiter-Feenstra taught organ, harpsichord, theory, improvisation, sacred music, and directed the Collegium Musicum. In 2008, Ruiter-Feenstra chose to leave institutional work in favor of freelancing as performer, pedagogue, author, composer, and recording artist.

Book:

Bach and the Art of Improvisation
Ann Arbor, MI: CHI Press, 2011.

Recordings:

Bach’s Teacher Böhm & Improvisation


Bach, Improvisations and the Liturgical Year