The Summer is a popular time for conferences and special courses. Here’s a list of opportunities to study improvisation at the organ this summer. If you know of others, please email me or share them in the comments so that I can add them to the website.
- London Organ Improvisation Course – July 18-21 in London, England. The guest tutor will be Otto Krämer
- Classical Music On The Spot – June 27-July 3 at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York covers 18th-century repertoire and improvisation skills. Knowledge of figured bass is required.
- Jehan Alain Society: 48th Organ and Improvisation Course – July 18–23 in Romainmôtier, Switzerland. Emmanuel Le Divellec and Tobias Willi teach improvisation to a maximum of 14 students. The complete two week course also includes instruction by Michel Bouvard, Bernhard Haas, Guy Bovet, and Michel Jordan
- Organ Academy in Saessolsheim (Alsace, France) – July 21-27 In addition to repertoire, Freddy Eichelberger and Francis Jacob will also wok on improvisation.
- Haarlem Summer Academy – July 18-22 Thierry Escaich teaches advanced improvisation; July 25-30 Peter Planyavsky teaches advanced improvisation and Jos van der Kooy teaches improvisation for beginners.
- 12th International Summer Academy of Music – July 22 – August 5 offers organ instruction with Jürgen Essl and Jean-Pierre Leguay on both repertoire and improvisation. Participation is limited to 12 organists. The course takes place in the Landesmusikakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ochsenhausen, Germany.
- Smarano International Organ Academy – July 25 – August 6, includes improvisation instruction by William Porter and Edoardo Bellotti
- Organ Academy South Germany – Upper Swabia 2016 – July 28-31 on the 1780 Holzhey Organ in Obermarchtal Monastery. Johannes Mayr offers instruction in repertoire and improvisation.
This summer is also the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists. It will take place in Houston July 19-23. Typically there is an improvisation competition and several workshop presentations on improvisation during the convention. I only spotted one improvisation workshop: Adagio Lost and Adagio Regained: A Study of the Lost Art of Improvising in the Adagio Genre, with Emphasis on Handel’s Organ Concertos presented by HyeHyun Sung. The NCOI competition was restructured for this year with the preliminary round taking place last summer. (See my critique here.) No information about the competition is currently on the Houston website…
I am still considering offering a couple of days of improvisation instruction here. If you would be interested in coming to study with me at the Cathedral July 28-30, 2016, please let me know. Space for active participants will be limited. If there is sufficient interest, I’ll share more details soon.
Hoping you take some time this summer to improvise better,
Glenn
Newsletter Issue 58 – 2016 04 21
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