Dear Colleagues,

Writing this letter is my first official act as your newly elected Dean. I wish to express to you, the members of the New York City Chapter AGO, my sincere thanks for electing me as Dean for the 2010-12 term. I am honored and humbled by the trust you have placed in me. I and the chapter’s Executive Board will work diligently to represent you and advance our mutual goals over these next two years.

I last held the post of Dean in 1992-94. Much has changed in the New York City organ world since then. Distinguished colleagues have retired or moved away from the city. New artists have arrived and are major contributors to the organ and sacred music life of our city. Significant new pipe organs of various styles have been installed and more are currently being built or are far along in the planning process. The chapter has hosted both national and regional conventions along with several Pipe Organ Encounters including this summer’s POEA ably chaired by Paul J. Murray. As of this writing, Alice Tully Hall’s famed Kuhn organ has been lovingly restored and is being reinstalled in the successfully renovated Tully Hall. These are exciting times for the New York City organ world and our profession!

Although summer is now upon us and many of us are enjoying a respite from the intense labors of this past season, your Executive Board is hard at working planning the 2010-11 season. Sub-Dean David Enlow and his program committee are placing finishing touches on a spectacular and varied series of events for your enjoyment and edification. You will learn more about these events in a special newsletter to be sent in August.

I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Chapter to thank outgoing Dean Frank Crosio and the retiring members of the Executive Board. Over these past few years they have done great work on behalf of the Chapter. I would also like to thank everyone who agreed to run for office in this past election. This election brought new interest and energy to our biennial process. The newly elected Board and I greatly look forward to capitalizing on this energy!

In closing, please accept my very best wishes to you for an enjoyable and relaxing summer. I look forward to seeing and greeting you all at our first chapter event in the fall.

Respectfully yours,

Keith S. Tóth, Dean

Programs for the coming season are being formulated and will be announced in a special August newsletter.

From the Registrar

From the Editor

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Members from the Past

Rick Alexander correctly identified Charlotte Garden, F.A.G.O., S.M.D, in last month's issue.

Remembered only by a few today, Charlotte Garden was one of America's most famous recitalists and teachers in the 1950s and '60s. As a teacher at the UTS School of Sacred Music she had a huge impact on students. In his "Dear Diary" article in the May 2010 issue of The Diapason Charles Huddleston Heaton tells of his pligrimages to her church, Crescent Avenue Presbyterian in Plainfield, N. J., a church of cathedral proportions and an organ to match. The photo, which was taken from the 1956 NYC AGO National Convention booklet, shows Dr. Garden at the console of the church's Richard Whitelegg/M. P. Moller organ.

At her recital in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for the 1956 convention she played the first performance of Alec Wyton's Fanfare for the State Trumpet which was written for the occasion. The work was later published by H. W. Gray and titled simply Fanfare and inscribed "To G. Donald Harrison, who created the State Trumpet." GDH later said that it was the only piece ever dedicated to him.

Charlotte Garden died in an automobile accident in the early 1960s while on her way to church for a Sunday morning service.