Keith S. Tóth, Dean

From the Dean

Next Chapter Event

From AGO Headquarters

JOHN AND MARIANNE WEAVER
TO BE HONORED WITH AGO RECITAL
AND GALA BENEFIT RECEPTION IN PHILADELPHIA

Celebration of the Lifetime Achievements of John and Marianne Weaver
Will Benefit the AGO Endowment Fund

NEW YORK CITY — The American Guild of Organists (AGO) will sponsor a Recital and Gala Benefit Reception honoring John and Marianne Weaver on Saturday, April 21, 2012, at 3 p.m., at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Pa. The recital will feature John and Marianne Weaver, joined by Diane Meredith Belcher, Chelsea Chen, Ken Cowan, and Alan Morrison. The gala benefit reception will follow. A pre-concert on-stage conversation with the performers will be moderated by Pipedreams Host Michael Barone beginning at 2:15 p.m. The gala is sponsored by the AGO National Council, Eileen Guenther, president, and the AGO Development Committee. All proceeds will benefit the AGO Endowment Fund in the Weavers’ honor. Recital and Gala Benefit Reception Tickets are $100 ($75 tax deductible) and may be purchased online at http://www.agohq.org/ or by calling 212-870-2311, ext. 4308. Tickets for the recital only can be purchased online at www.kimmelcenter.org.

Those unable to attend the Recital and Gala Benefit Reception can make a contribution to the AGO Endowment Fund in honor of John and Marianne Weaver online at www.agohq.org. 

JOHN AND MARIANNE WEAVER

John Weaver’s musical studies began at age six at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, from which he received that school’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989. A student of Alexander McCurdy and Robert Baker, he received the Diploma of the Curtis Institute, a Master of Sacred Music degree from Union Theological Seminary, and Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa., and the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2005 he was named “International Performer of the Year” by the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Dr. Weaver was Director of Music at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City from 1970 to 2005. He has also been head of the Organ Department at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, chair of the Organ Department at the Juilliard School, and served on the faculties of Westminster Choir College, Union Theological Seminary, and the Manhattan School of Music. For eleven years he was at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in New York City where he founded a famous Bach Cantata Series. As a concert organist, he has played throughout North America, Western Europe, the United Kingdom and Brazil, at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, and at the 1987 International Congress of Organists in Cambridge, England.

Marianne Weaver graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where she studied flute with Gerald Carey and Samuel Baron. She completed her Master’s degree in flute at the Manhattan School of Music under the legendary William Kincaid of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She studied with Jean-Pierre Rampal in 1969 and with Marcel Moyse in 1980.

Mrs. Weaver was first flutist of the Holy Trinity Bach Orchestra in New York for twenty-five years, and has performed almost every Bach flute part written. She has played with numerous other orchestral groups including the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, the Long Island Philharmonic, the Canterbury Chorale Orchestra, Musica Sacra, and several light opera groups. In 1994 she was made an honorary life member of the Village Light Opera Group. She has also had a successful teaching career in New York City.

THE KIMMEL CENTER ORGAN

The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ ranks as the largest mechanical action concert hall organ in the United States. Also home to the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, the Kimmel Center was designed by New York architect Rafael Viñoly. The four-manual, 111-stop organ with nearly 7,000 pipes, can be played either from a mechanical action console or a second, moveable console on stage. The instrument was designed and built by Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Lake City, Iowa, and is the firm’s Op. 76.

2012 Pipe Organ Encounter Locations

The summer of 2012 will be our twenty-fifth year of Pipe Organ Encounters—summer organ camps for teenage and adult pianists who wish to learn to play the pipe organ, the King of Instruments. This communication will enable you to access registration information for all eight of this summer’s POEs. The links provided on the right will enable you to go to the AGO National Headquarters Web site where brochures and registration information for each POE can be found.

Students who attend POEs enjoy a weeklong adventure that offers them organ instruction from experienced faculty, classes in organ literature and history, improvisation, registration and service playing, and the opportunity to meet other musicians who share their enthusiasm for the instrument.

Please pass this information along to friends and colleagues who you feel may enjoy attending a POE.

Warm regards,

Denise Lanning, Director
AGO Committee on the New Organist
deniselanning@netscape.net 

Obituary: David Craighead

We were saddened to learn of the death of David Craighead, the chapter's 1983 Interntional Performer of the Year.

An obituary released by the Eastman School of Music may be found here.

Members from the Past

	Warner Hawkins, Mus.D., F.A.G.O.

Several members incorrectly identified last month's mystery member as Clarence Dickinson, and the resemblence is remarkable. Dickinson, in an early photograph, was the mystery member in the October 2010 issue. For comparison photographs of CD in his later years, see Lorenz Maycher's comprehensive handouts from his 2011 Presidents' Day presentation.

However, Warner Hawkins was the correct identification, and the photo at right was taken from his obituary notice in the April 1960 issue of The Diapason.

Hawkins was National Warden of the AGO, as the office was then known, from 1941-43. The name was later changed to President. He was a student of Gaston Dethier at Juilliard, on whose staff he served for ten years before becoming head of the music department at the College of New Rochelle, New York. He later became associate director of the New York College of Music and was organist of Christ Church (Methodist) for twenty years. His funeral was held at Christ Church and its pastor and one time national chaplain to the AGO, Dr. Ralph Sockman, presided.

Can you identify this member from the past?

. . . now deceased?