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Volume 63, No. 1 |
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September 2012 |
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From the Dean
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Keith S. Tóth, Dean |
Dear Colleagues,
I hope that this summer has provided you with abundant rest and relaxation and that you are now refreshed and ready to greet the new season. Amidst personal holidays, the chapter board has kept busy this summer planning the 2012-13 program season along with carrying out the regular business of the chapter. We are now excited and energized to begin this new program season.
Our program year begins on Monday, September 24, with “Great Organs of the West Side”. Sub-Dean David Enlow and his program committee have organized a wonderful tour of the organs of three great churches: Church of the Intercession, St. Michael’s Church, and the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. An open bar reception at the last church, St. Michael’s, will provide a wonderful opportunity for us to meet and greet each other. More information on this program may be found later in this newsletter. We are most grateful to our host churches and organists for making this tour possible.
As we begin a new season, I would like to encourage those who have not yet renewed their dues for the 2012-13 season to please do so now. If we do not receive your dues, you will not be able to take advantage of the wonderful programs we have planned that are, in most cases, free of cost to chapter members. Your subscription to The American Organist magazine will also cease if you do not renew soon. The chapter relies upon your dues so that we can provide the first-class programming that you have come to expect from us. Information on renewing your membership can be found at our website, www.nycago.org. Thank you in advance for your prompt renewal!
In closing, please accept my very best wishes to you as we all begin another season of hard work and great music. I look forward to seeing you at our organ tour and reception on September 24.
Respectfully yours,
Keith S. Tóth
Dean |
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Next Chapter Event
MONDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER
2012 Great Organs of the West Side
Church of the Intercession (3 pm)
550 West 155th Street at Broadway
William Randolph, host
III/67 Schlicker organ (1964)
Cathedral Church of St John the Divine (approx. 4 pm)
1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street
Kent Tritle, host; Raymond Nagem, presenter
IV/146 Aeolian-Skinner organ (1954, 2008)
St. Michael's Church (approx. 5 pm)
222 West 99th Street at Amsterdam Avenue
John Cantrell, host
III/55 von Beckerath organ (1967)
This program is free and open to the public.
For our first event of the AGO program season, we present three notable, important organs in three splendid churches nearer the Hudson than the East River.
Beginning at 3 pm at the Intercession, each organ will be demonstrated by a resident musician, with a brief talk about the significance of the building.
If you are unable to attend at 3, consider joining us later in the tour.
The afternoon concludes with a reception & open bar in St. Michael's Parish Hall. |
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Fred Teardo |
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Kevin Kwan |
News of Members
New York says farewell to Fred Teardo and Kevin Kwan who each leave their positions at Saint Thomas Church for appointments at cardinal churches in the south.
Fred takes up his new position at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama, in November, and Kevin assumes his post at Christ and Saint Luke's Church, Norfolk, Virginia, in October.
Each of these churches has a Saint Thomas connection: Stephen Schaeffer, who retires from the Birmingham cathedral, is a 1961 graduate of the Saint Thomas Choir School, and Kevin's predecessor, once removed, was Grover Oberle, a former assistant organist at Saint Thomas and a student of T. Tertius Noble.
Click here to read more. We wish Fred and Kevin well in their new endeavors. |
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William Strickland |
Members from the Past
Congratulations to Kenneth Starr who correctly identified William Strickland in last month's issue.
Strickland (1914-1991) was a major player in the musical world of New York in the first half of the 20th century, and not just within organist circles. But it was as an organist that he got his start, first as a chorister at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and later as the organist of Christ Church, Bronxville, and Calvary Church in New York.
He would likely have succeeded David McK. Williams at St. Bartholomew's Church were it not for the fact that in 1946 he was engaged to be the founding music director of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, serving there from 1946-51. In Nashville he was known for his imaginative programing which often featured new music by living composers. He steadily improved the professionalism of the group and laid the foundation for the work of some of his better-known successors such as Thor Johnson, Kenneth Schermerhorn, and Leonard Slatkin.
Returning to New York after his tenure in Nashville, he was for a time the conductor of the Oratorio Society of New York. Working with the State Department, he conducted concerts of American music in Europe and the Far East. In 1955 he conducted the inaugural concert in a fund-raising series to preserve Carnegie Hall, and in 1956 he conducted a program for the AGO National Convention in New York. The photo at right is from the program booklet.
Always passionate about contemporary music he edited an anthology of works for organ by composers who aren't generally associated as writers for the organ, such as Krenek, Milhaud, Copland, and Harris which was published by H. W. Gray and is still in print. |
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Can You Identify This Member From the Past?
. . . now deceased? |
The next chapter newsletter is the October 2012 issue. The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2012. Material may be submitted to Neal Campbell, Editor. Nine issues are published through the year on a monthly basis with combined issues for December/January, May/June, and July/August. To make changes in your email address or to subscribe to the e-newsletter, please contact Larry Long, Registrar. |
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