Keith S. Tóth, Dean

From the Dean

Next Chapter Event

photo by Stephen Kennedy

Qbituary: Linda Lanier-Keosaian

	Linda Lanier-Keosaian

We are saddened to learn that chapter member Linda Lanier-Keosaian (1940-2013), of Hackensack, New Jersey, died on January 28 in her home following a brief illness.

She was a gifted and highly respected public school music educator, choral conductor, and church organist and choir director. As a church organist and choir director, she served all major denominations in both long-term and guest positions. She held membership in the Northern New Jersey, Metro New Jersey, New York City, and Cape Cod and the Islands Chapters of the AGO. Her last official AGO function was a demonstration and Master Class, which she organized for her Northern New Jersey Chapter, on the St. Clotilde Tradition; and for which she invited Mme. Marie-Louise Langlais as guest presenter.

A music teacher and choral conductor in the New Jersey public school system for more than twenty-five years, she spent seventeen of those years at Arts High School in Newark. She directed the Mass Chorus, the Freshmen and Sophomore Women’s Choirs, the advanced Women’s Ensemble, and a chamber chorus known as the Arts High Singers. Her Women’s Choirs were rated “Superior” yearly at the ACDA High School Festivals in New Jersey. In addition, she conducted the All North Jersey Junior High Women’s Honors Choir and the All North Jersey High School Women’s Honors Choir in 1997 and 2011, respectively. She founded the New Jersey High School Women’s Choir Festival, co-sponsored by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Essex County College, and she co-founded the Essex County Choral Festival. In 2010, she presented a paper on the teaching of world drumming at the 29th World Conference of the International Society for Music Education in Beijing, China.

She received her Bachelor of Music in organ performance from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. A native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, she also attended the University of Alabama. She earned her Master of Sacred Music from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where her areas of concentration were organ performance, conducting, and composition.

At the time of her death, she was in the final stages of the dissertation phase of her Ph.D. degree in Music Education at New York University. The focus of her doctoral dissertation was César Franck’s final composition, the organ Choral No. 3 in A minor. Since Franck left that work arguably incomplete at his death, she was examining differing interpretive approaches to the piece by offering herself as an organ student to a number of renowned organists and scholars in Europe and the United States: Marie-Louise Langlais, Susan Landale, Stefan Engels, David Higgs, Haig Mardirosian, and William Entriken.

A memorial service was held on Saturday, February 16, at the First Presbyterian Church in Englewood, N.J.

From the obituary posted at: http://bfoms.com/regist.html

In Memoriam: Marie-Claire Alain

The New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists mourns the loss of our esteemed colleague, honorary member, and International Performer of the Year (1984), the legendary French organist Marie-Claire Alain (August 10, 1926-February 26, 2013). Madame Alain was an organiste extraordinaire, pedagogue, musicologist, recording artist and mentor. Her artistry, knowledge, and teaching provided the formation of organists for decades and touched thousands including the very best in the organ world.

The New York City Chapter remembers with great fondness her many performances and masterclasses here in New York City. Madame Alain's artistry and teachings will continue on through her huge discography and through her legions of devoted student-disciples.

Requiescat in pace, Madame Alain.

A biography, photographs, and program from her 1984 International Performer of the Year Award may be found here.

An obituary on the Arts Journal blog may be found here.

An obituary on the Limelight website magazine may be found here.

Michael Barone posted a tribute, including some commentary from Mme. Alain, on the MPR blog which may be found here.

Members From the Past

	T. Frederick H. Candlyn

Richard Alexander and John Scott each correctly identified T. Frederick H. Candlyn (1892-1964) in last month's issue.

Candlyn was born in Cheshire, England, and educated at the University of Durham. He emigrated to the United States in 1912 and held positions as Head of the Music Department at the New York State College for Teachers in Albany, and was the Organist and Choirmaster of St. Paul's Church, also in Albany, for 28 years.

In 1943 he succeeded T. Tertius Noble at Saint Thomas Church, New York, where he remained until 1954, at which time he became Organist and Choirmaster of Trinity Church in Roslyn, Long Island.

He is the composer of much organ and choral music which remains in print.

Can You Identify This Member From the Past?

. . . now deceased?