From the Dean

	David Enlow, Dean

Dear Colleagues,

You will see later in this issue an obituary notice for Charles Dodsley Walker. I count myself fortunate to have met him several times, and for those of you who knew him well, I am sorry for the loss of your friend, teacher, or mentor.

Several conversations with other church musicians lately have had a common theme: the difficulty of mustering motivation, gumption, and drive to be about our work mid-winter after the many musical experiences of December, whether they were transcendent or merely exhausting. Some days, the example of the great grizzly bear and his hibernation is appealing. “Wake me in the spring,” we might say!

This is not possible, at least not for many of us. One antidote is to gather in as great a number as possible, to provide ourselves with inspiring performances and continuing education to foster the flourishing of our art, to light again the fire for music that burns for all and for each.

One opportunity to do just that has just passed, one with improvisation both taught and demonstrated by one of the great maestros of that art, David Briggs. The other, yet to come, is the centerpiece of the Chapter’s program year, the Presidents’ Day conference, which this year takes place on a truly metropolitan scale, at a gigantic cathedral church which houses one of the world’s great organs, and which that day will house some of music’s great talents.

Our Sub-Dean James Kennerley and his program committee have worked diligently and well to assemble a very fine conference. All of us in Chapter leadership hope to see you all there, as we have provided these events for you, our fellow members. Come, be inspired!

Yours truly,

David Enlow

Presidents' Day

SUNDAY • 15 FEBRUARY 2015

Pre-conference event:
Recital by John Scott – St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street

Recital at 5.15 pm (following Choral Evensong at 4.00 pm)
Admission: Free

MONDAY • 16 FEBRUARY 2015 Presidents' Day Conference

Eroica: Music of the German Romantics

Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street
Hosts: Kent Tritle, Ray Nagem

Admission: Free to NYC AGO Chapter members; all others $40 for the whole conference or $10 per session.

9.00 am Coffee/Breakfast

9.45 am Master Class: Paul Jacobs

11.00 am Break

11.15 am Lecture: Tina Frühauf

12.45 pm Lunch and/or organ demonstration

2.30 pm Cathedral Tour

3.45 pm Break

4.00 pm Lecture: Michael Musgrave

5.30 pm Break

6.00 pm Concert: Isabelle Demers

8.00 pm Closing Reception and Farewell

Memorial Service for Charles Dodsley Walker

Memorial Service for

Charles Dodsley Walker

Saturday afternoon, March 21 at 3:00

Church of the Heavenly Rest

Fifth Avenue and 90th Street

All are welcome.

Centennial Millennium Fund Awards Grants

$1,500 – NYC Chapter AGO. Funding for professional video recording of chapter programs and uploading of these videos to YouTube or other social media.

$1,400 – 2015 Northeast AGO Regional Convention to be held in New Haven, CT. Funding to support artists’ fees and free admission to events for the public.

$1,000 – Evansville, Indiana Chapter AGO. Funding to support commissioning of work by William Bolcom for organ and brass quintet to be performed by the American Brass Quintet.

$1,000 – Metropolitan New Jersey AGO Summer 2016 Pipe Organ Encounter.

$1,000 – St. John the Evangelist Church, Newport, Rhode Island (Peter Stoltzfus Berton). Funding to support multi-meda equipment and public visual access to pipe organ mechanisms for ongoing public recital series.

Grant proposals were considered for projects that promote and enhance the pipe organ as a musical instrument to the general public. The Centennial Millennium Fund was created with proceeds from the 1996 National AGO Centennial Convention held in New York City.

Trustees of the Centennial Millennium Fund: Keith Tóth, Chair, Chris Babcock, Louise Basbas, Neal Campbell, and Brian Regan.

Our Regional Convention in New Haven This Summer

Click here for information about our regional convention June 28-July 1, 2015.

		Ernest White

Members From the Past

Brian Hill, Donald McDonald, and Rollin Smith each correctly identified Ernest White in last month's issue.

From the NYC Organ Project page on the chapter's web site we learn the following about White:

Ernest White was born on June 20, 1901 in London, Ontario. He studied violin locally and organ at the Toronto Conservatory of Music with Ernest MacMillan and Healey Willan. He moved to New York in 1926 for lessons with Lynnwood Farnam and was acclaimed for his performance at the 1927 AGO Convention in St. Louis. He was organist-choirmaster 1927-35 at St. James Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, and 1935-37 at Trinity Church, Lenox, Mass. For 21 years (1937-58) Ernest White was associated with the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in New York City, first as organist, and later as music director, where it was his custom to give two series of organ recitals each year.

White also became tonal director for the organ builder M.P. Möller, of Hagerstown, MD, designing and supervising installations in the USA and Canada, including those in New York at St. George's Episcopal Church, the Interchurch Center Chapel, and a studio organ at St. Mary the Virgin.

White taught at Bard College (Columbia University) and Pius X School of Liturgical Music in New York (1935-38), at the Music Teachers' College, University of Western Ontario (1948-51), at Jordan College (Butler University) and the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis (1963-71), and at the University of Bridgeport, Conn., 1971-73. He became organist-choirmaster at St. George's Church, Bridgeport, in 1973.

He gave over 1000 organ recitals featuring both old and modern repertoire. He was noted also for his trail-blazing editions of early organ music and for his recordings, among which was the first issued of Messiaen's La Nativité du Seigneur. Rollin Smith (AGO and RCCO Music, August 1977) said of White, "That he was able to synthesize the many contingencies of organ playing and organ construction into one pioneering point of view will distinguish his name and stature for many years to come."

Ernest White died in Fairfield, Conn., on September 21, 1980.

Can You Identify This Member From the Past?

. . . now deceased?