Bruce Neswick is an associate professor of organ at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and previously was director of music at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. He was formerly the organist and choirmaster of St. Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta for many years.
Recordings:
Bruce Neswick: Organist
Includes an improvised suite on ‘Urbs Beata Jerusalem’
Videos:
Improvisation – Fisk organ in Auer Hall, Indiana University
Official Website:
http://www.ansgar-wallenhorst.de/
Ansgar Wallenhorst pursued his music degree at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, where he studied organ and improvisation with Professor Günther Kaunzinger. He broadened his improvisation skills with Thierry Escaich and in the class of Olivier Latry in Paris, while Maître Jean Guillou provided him with further guidance on interpretation and improvisation.
In 2004, Johann Vexo was granted the position of substitute organist for the Choir Organ of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. Since 2009, he is also organist of the Cathedral of Nancy.
Videos:
Messe du dimanche soir 07.04.2013 – Prélude
Vêpres 07.04.2013 – Prélude
Vêpres 07.04.2013 – Sortie
Tom Trenney serves as Minister of Music to First-Plymouth Congregational
Church (United Church of Christ) in Lincoln, Nebraska. He became the first organist to be awarded First Prize and Audience Prize in the American Guild of Organists’ (AGO) National Competition in Organ Improvisation in 2006.
Recordings:
Organ Ovations & Improvisations
Includes an improvised suite on the tune Hyfrydol.
Videos:
Excerpts from a masterclass by Tom Trenney given at the AGO National Convention in Nashville, TN, July 2012:
Tom Trenney – Improvisation Masterclass, Part I – Nashville, TN
Tom Trenney – Improvisation Masterclass, Part II – Nashville, TN
Tom Trenney – Improvisation Masterclass, Part III – Nashville, TN
“Duke Street”, April 28, 2013 at First-Plymouth Church
“Come Down, O Love Divine” – First-Plymouth Church
Tom Trenney – Improvisation on ‘ENGLEBERG’ – First Plymouth Church, Lincoln, Nebraska
Official website:
http://www.pamelaruiterfeenstra.com/
From 1996–2002, Ruiter-Feenstra served as Senior Researcher at the Göteborg Organ Art Center, learning much about historic instrument construction, sound, and music from colleagues and instruments, teaching improvisation courses at Göteborg University, and launching research on Bach and improvisation. As Professor of Music at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas (1989–1996) and Eastern Michigan University (1996–2008), Ruiter-Feenstra taught organ, harpsichord, theory, improvisation, sacred music, and directed the Collegium Musicum. In 2008, Ruiter-Feenstra chose to leave institutional work in favor of freelancing as performer, pedagogue, author, composer, and recording artist.
Book:
Bach and the Art of Improvisation
Ann Arbor, MI: CHI Press, 2011.
Recordings:
Bach’s Teacher Böhm & Improvisation
In 1963, Daniel Roth became Rolande Falcinelli‘s substitute at the great organ at Sacré-Coeur in Paris, where he succeeded his former teacher as titular organist in 1973, a position he held until 1985, when he was appointed titular organist at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, where his predecessors were Charles-Marie Widor, Marcel Dupré, and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald.
Full bio.
Recordings:
Fresques Symphoniques Sacrées
On a sunday afternoon: Live at the Washington Cathedral
Eight Improvisations: Cavaille-Coll Organ of Sacre-Coeur in Paris
Daniel Roth Plays the Cavaille-Coll at Saint-Ouen in Rouen, France
Louis Vierne: Messe Solennelle, Opus 16 (A recreation of a Traditional Latin Mass at Saint-Sulpice, Sunday of the Resurrection)
Includes improvised service music by Daniel Roth
Videos:
Sortie – 7 February 1999 – St. Sulpice
Daniel Roth with Eric Lebrun – Victimae paschali laudes – St. Sulpice, Paris, France
Student of Jean Langlais, Ann Labounsky teaches at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Website:
http://www.jeanlanglais.com
You can hear him on Spotify.
Jean Langlais (1907 – 1991) was sent to the Paris National Institute for the Young Blind in 1918 where he studied piano, violon, harmony and organ with great blind teachers including Albert Mahaut and Andre Marchal.
Later, he entered the Paris National Conservatory of Music in the organ class of Marcel Dupré, obtaining a First Prize in 1930. In 1931, he received the “Grand Prix d’Execution et Improvisation des Amis de l’Orgue”, after having studied improvisation with Charles Tournemire. He ended his studies with a Composition Prize in the class of Paul Dukas at the Paris Conservatory in 1934.
In 1945, he became the successor to Cesar Franck and Charles Tournemire at the prestigious organ tribune of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. He left that position in 1987 at the age of 80, having been titular for 42 years. Professor for forty years at the National Institute for the Young Blind, he also taught at the Paris Schola Cantorum where, between 1961 and 1976, he influenced both French and foreign students, including Naji Hakim and Ann Labounsky amongst many others.
Biographies:
Jean Langlais – The Man and His Music
by Ann Labounsky, Amadeus Press, 2000.
Jean Langlais, 1907-1991: Ombre et lumiere
(in French) by Marie-Louise Jaquet-Langlais, Paris: Éditions Combre, 1995.
Recordings:
Jean Langlais Improvises at Great Organs
The Legendary Jean Langlais
His last recorded improvisations at Ste. Clotilde.
André Isoir studied with Édouard Souberbielle (organ) and Germaine Mounier (piano) at the École César-Franck and with Rolande Falcinelli at the Paris Conservatoire. He won the Haalrem Improvisation competition in 1966, 1967, and 1968. Since 1973 he has been titulaire organist at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris.
Audio:
André Isoir – Entry in the 1968 Haarlem Improvisation Competition
He received his musical education from Michel Chapuis, Suzanne Chaisemartin, Pierre Lantier and Pierre Cochereau. He is currently titulaire at the church of La Madeleine, Paris.
You can hear him on Spotify.
Videos:
Offertoire 4/03/2012 La Madeleine
Sortie on ‘O Filii et Filiae’ – La Madeleine, Paris
Paraphrase improvisée sur 2 thèmes grégoriens – La Madeleine, Paris
Variations sur un thème populaire – La Madeleine, Paris
