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Peoria Chapter |
| Last updated: October 14, 2009 |
Message from the Dean |
| Greetings!
We welcome you to our special guild events. The Peoria Chapter will host a number of events beginning with a concert at St. John's Lutheran Church in Bloomington on Septemer 20th featuring Dr. Susan Klotzbach. Our three other artist performing this year include Michael Bedford, Harry Huff, and Larry Bowie. There is much more to come. We meet monthly (except for December) and look forward to hearing some exciting programs and meeting other organists to share what's going on. Please come! It's a chance to get new ideas and socialize with fellow musicians and organ enthusiasts. Dave Byrkit |
Local Events |
| Peoria Chapter AGO Upcoming Events(2009 - 2010)
Friday, October 16th at 7:30 pm— Keith Williams will present a Lecture-Recital at Trinity Lutheran Church in Peoria (135 NE Randolph Ave.) followed by a reception. We will meet for dinner at 6:00 pm at Bennigan’s in the Holiday INN City Center (500 Hamilton Blvd). If you wish to join us for dinner or if you wish a ride to this event call me at 309 637-1283 or e-mail me at david.byrkit@itt.com. Lecture-Recital – “The Life, Influences and Work of Johann Gottfried Walther” Join us for an exploration of the music and times of one of Bach’s friends and colleagues. Selections from the vast organ repertoire of this highly talented composer will be played, as will as pieces by composers who influenced Walther’s development – Bach, Johann Pachelbel, Wilhelm Heironymus Pachelbel, Jacques Boyvin, etc. Walther’s chorale-based music, especially, is of considerable interest and usefulness. Keith Williams is the Director of the Service Department and an Associate in the Marketing and Sales for Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, LLC. He has his organ performance degree from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. He is also currently Organist and Choirmaster at St. John's Lutheran Church in Champaign. Mr. Williams directs Buzard’s staff of technicians in all aspects of maintenance, tuning, restoration and rebuilding of extant organs. By virtue of his wealth of understanding of historical instruments, and his experience as a church organist and recitalist, Mr. Williams is a valuable member of Buzard’s Project Team during in-house discussions of how to best restore portions of existing instruments which may be retained in new work. _________________________________________________________ Sunday, November 15th at 3:00 pm— Carroll Green & David Byrkit will present a Celebration/Service celebrating 50 years of membership in the AGO at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Peoria (1420 W. Moss Ave.) followed by a reception. We will meet after the reception for dinner at One World Cafe (500 Main St.). If you wish to join us for dinner call me at 309 637-1283 or e-mail me at david.byrkit@itt.com. Carroll Green and Dave Byrkit both joined the Peoria Chapter of the AGO in 1959. Carroll has been a member of this chapter the entire 50 years and now qualifies for our chapter’s “Life Time “ member. We will be honoring our life time members and our past deans at this function. Carroll Green has been the organist for Westminster for over ten years and served First Federated Church of Peoria for 23 years. He has his bachelors degree from Bradley University and his masters degree from the University of Illinois. He taught many of the promising organ students here in Peoria for many years. David Byrkit directs the choirs at Westminster and backs up Carroll on the organ. His bachelors degree was also obtained at Bradley University with post graduate studies in music at Texas Christian University, Southern Methodist University, Brooklyn Conservatory, Juilliard, and Mannes School of Music in NYC. David was an organist choirmaster in New York for 25 years. ________________________________________________ Our three major artists that are lined up for this year are Michael Bedford (Friday, January 29th at First Baptist church), Harry Huff (Friday, May 21 at St. Mary’s Cathedral), and Larry Bowie (June at Westminster). Michael Bedford, DMA, AAGO, ChM, has served as Organist/Choirmaster and Composer-in-Residence at St. John's Episcopal Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma since 1990. A native of Sherman, Texas, he has held similar positions in Texas and Colorado. He has published choral music for children, youth and adults, as well as organ collections, handbell music, and two extended works for choir, soloists, and chamber orchestra. He also serves as workshop leader and clinician for children's and youth choir festivals, hymn festivals, directors' workshops, and music reading sessions throughout the United States. He is an active member of the American Guild of Organists (currently serving as Regional Councilor for Region VII), the Association of Anglican Musicians, the American Choral Directors Association, and the Choristers Guild. His biography has appeared in both Outstanding Young Men of America (1984) and the International Who's Who in Music (1989). HARRY LYN HUFF is Minister of Music and Organist at Old South Church (Boston), where he plays the four-manual 1921 E.M. Skinner organ, op. 308 of 115 ranks, conducts the Old South Choir and supervises the church’s extensive music program, which includes the jazz ministry, the Old South Ringers and numerous concerts. He is currently also Music Director and Lecturer on Ministry at the Harvard Divinity School and Chapter Organist in The Memorial Church, Harvard University. From 1984 until 2004 he was Director of Music for Calvary Episcopal Church, and from 1986 until 2004 he was Organist and Artist-in-Residence at Union Theological Seminary, both in New York City. His other New York positions have included Adjunct Organist in St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University, Organist of Temple Shaaray Tefila, Director of Choral Activities at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, CUNY and Artistic Director for the St. George’s Choral Society. Larry Bowie is a native Peorian and a former historian of our guild. He currently resides and performs in the Baltimore/Washington area. A great deal more will be said about Larry as we get closer to his coming “home” for a combined recital with Westminster’s Iben series. E-Mail Address: If you have an e-mail address, please let us know so we can send you our newsletter via the internet. We can also keep you updated with the latest AGO news. Please send your address to David.Byrkit@itt.com. |
Newsletter |
| Eureka Christian Church, 302 South Main in Eureka, will host a pipe organ recital on Sunday afternoon, November 1, at 3 p.m. Admission is free; an offering will be taken. The recital will feature the church’s historic Aeolian-Skinner two-manual, 14-rank organ in the sanctuary’s fine acoustical space.
The occasion marks the hiring of Carol Bennett-Barker as permanent organist after a seven-year vacancy on the bench following the death of Lois Humbert in 2002. Joining Ms. Bennett-Barker in performance will be Sharon Baker, Joyce Blumenshine, Jean Littlejohn, Joshua Russell, and Steve Sieger, organists who have frequently substituted during the past seven years. Also featured will be Eric Lind, a student who attended the Pipe Organ Encounter in the summer. The program will include works by Bach, Alain, and others, including George Brandon’s “Eureka Suite,” which he wrote while a professor of music at Eureka College. For more information, call 467-2369 or 467-3144. We now can listen to Pipe Dreams in the Peoria area! With radio broadcast now digital, WCBU has added Pipe Dreams to its broadcast schedule on WCBU-2. One must have a DIGITAL radio tuner to receive this broadcast. There are models shown on the WCBU website http://www.wcbufm.org/HDRadio.htm. (I use a Sony model XDR-F1HD digital tuner plugged into my component system amplifier, etc, and find it entirely satisfactory; it costs about $100 ordered on-line.) PIPE DREAMS is broadcast on Saturday afternoons for two full hours, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Our thanks to station manager Tom Hunt and programmer Nathan Irwin for adding "Pipe Dreams." I encourage financial support of WCBU from the A.G.O. community. "Pipe Dreams" continues to be broadcast in its 90 minute edition beginning at 10:06 p.m. Sunday nights on U of I's WILL-FM 90.9, which may be received on non-digital tuners if one resides in its broadcast signal range. (The Rev.) D. Joe Dunlap Member / publicity, Peoria Chapter American Guild of Organists |
Membership |
| To register please contact Dr. Susan Klotzbach - klotzbach@verizon.net |
Placement |
| Employers and job seekers are invited to post and search listings of available positions on the Guild's National Website. |
Certification |
Contact Us |
| Dean, David C. Byrkit - david.byrkit@itt.com
Sub-dean, Michael Haller - mikehaller@aol.com Secretary, Gary Black - gblack@ocslink.com Treasurer, James Hopkins - jimkate@insightbb.com Registrar, Dr. Susan Klotzbach - klotzbach@verizon.net Publicity, Father D. Joe Dunlap - joeperscc@comcast.net Chapter Chaplin, Rev. Steven P. Tibbetts - steven.p.tibbetts@ecunet.org (The Rev.) D. Joe Dunlap Member / publicity, Peoria Chapter American Guild of Organists |
Links |
| Visit the AGO National website |