Rie Bloomfield Organ Series

Tuesday, September 17th 2024
7:30pm
Wiedemann Hall

 

Dr. Jens Korndörfer is the newly appointed Associate Professor of Organ at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Praised as “a virtuoso in the grand Romantic tradition” who creates “performances that are deeply musically satisfying as well as exciting” (The American Organist), Korndörfer has performed to critical acclaim at prestigious venues such as Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, the Montreal Bach Festival, the Cathedrals in Washington, Berlin, Paris, Salzburg, Oslo, and Moscow, Westminster Abbey in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Cultural Centre in Hong Kong.

Korndörfer’s repertoire reaches from the Renaissance to the 21st century, including transcriptions, commissions, and world premieres. He frequently collaborates with other musicians, has performed with orchestras, and recorded five CDs.

Passionate about forming the next generation of organists, Korndörfer taught at Agnes Scott College (2014 – 19) and, since 2017, has been directing the successful rebuild of the organ program at Georgia State University. In combination with graduate assistantships at major churches in the Atlanta area, the comprehensive program is designed to prepare students for a successful career in church and concert.

As Director of Worship and the Arts, and Organist at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, GA, Korndörfer oversaw a thriving music and arts ministry. Under his leadership, the sanctuary organ (IV/112) was completely rebuilt, enlarged, and re-voiced by organ builders Klais (Bonn, Germany) and Schlueter (Lithonia, GA). Thanks to collaborations with major cultural players, presentations and lecture series, and the introduction of programs that raise awareness for minorities in the classical arts, Jens significantly increased the reach of the church’s music and arts ministry.

A top-honor graduate from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, the Oberlin Conservatory, the Musikhochschule in Bayreuth, and McGill University in Montreal, Korndörfer’s teachers include Olivier Latry, Michel Bouvard, James David Christie, and Ludger Lohmann.

Tuesday November 12th 2024
7:30pm
Wiedemann Hall

 

Internationally recognized as a conductor, organist and teacher, James O’Donnell has performed all over the world. Following a distinguished 23-year tenure as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey, Mr. O’Donnell now holds the post of Professor in the Practice of Organ at Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven CT, where he succeeds Thomas Murray as professor to graduate organ majors and other students in sacred music. In addition, he directs a newly formed professional liturgical vocal ensemble at Yale University, The Yale Consort, which will serve as a model and a vehicle for study for students preparing for careers in church music and liturgy.

In his tenure at Westminster Abbey Mr. O’Donnell was responsible for all musical aspects of the Abbey’s work, training and conducting the Abbey Choir in its daily choral services, recordings, concerts, and broadcasts and at the great national occasions for which the Abbey is known, including directing the music for the September 2022 State Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, which was broadcast live throughout the world to an estimated audience of over 4 billion people. He has toured extensively with the Choir of Westminster Abbey to the United States, the Far East, Australia, and Europe. Prior to his appointment at Westminster Abbey, Mr. O’Donnell served for twelve years as Master of Music at Westminster (Roman Catholic) Cathedral where under his direction the renowned Cathedral Choir made many recordings and won the coveted Gramophone Record of the Year award, unprecedented for such a choir.

James O’Donnell began his studies as a junior exhibitioner in organ and harpsichord at the Royal College of Music. He then studied for a degree in Music at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar. Over the course of his career he has played concerts in the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe. Recent engagements have included solo recitals in the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Cologne Cathedral, and Dresden Kreuzkirche, as well as appearances in Italy and the Netherlands. He has appeared as soloist in the BBC Proms, most recently in Poulenc’s Organ Concerto which he has recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

As conductor and soloist James O’Donnell has worked with many of Britain’s leading ensembles. He continues as Music Director of the London-based period instrument orchestra St James’ Baroque and appears regularly with the BBC Singers and other ensembles. He is also Visiting Professor of Organ and of Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, of which he is also an Honorary Member. Among his honors and distinctions he was President of the Royal College of Organists 2011–13, elected an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music by the University of Aberdeen, and Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Music.

In January 2023 James O’Donnell was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) by King Charles III in the New Year Honours. Also in 2023, Westminster Abbey named him Organist Emeritus.

Tuesday February 18th 2025
7:30pm
Wiedemann Hall

 

“Lynne Davis played with precision and ‘le bon gout.’ Her sense of style was excellent, and she clearly showed her mastery of all the French-style ornamentation.” (The Calgary Herald)

Though American by birth, Lynne Davis’ career has been richly steeped in French music, culture, aesthetics, and style. Her career was launched by taking First Prize at the 1975 St. Albans International Organ Competition in England – the eighth organist to receive that honor since the competition’s founding in 1962.  Now a leading international concert artist and master teacher, she has performed in nearly every cathedral in France, numerous major cities throughout Europe, and from coast to coast in the United States and Canada. Her activities have included being a featured performer and lecturer at two national conventions and several regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists, giving master classes and lectures about French organ literature and its history.  She has served as a member of the Chartres, Dallas, St. Albans, Atlanta, and Taraverdiev (Russia) organ competition juries. In October 2017, she served as juror for the Canadian International Organ Competition in Montréal and was a featured recitalist during the competition week.

For over thirty-five years, Lynne Davis made France her home, having married Frenchman and Chartres International Organ Competition founder Pierre Firmin-Didot.  The couple played a major role in the French organ music scene, initiating among other things the famous Paris 1992 exhibition, Erato recording (Prix du Président de la République), and book of “Les Orgues de Paris”. Her unique living and vast working experience as well as her significant lineage of study in France makes her an authority in all French organ repertoire.

A highly regarded master teacher, she holds France’s Certificat d’Aptitude de Professeur d’Orgue, has served as organ professor at the Conservatory of Music in Clamart, (1990-2006) and at the French National Regional Conservatory in Caen, Normandy (1997-2006).  Ms. Davis then returned to the United States and joined the faculty of the Wichita State University School of Music that summer, holding a full professorship as the Robert L. Town Distinguished Professor of Organ.  She is producer and artistic director of the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series - Distinguished Guest Artists, and the Wednesdays in Wiedemann, series she created in 2007.

Lynne Davis’s recordings include several compact discs, radio broadcasts and live performances, including those on the famed organ at Chartres Cathedral. Her CD, Musique pour Cathédrales, released on the Quantum label, won the coveted 5 Diapasons award in France. Lynne Davis en Concert was made on the world-renowned Cavaillé-Coll organ at the abbey church of St. Etienne in Caen in Normandy. Her CD, Lynne Davis at the Marcussen organ in Wiedemann Hall was released in 2010.  Her WSU YouTube channel carries more than 65 videos of live recitals on the Marcussen organ in Wiedemann Hall at WSU.

Ms. Davis graduated with honors in organ performance from the University of Michigan where she studied with Robert Clark.  Shortly thereafter, she moved to France and for eight years she studied with Marie-Claire Alain.  While there she also studied with Jean Langlais, Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, André Fleury, Gaston Litaize, and Edouard Souberbielle, and partook in classes with numerous other great European master organists.

In 2011, Lynne Davis received the Excellence in Creativity Award from Wichita State University.  Following the immense success of the American Alain Festival which she organized at Wichita State University in 2011 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jehan Alain, she was awarded as a French citizen the prestigious distinction of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication in 2012.  In 2013, she received the medal of the city of Wichita from Mayor Carl Brewer and in 2016, the Burton Pell award from the Wichita Arts Council. In April 2021, she was promoted to Full Professor at the university.

Following her participation in 2024 on the jury of the Elizabeth Stephens International Organ Competition in Atlanta, and as a member of the faculty at the Yale Organ Academy, her translation from French to English of the 350-page book on Jehan Alain by Aurélie Decourt-Alain is set to be published in the United States (2024-25).

Lynne Davis is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.

Tuesday April 8th 2025
7:30pm
Wiedemann Hall

 

James Higdon is the Dane and Polly Bales Professor of Organ and Director of the Division of Organ and Church Music at the University of Kansas. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in organ from St. Olaf College, Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music. He has studied with Edmund Ladouceur, Robert Kendall, Karel Paukert, David Craighead, and Catharine Crozier. He has also studied in France with Marie-Claire Alain.

In 2018 he released a two-CD recording of the organ works of the French composer, Jehan Alain (1911-1940) based on Albert Alain’s personal copy of the 1942 first edition. The set was recorded both at the Bales Organ Recital Hall at The University of Kansas and the Alain organ in Romanmôtier, Switzerland. Additional recordings include: Dupré: A Centennial Tribute (Pro Organo), recorded at St. Paul's Anglican Church, Toronto, Canada; Organ Music of France
and Camille SAINT-SAËNS Opus 99 and Opus 199 (Arkay), both recorded on the 1879 Cavaillé-Coll organ at St.- François-de-Sales, Lyon, France. He is also featured on two recordings with the renowned Kansas City Chorale - Nativitas
and Alleluia: An American Hymnal, recorded on the Nimbus label. DCD Records released his inaugural recording of the new Hellmuth Wolff organ in the Bales Organ Recital Hall at the University of Kansas.

Recent European concert tours include recitals at Notre Dame Cathedral, La Madeleine and Saint- Étienne-du-Mont in Paris, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Chartres Cathedral and concerts and master classes in Germany, Prague and Poland and Russia. Significant American recitals include appearances at four previous regional conventions of The American Guild of Organists.

He has performed the premières of three commissioned works for organ by American Composers

Epistrophe: A Sonata in Four Movements for Organ - Samuel Adler, 1992
Three Temperaments - Stephen Paulus, 1996
Trelugue, Peccatas and Feuds - Music for a Reverberant Space - James Mobberley, 1997

The University of Kansas presented him with a W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence at the beginning of the 1997-1998 academic year. He was the first University of Kansas professor from the arts to be recognized with this prestigious award. He has had six students win Fulbright Awards and two students awarded International Rotary Grants during his tenure at the University of Kansas.

James Higdon is also active as an adjudicator. He has served on juries for numerous international organ competitions including Calgary North American Finals (Atlanta); International Organ Playing Competition (Erfurt, Germany); the Concours International d’orgue de la ville Biarritz: Prix André Marchal (Biarritz, France); the Concours internationaux de la Ville de Paris; the Canadian International Organ Competition (Montréal); the Taraverdiev International Organ Competition (Moscow and Kaliningrad) and the Concours de Grandes Orgues de Chartres. In September 2021 he again served as a juror for the Tariverdiev International organ competition and perform recitals throughout Russia including the Kaliningrad Cathedral and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow. Most recently he played the opening recital on the newly formed Artist Series at the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City and just released a CD of works of Maurice Duruflé in conjunction with the University of Kansas Chamber Choir, Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, Director (Requiem, opus 9 and Prélude, adagio et choral varié sur le thème Veni Creator, opus 4).