Organ Academy
September 22–29, 2013

The 2013 Westfield Organ Academy will take place in conjunction with the Organ Competition at Cornell University and the Eastman School of Music, and include the 2013 Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative Festival (EROI), “Spectrum of Sounds: Aspects of Twentieth-century Organ Composition and Performance” from September 26–29, 2013.

This is a rare opportunity to work with a distinguished group of performers and teachers in the field including Christa Rakich, Edoardo Bellotti, Jacques van Oortmerssen, Bernard Foccroulle, Jon Laukvik and Peter Planyavsky, and to play on several landmark historic, and historically-informed instruments, including the Cornell Baroque Organ (2011) at Anabel Taylor Chapel in Ithaca, based on the Arp Schnitger organ at Schloß Charlottenburg (1706); the Craighead-Saunders Organ at Christ Church, Rochester, based on the Adam Gottlob Casparini organ at the Dominican Church in Vilnius, Lithuania (1776); the Italian Baroque organ by an unknown builder (c. 1660–1770), at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester; the Italian baroque organ by Augustinus Vicedomini (1746) at Cornell University; the Paul Fritts organ (2004) in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Rochester, and the Aeolian-Skinner organ (1940) at Cornell.

The Academy offers keyboard players the opportunity to explore the music of the 17th to 20th centuries through the avenue of instruments, sources and performance practices familiar to the composer. Competition participants eliminated after the first round will be invited to join the Academy and festival. There is no age limit for participants in the Academy.

The week will begin on Sunday, September 22, 2013 with time for participants to get to know the Cornell University organs, followed by a recital and reception. Masterclasses will take place at Cornell on Monday, September 23 and Tuesday, September 24, with a participant recital at 5pm on Tuesday. The group will then be bused to Rochester for a day of masterclasses with members of the Organ Competition jury. Academy members will have the opportunity to play in a public concert on the Italian Baroque organ at the Memorial Art Gallery on Thursday afternoon before joining the EROI festival schedule that afternoon.

The EROI Festival will feature more masterclasses, panel discussions and workshops including a workshop with Peter Planyavsky. The week will conclude with the Organ Competition final round and reception, a trip to the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester and the Organ Competition Winners’ Recital in Ithaca. The tuition cost for the whole week is $250, which includes a full pass to the EROI festival. For more on the EROI Festival, please see the detailed EROI schedule.

Recitals

Academy participants will have the opportunity to perform in public recitals on the Arp-Schnitger-style organ at Cornell University and on the historic Italian organ at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester as follows:

Tuesday, September 24, 5pm: Anabel Taylor Chapel, Cornell University
Thursday, September 26, 1pm: Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester
Sunday, September 29, 1pm and 3pm: Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester

Repertoire

The Academy is conceived as a learning opportunity both for participants in the concurrent Westfield Organ Competition, and for non-competitors attending the Academy alone. It is designed to compliment the Competition theme, ‘Cosmopolitan Encounters,’ and to feed into the 2013 EROI festival which celebrates music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Repertoire for the Academy incorporates some of the Competition repertoire but also emphasizes new chronological and geographical encounters. The first part of the week will be devoted to a smaller group of Academy-alone students, with Christa Rakich, on the magnificent Schnitger-style organ at Cornell; repertoire for those two days will be J. S. Bach trio sonatas and Schübler chorales; on the Wednesday, competition participants (except for those selected for the second round of the competition) will join the academy, for masterclasses on four different organs in Rochester and a variety of repertoire; towards the end of the week, students will work again with Christa Rakich, Peter Planyavsky and Edoardo Bellotti.

Students are asked to prepare to play a piece for each of the masterclass teachers, as follows:

Christa Rakich

Your choice of selections from:

J. S. Bach: the 6 Trio Sonatas, the 6 Schübler Chorales
A work by Hindemith or Heiller

Edoardo Bellotti

Frescobaldi: Toccatas from Book II (1627) - (facsimile edition Spes or modern edition Suvini Zerboni or Zanibon).
Froberger: Toccatas from the Manuscript SA 4450 (recently published in facsimile and modern notation by Baerenreiter).

Bernard Foccroulle

Buxtehude: Any Praeludium or Toccata
Arnolt Schlick: Salve Regina
Foccroulle: ‘Toccata’ (Edition Doblinger) and ‘Spiegel’ (Edition Henry Lemoine)

Jon Laukvik

Your choice of selections from the Westfield Organ Competition repertoire

Jacques van Oortmerssen

Your choice of selections from the Westfield Organ Competition repertoire
OR
Your choice of selections from J. S. Bach, Orgelbüchlein
van Oortmerssen, Five Chorale Preludes

Organ Academy September 22–29, 2013