Dexter Kennedy (United States)

Dexter Kennedy, born in 1990, is currently an Master of Music Candidate at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, as the recipient of the Robert Baker Award, a prize granted to a student deemed to be among the top 1 or 2 percent of the young organists in the country. He received his undergraduate diploma in organ performance in 2012 from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, graduating with multiple, individual prizes. He was recognized as a “Rising Star” by the American Guild of Organists after winning the 2009 AGO Region V competition for Young Organists, and was named runner up of the 2012 Miami Organ Competition. His principal teachers include James David Christie, Martin Jean, Olivier Latry, and Jeffery Brillhart (improvisation). He has participated in masterclasses with Michel Bouvard, Francesco Cera, Jacques van Oortmerssen, Martin Sander, and Harald Vogel. Kennedy is currently the organ scholar at St. Paul’s on the Green Episcopal Church, Norwalk, Connecticut.

Repertoire

Round I, Part I

Muffat — Toccata VII from Apparatus musico-organisticus (1690)

J. S. Bach — “An Wasserflüssen Babylon,” BWV 653

J. S. Bach — Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532

Round I, Part II

Weckmann — Toccata in E minor, KN 147/2

Frescobaldi — Bergamasca from Fiori musicali, F. 12.46

Froberger — Toccata da sonarsi alla Leuatione in D minor, FbWV 105

Frescobaldi — Toccata prima from Il secondo libro de toccate, F. 3.01

Round II

Bruhns — “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland”

J. S. Bach — “Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter,” BWV 650

Graun — Organ Concerto in G minor – 1. Animoso

C. P. E. Bach — Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, Wq. 119/7

Final

August Gottfried Ritter (1811–1885) — Sonata No. 2 in E minor, op. 19

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) — Andante and Variations in D major (1844)

Heiller — In festo corporis Christi

Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) — Chorale Prelude and Fugue on “O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid”

J. S. Bach — Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 552