Westchester 2023 • AGO Regional Convention
July 3-6, 2023
Performers
Peter Richard Conte
The nearly unparalleled technical facility, brilliantly exacting ear for lush tonal color, and innovative programming style have made Peter Richard Conte one of the most revered and sought-after “orchestral” organists in the United States. He was appointed Wanamaker Grand Court Organist in 1989 – the fourth person to hold that title since the organ first played in 1911 – where he presides over the world’s largest fully-functioning musical instrument, with over 29,000 pipes, located in the Macy’s Department Store in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. The organ is heard in recital twice daily, six days per week, with Mr. Conte playing a majority of those recitals. He is also Principal Organist at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA and, since 1991, has served as Choirmaster and Organist of Saint Clement’s Church, Philadelphia, where he directs a professional choir in a music program firmly rooted in the high Anglo-Catholic tradition. He is also a frequent collaborator and soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and a guest artist with the Philly Pops for their annual Christmas Spectacular.
Mr. Conte is widely revered as a skillful performer of the standard organ repertoire, arranger of orchestral and popular transcriptions, and a silent film accompanist. His recitals include such diverse works as Bernstein’s Overture to ‘Candide,’ Dupré’s Symphonie Passion, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, “period pieces” such as Londonderry Air, opera arias and choruses by Mascagni and Strauss, and works by little-known American composers such as Firmin Swinnen and Oliphant Chuckerbutty. He has been featured several times on National Public Radio, and on ABC television’s “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight.” For 13 years he was heard on “The Wanamaker Organ Hour” radio show, broadcast via the internet at WRTI.ORG. He has appeared as a featured artist at numerous conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society, and as soloist with orchestras around the country..
Peter Richard Conte has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Organ at Rider University’s Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ, where he taught Organ Improvisation. He is the 2008 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington. In 2013, the Philadelphia Music Alliance honored him with a bronze plaque on the Avenue of the Arts’ Walk of Fame. His recordings appear on the Gothic, JAV, Pro Organo, Dorian, Raven, and DTR labels. His most recent solo CD, Virgil Fox Remembered, was released in May 2016 on the Raven label.
Janet Yieh
An innovative concert recitalist and sacred music specialist, Janet has been lauded for her “expressivity and technical prowess” (The American Organist), and named one of ‘20 under 30’ promising artists by The Diapason. She has performed throughout the United States and across the globe. Highlights include: New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Washington’s National Cathedral, San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, Yale University’s Woolsey Hall, Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, and Malaysia; collaboration with the Paul Winter Consort, the Washington Chorus at The Kennedy Center, NOVUS NY orchestra at Carnegie Hall; the American Guild of Organists’ 2022 National Convention in Seattle and the Association of Anglican Musicians’ National Conference in Richmond; the national radio show Pipedreams, WQXR-FM, and two CD recordings.
In 2020, Janet co-founded a new platform. ‘Amplify Female Composers’ with Carolyn Craig, and she contributes research to an international sacred music database called “A Great Host of Women Composers.” Janet has taught on the faculty for POEs and the St. Thomas Fifth Avenue Girl Chorister Course, and played as staff organist for RSCM America Duke University and Providence, Rhode Island courses. She is an executive board member of the New York City American Guild of Organists and a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians.
Janet holds double Masters degrees in Organ Performance from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, and a Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School. While at Yale, she was appointed Organ Scholar at Christ Church, New Haven, and Trinity Church on the Green, and she directed music for Berkeley Divinity School. A native of Alexandria, Virginia, Janet is an alumna of St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School and the Potomac Organ Institute. Janet’s former teachers include Thomas Murray, Paul Jacobs, John Walker, Wayne Earnest, Victoria Shields, and Ruei-hwa Shyu.
For more information, visit www.janetyieh.com.
Anne Laver
Anne Laver's performance activities have taken her across the United States, Europe, Scandinavia, Central America, and Africa. She has been a featured recitalist and clinician at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, and the Göteborg International Organ Festival in Göteborg, Sweden. In 2010, she was awarded second prize in the prestigious American Guild of Organists' National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP). Anne's performances have been aired on nationally syndicated radio programs, including WXXI FM's With Heart and Voice and American Public Media's Pipedreams. Her debut recording, Reflections of Light (Loft, 2019) received favorable reviews in Fanfare, American Record Guide, and The Diapason.
Anne is Assistant Professor of Organ and University Organist at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music. In this role, she teaches organ lessons and classes, serves as artistic director for the Music and Message Series, accompanies the Hendricks Chapel Choir, and plays for chapel worship services and special university events. Anne has also taught and led outreach programs at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, most recently serving as Visiting Professor of Organ from 2020-2022. She has more than twenty years of experience in church music, having led volunteer and professional choir programs in a variety of parishes in upstate New York, Wisconsin, and The Netherlands.
Anne is passionate about encouraging young organists and advocating for the organ and its music. To that end, she has served as director for various youth programs including a Pipe Organ Encounter Advanced in 2013, the Eastman Summer Organ Academy in 2014, and a Summer of Opportunity employment program for Rochester city youth in 2014. She has worked with her Syracuse colleague, composer Natalie Draper, to offer programs for composers who want to write for the organ, and she has given world premiere performances of works by Natalie Draper, Eric Heumann, Jordan Alexander Key, and Ivan Božičević.
Anne Laver studied organ with Mark Steinbach as an undergraduate student at Brown University and spent a year in The Netherlands studying with Jacques van Oortmerssen at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. While pursuing masters and doctoral degrees at the Eastman School of Music, she studied with Hans Davidsson, William Porter, and David Higgs..
Nathan Avakian
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Nathan is a songwriter, film composer, and organist based in New York City. Known for his unique blending of virtual instrument technology with organ music, Nathan’s live performances satisfy contemporary musical tastes and pay tribute to the historical legacy of the pipe organ.
Nathan’s fascination with the pipe organ began at age four with a visit to the Portland Organ Grinder, a restaurant featuring live pop music played on a massive theatre organ with all of its mechanics exposed. At age eleven he began nine years of private organ studies with Donna Parker, and he was frequently coached by Jonas Nordwall.
Since winning the American Theatre Organ Society Young Organist Competition in 2009, Nathan has provided pipe organ entertainment across the United States and internationally including performances in Australia and New Zealand (2011 and 2017), Canada (2015), and Thailand (2018). He has released several albums featuring theatre and classical pipe organs as well as virtual orchestrations. From 2011-2013 Nathan served as the Youth Representative on the American Theatre Organ Society Board of Directors managing programs that recognize and support the work of young organ students.
As resident organist and composer for the International Youth Silent Film Festival, Nathan creates music that inspires young filmmakers around the world as they reinvent the art of silent film. He helped pioneer the festival’s expansion which includes 11 regionals across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, Montenegro, and the United Arab Emirates.
Nathan scores historic silent films for Thanhouser Company Film Preservation as well as contemporary films by various filmmakers. His music has recently been featured in web series including Makers Who Inspire (Henry Thong) and The Creative Quarantine Sessions (Alex Whittenberg). Nathan also has a growing collection of piano and organ compositions to his credit including “At The Square,” commissioned to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Jersey Journal publication in 2017..
In 2020 Nathan and his sister Claire started a songwriting business called Passing Notes writing and producing personalized songs for customers and their loved ones. Nathan also works as a freelance theatrical lighting designer. In 2014 he received a B.F.A. degree in lighting design from
For more information, visit www.avakianmusic.com.
Craig Williams
Craig S. Williams is Organist and Choirmaster of the Cadet Chapel, United States Military Academy West Point, where he plays the world’s largest church all-pipe organ and directs the Cadet Chapel Choir. He is only the fourth organist to hold that position since the present Cadet Chapel building was erected in 1910. Mr. Williams oversees the music programs of five chapels, in which are given well over 400 services, concerts and various other functions annually.
Personally, Mr. Williams performs at approximately 200 of these chapel functions, including worship services, weddings, funerals, class reunion memorial services, recitals, choir concerts and VIP organ demonstrations performing for royalty, cabinet members, generals, members of Congress and many other international government and military figures. He has been featured on television numerous times including his recent appearance on Fox News’ West Point Holiday Special which received over 2,000,000 views, and he also appears as organist on the West Point Glee Club’s DVD Stand Ye Steady..
Mr. Williams has performed on both organ and piano for over 40 years and continues to perform nationwide. His organ credits include performances at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, several appearances at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, and at Segerstrom Hall in Orange County, CA with the Pacific Chorale. His most recent appearance at Segerstrom Hall was in a concert, Superstar Organ Virtuosos, where he shared the stage with Paul Jacobs, Frederick Swann, Christoph Bull and members of the Pacific Symphony. Mr. Williams has also played on the summer series at the Riverside Church in New York, the Crystal Cathedral, and Ocean Grove Auditorium; and he continues to give numerous recitals and workshops for prominent cathedrals and churches on both coasts.
Mr. Williams is an Associate of the American Guild of Organists and served as dean of the Central Hudson Valley chapter from 2012 to 2016. In the early 90’s, he served as dean of the Brooklyn Chapter. Also, he has been a featured performer for conventions held by the AGO and the American Institute of Organbuilders
Mr. Williams received the masters in organ performance from Westminster Choir College where he was one of three of the first Currin Scholars, a full graduate level scholarship, studying with Eugene Roan. His piano performance degrees include the masters from the Juilliard School, studying with Martin Canin, where he performed with the Juilliard Symphony at Lincoln Center; and the bachelors from the University of Southern California, studying with Daniel Pollack..
In addition to his duties at West Point, he is adjunct professor of organ at Nyack College (Nyack, NY) and also served on the conservatory faculty at Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ) for 18 years. He is devoted to his wife, Lee, and the proud father of Abigail and Stewart.
Renée Anne Louprette
Hailed by The New York Times as “splendid,” and “one of New York's finest organists,” Renée Anne Louprette maintains an international career as organ recitalist, collaborative artist, conductor, and teacher, and is director of the National Competition in Organ Improvisation. She is associated with several distinguished music programs in the New York City area, having served as Associate Director of Music at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Associate Director of Music and the Arts at Trinity Wall Street, Organist and Associate Director at the Unitarian Church of All Souls, and Director of Music at the Church of Notre Dame.
Ms. Louprette is a U.S.-Romanian Fulbright Scholar who spent the Fall 2022 season in Brașov, Transylvania, completing research on historic Romanian pipe organs. She is Assistant Professor of Music and College Organist at Bard College and a member of the faculty of Bard College Conservatory, where she directs the Bard Baroque Ensemble and leads an annual Bach cantata series. She has directed the organ program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2013 and is a former faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, and the John J. Cali School of Music of Montclair State University.
Ms. Louprette’s European festival recital appearances include Internationaler Orgelsommer, Stuttgart, Germany; Magadino, Switzerland; In Tempore Organi, Italy; Ghent and Hasselt, Belgium; Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Uppsala and Lund cathedrals, Sweden; Bordeaux Cathedral and Toulouse Les Orgues, France, and Organ Nights in Brașov, Romania. In 2018, she made her solo debuts at the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. She has performed throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, including at Westminster Abbey and the Temple Church in London, St. Giles Cathedral Edinburgh and Dunblane Cathedral (Scotland), Galway Cathedral and Dún Laoghaire (Ireland).
Her recording of J. S. Bach’s "Great Eighteen Chorales" on the Metzler organ of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, was named a classical music Critics' Choice 2014 by The New York Times. “Une voix française | A French Voice” – her recording of 20th-century French organ repertoire on the Mander organ of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York – received top reviews in British journals Choir & Organ and Organists’ Review and the Dutch journal Orgelniews. Her current recording of Bach’s Clavier-Übung III performed on the Craighead-Saunders organ of Christ Church, Rochester, New York, is scheduled for release in 2023.
As a collaborative keyboardist, Ms. Louprette has performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the American Brass Quintet, Voices of Ascension, Clarion Music Society, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Dance Project, The Dessoff Choirs, Oratorio Society of New York, and Piffaro, among many other ensembles. She has partnered with traditional Irish musician Ivan Goff, with whom she debuted at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles presenting the world premiere of a new work for uilleann pipes and organ by Eve Beglarian, commissioned for the Louprette-Goff duo by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The duo released their album “Bright Vision” to critical acclaim in 2019. The 2021-2022 season featured a join recital in Cluj-Napoca with Romanian saxophonist Zoltán Réman, concerto debuts with The Orchestra Now at the Bard Music Festival “Nadia Boulanger and her World” and with the Auburn Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall in Seattle for the national convention of the American Guild of Organists.
Ms. Louprette has conducted performances by professional choirs in the greater New York City area accompanied by members of Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola, including the acclaimed U.S. premiere of John Tavener’s Requiem as co-conductor with Kent Tritle. She was selected as a conducting fellow of the Mostly Modern Festival in 2019, premiering several new works with the New York-based American Modern Ensemble.
Renée Anne Louprette holds a Master of Music degree in conducting from Bard College Conservatory, a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in piano performance and Graduate Professional Diploma in organ performance from The Hartt School, University of Hartford. She was awarded a Premier Prix - mention très bien from the Conservatoire National de Région de Toulouse, France and a Diplôme Supérieur in organ performance from the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse where she studied with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen (interpretation) and Philippe Lefebvre (improvisation). She completed additional studies in organ with Dame Gillian Weir, James David Christie, and Guy Bovet.
Jennifer Pascual
Dr. Jennifer Pascual was appointed Director of Music at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City in 2003, the first woman to hold this prestigious liturgical music position. Jennifer earned a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Organ Performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she studied with David Higgs. She holds a Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance from the Mannes College of Music and received the Bachelor of Music Degrees in Piano and Organ Performance and Music Education from Jacksonville University in Florida. She has served as an organist and choir director in the Dioceses of St. Augustine, FL, and Rochester, NY, and the Archdioceses of Newark, NJ, and New York City, NY, and has served at three Roman Catholic Cathedrals. From 2007 to 2014, Dr. Pascual was Professor and Director of Music at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York. She currently also serves as the Director of Music of the New York Archdiocesan Festival Chorale.
Dr. Pascual has been a member of and has served on the boards of several organizations pertaining to sacred music. She is a frequent recitalist, clinician, and adjudicator at national conventions. She was a finalist in the Florida First Coast Piano Competition, participated in the Bach Aria Festival in New York, the International Bamboo Organ Festival in Manila, the Christmas International Festival in Moscow, the Semana Internacional de Órgano in Madrid, the Mariacki Festiwal Organowy in Krakow, the Międzynarodowy Festiwal Muzyki Organowej w Oliwie, the Terra Sancta Organ Festival in Israel and Palestine, and the Semaine de l’Orgue International Pipe Organ Festival in Lebanon. Dr. Pascual is a recipient of the Paderewski Medal and Theodore Presser and Paul Creston awards. Jennifer has performed as an organist and conductor in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United States.
As the Director of Music of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dr. Pascual had the privilege of overseeing all of the liturgical music for His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York in 2008, in addition to conducting music for the Masses at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Yankee Stadium. She conducted the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir for President Bush at the White House for National Day of Prayer. In December 2008, Dr. Pascual was named a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, papal recognition of service to the Church. In September 2015, Dr. Pascual conducted both the New York Archdiocesan Festival Chorale and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir and orchestra during the Mass at Madison Square Garden celebrated by Pope Francis. She also conducted the music for Papal Vespers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Annually, Dr. Pascual participates as a conductor in the Handel Messiah Sing-In at Lincoln Center.
With the broadcast of live Mass from St. Patrick’s Cathedral on The Catholic Channel, SIRIUS/XM 129, the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir which she conducts can be heard from 10:15 – 11:30 am on Sundays from September to June. She also hosts a radio talk and music show called Sounds from the Spires broadcast on the same channel, Saturdays, 1-2 am and 11-12 am and Sundays, 6-7 am and 8-9 pm (all Eastern times). Three of Dr. Pascual’s organ recordings and a St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir recording can be found at JAV Recordings.
Amanda Mole
Hailed as a rising star, Amanda Mole is quickly earning a reputation as one of the leading concert organists of her generation. Her performances have been described as “elegant, lucid” (The American Organist), and having an “excellent balance of technical accuracy, rhythm, and structure” (The Diapason).
Amanda is the first-prize winner of the 8th International Musashino-Tokyo Organ Competition (2017), one of the largest and most prestigious organ competitions in the world. She is the first-place and audience prize winner of the Miami International Organ Competition (2016), and the first-place winner of the Arthur Poister Organ Competition (2014), the John Rodland Memorial Organ Competition (2014), and the Peter B. Knock Award (2014). Since 2017, she has served as a juror for live and preliminary rounds for several organ competitions and, in 2016, Amanda was chosen as one of The Diapason’s Top 20 Under 30, a feature that selects some of the most successful young artists in the field. She is a grateful recipient of several merit-based scholarships, including the M. Louise Miller, the American Baptist, the National Religious Music Week, and the Susan Glover Hitchcock Scholarships.
Amanda has performed internationally at venues across the USA, Europe, and Japan. She was a featured performer at the 2015 New Haven Regional American Guild of Organists Convention and, in 2016 and 2018, she joined the roster of concert artists at the Organ Historical Society Convention, receiving unanimous glowing reviews in The American Organist, The Diapason, and The Tracker magazines, praising her fine technique and mature musicality, and hailing her as a rising “star” who plays “with authority and flair.” In 2020, Amanda was a featured artist at the AGO National Organ Fest, where she premiered a new piece for the convention, and in 2022 she was a featured performer at the AGO National Convention in Seattle, WA, where she again performed newly-commissioned works for two different concerts. She is frequently broadcast on the radio show Pipedreams LIVE! and has recorded a CD that was released in 2019 on Naxos, the largest classical music label in the world. Shortly thereafter, in 2020, Amanda released a collaborative CD of music for trombone and organ with RPO trombonist Lisa Albrecht and the Hohenfels trombone quartet.
Ms. Mole is from Holden, Massachusetts, and is completing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree as a student of David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music. In 2011, Amanda graduated from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the School of Music with a Master of Music degree in Organ Performance and Sacred Music. During her time at Yale, Amanda studied organ with Martin Jean and Choral Conducting with Maggie Brooks, and was the only candidate in her class to receive the Church Music Studies Certificate for additional sacred music and theological studies. Prior to Yale, she obtained a Bachelor of Music degree with honors at Eastman while studying with William Porter; prior to Eastman, she studied with Larry Schipull and Patricia Snyder. Amanda has also completed the requirements for a minor in Choral Conducting during her doctorate. In January 2021, Amanda was appointed Principal Organist and Assistant Director of Music at St. Joseph Catholic Cathedral in Columbus, Ohio.
Caroline Robinson
Organist and church musician Dr. Caroline Robinson has been featured as a solo recitalist across the United States, in venues including New York City churches St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, St. John the Divine, Trinity Church Wall Street, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral; in Boston: Church of the Advent, Harvard Memorial Church, Cambridge, Methuen Memorial Music Hall; St. James in the City, Los Angeles; and Kansas City’s the Kauffman Center. She has also performed in England, France, and Germany. Her playing has been broadcast multiple times on American Public Media’s Pipedreams, Pipedreams LIVE!, and Philadelphia-based public radio station 90.1 WRTI’s Wanamaker Organ Hour. She has been a featured performer at conventions of the Organ Historical Society, the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival, and the American Guild of Organists, most recently performing in the closing concert of the 2022 AGO Convention in Seattle in collaboration with Seattle Pro Musica.
A prize winner at several distinguished organ competitions, Dr. Robinson is a laureate of the 2018 National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP) and holds First Prize from the 11th annual Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival (2008) and from the 10th annual West Chester University Organ Competition (2010). She was a semifinalist in the 2014 Dublin International Organ Competition. In 2016, she was chosen as one of The Diapason’s “20 Under 30” promising young organists in the United States.
Dr. Robinson holds the post of Organist and Associate Choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. There, under the direction of Canon Dale Adelmann, she shares organ playing and accompanying responsibilities with Artist-in-Residence Jack Mitchener, and she leads the RSCM-based Chorister program. She is an active continuo player with early music ensembles, having performed at the Rochester Early Music Festival, San Francisco’s American Bach Soloists Academy, and now regularly with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra.
Dr. Robinson completed her undergraduate work at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Alan Morrison. Aided by a grant from the J. William Fulbright fellowship fund, she studied at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse with Michel Bouvard, Jan Willem Jansen (organ), and Yasuko Bouvard (harpsichord). She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and the Master of Music in Organ Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with David Higgs, also receiving the Performer’s Certificate and the Advanced Teaching Certificate in Theory Pedagogy.
Justin Bischof
New York City resident Justin Bischof is one of the most eclectic artists and leaders of his generation. He is an internationally acclaimed orchestral & opera conductor as well as concert organist, pianist and improviser. He has performed in some of the world’s great venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Lincoln Center, Rose Theatre Lincoln Center, Tonhalle of Zurich, Eli Broad Theatre of Los Angeles, Royal Opera House Oman, St. Paul’s Cathedral London, Notre Dame Paris, Cologne Cathedral, to name a few. He has collaborated with some of the world’s most prominent artists including Joshua Bell, Philippe Entremont, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun and Roberta Peters. As an orchestral conductor, he has worked with numerous ensembles including National Arts Center Orchestra, The Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Vancouver Symphony, the Royal Symphony of Oman, the State Philharmonic Kavkazskiye of Russia, the WAAPA orchestra in Perth Australia, and the National Orchestra of Haiti.
Upcoming conducting engagements including Durufle’s Requiem (Westport CT March 26 2023) MOO Spring Concert (New York City April 29 2023) Gala Closing Concert AGO (Rye July 6 2023) Mozart Requiem (Scarsdale October 2023) MOO Fall Concert (New York City November 2023) Messiah (Scarsdale December 2023) St. Thomas 5th Ave Bicentennial Concerts (March 21 & May 16 2024).
He is the Founder & Artistic Director of Modus Operandi Orchestra MOO of New York City which is comprised of 65 of New York’s finest orchestral musicians. MOO’s mission is to present symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire at the highest artistic level with the goal to engage and enrich the local community. A vital component of the mission is to provide the opportunity for some of the finest freelance musicians in New York City to perform the staples of the great symphonic and operatic repertory as well as contemporary works and world premieres with their colleagues. Many of MOO’s players have gone on to perform with major ensembles including Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Metropolitan Opera, NY Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony.
Maestro Bischof founded and presented an Annual Children’s Benefit for 10 years to help at risk children that raised over US $1,000,000 and reached over 800 children. Their 2017 Gala 10th Anniversary Concert featured soloists from the Metropolitan Opera in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. MOO’s post COVID return concert in April 2022 included the World Premiere, outside of Cuba, of Guido Gavilan’s Afro Cuban Antilles Violin Concerto with Harlem String Quartet founder Ilmar Gavilan as soloist. Their Merkin Hall Debut is taking place November 30th and will feature the Strings of MOO in a program including Strauss’ epic Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings. . .
He made his Australian Opera Conducting Debut in Perth at the WAAPA leading a critically acclaimed production of the Australian Premiere of Robert Ward’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Crucible. This nationally celebrated artistic event was a highlight of the Australian classical music season. Other important opera premieres include the Hawaiian premiere of Menotti’s The Medium and The Telephone, working with members of The Honolulu Symphony and Hawaii Opera Theatre. With MOO, he led several full productions including Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro & Don Giovanni. With international mezzo-soprano Ariana Chris, Maestro Bischof has conducted and led from the piano several benefit concerts entitled Opera Trash at Carnegie Hall and Le Poisson Rouge receiving rave reviews. In 2019, he led a production of Britten’s Rape of Lucretia at the newly renovated historic Flea Theatre.
He is one of the profession’s most respected organists and has concertized extensively including presenting numerous premieres for solo organ as well as organ and orchestra. He won the First Prize at the 2000 AGO International Organ Improvisation Competition and is a leading proponent of the craft with his all- improvisation performances which have been met with critical acclaim throughout the world. Bischof has performed and recorded with numerous orchestras including the Zurich Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony. In 2019, he performed the Middle East premiere of Samuel Barber’s Toccata Festiva for Orchestra & Organ at the Royal Opera House in Muscat Oman with the Neue Philharmonie of Frankfurt.
David Enlow
David Enlow is a “commanding” organist (The New Yorker), teacher, and conductor based in New York, who is active in North America and Europe. David was also hailed for his “immense virtuosity” by the Stuttgarter Zeitung and “performances full of color, passion, invention, and power” (The American Record Guide).
David was appointed Music Director of Park Avenue Synagogue in 2020, where he directs a rich tradition of Jewish liturgical music, and he continues at the Church of the Resurrection on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he arrived in 2001. The church program includes directing performances of over fifty different settings of the mass each year, sung by the church’s professional choir, with special emphasis on the works of Mozart, Haydn and their contemporaries, offered with chamber orchestra.
His solo recordings on the Pro Organo label include Pater Seraphicus, the complete major organ works of César Franck; Piano à l’Orgue, an album of piano transcriptions; and Bach on Park Avenue, recorded on the Mander organ at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York. David’s latest recording is an educational collaboration with Maestro Classics, ‘Bach and the Pipe Organ’, with materials for ages five and up. As a concerto soloist, David has appeared with orchestras in works of Poulenc, Haydn, Handel, Respighi, Bach, and Saint-Saens.
David has taught church music, improvisation, and organ repertoire classes for local, regional, and national events of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and at the Juilliard School, from which he received two degrees. David also received the Fellowship diploma, with both prizes for highest marks, from the AGO; this resulted in his joining the committee on professional certification, which sets the standards for national organist examinations and grades them. David then served two terms as Dean of the New York City Chapter AGO.
In national organ performance competitions, he received the first prizes of the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival (USA) and the Arthur Poister Competition, and has recently served as a judge for several others including the Schweitzer festival and the AGO’s national improvisation competition. David studied the organ with Paul Jacobs, John Weaver, and John Tuttle, and improvisation with Gerre Hancock.
David serves as Assistant Conductor and repetiteur to the Clarion Choir and has appeared in most all of New York’s major concert halls as an accompanist at the piano with choruses, solo singers, and in performances of chamber music. In early music, David is also organist of the Clarion Music Society, and appears with various groups at the organ, harpsichord, and fortepiano.
David Hurd
David Hurd is widely recognized as one of the foremost church musicians and concert organists in the United States, with a long list of awards, prizes, honors, and achievements, and immeasurable expertise in organ performance, improvisation, and composition. From 1976 until 2015, David Hurd was a faculty member at The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City, as Director of Chapel Music, Organist, and Professor of Church Music.
Dr. Hurd is the composer of dozens of hymns, choral works, settings of the liturgy, and organ works published by a number of major houses. He was one of the major contributors of new hymnody and liturgical settings for the Episcopal Church’s Hymnal 1982 and his music is seen in hymnals and choir libraries in churches of all religious denominations. In 2010 he became the fifteenth recipient of The American Guild of Organists’ Distinguished Composer award. From 1998-2013 he was Music Director and Organist at Church of the Holy Apostles (Episcopal) in New York City. Dr. Hurd is now Organist/Choirmaster of the famed Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Times Square.
As a concert organist he enjoys instant recognition both at home and abroad. Since winning both first prizes (in performance and improvisation) of the 1977 International Congress of Organists, he has performed throughout North America and Europe and has been a featured artist at numerous national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. He was invited to perform at the Internationaal Orgelfestival Haarlem, during which he received the diploma for improvisation at the Stitchting Internationaal Orgelconcours.
Dr. Hurd studied both at the Preparatory Division of The Juilliard School and at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art. Later he attended Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating with a music degree in 1971, and went on for further study at the University of North Carolina and, back in New York, at the Manhattan School of Music. His organ teachers have included Bronson Ragan, Garth Peacock, Arthur Poister, and Rudolph Kremer.
John King
Dr. John T. King just celebrated his 30th year as founder, artistic director, and conductor of the New Choral Society of Westchester, a critically acclaimed professional-level chorus and all professional orchestra, whose home is in Scarsdale, NY. As a conductor and organist, he has performed throughout the United States and Europe, collaborating with some of the world’s greatest singers and instrumentalists.
He is active as an educator and clinician and has participated and lectured in workshops for American Guild of Organists (AGO), Choristers Guild and Chorus America and has served on the faculty for two Pipe Organ Encounter conferences for the AGO. Dr. King has been responsible for a number of choral commissions from such notable composers as Stephen Paulus, Glenn Rudolph, Margaret Tucker, Daniel Ficcari, and Dan Schultz, having conducted their world premieres. He also has several recordings to his credit, including the world-premiere recording of Paulus’ Mass for Chorus and Orchestra (1999).
Dr. King has held the full-time position of Minister of Music at Hitchcock Presbyterian Church in Scarsdale, NY since 1990, where he plays, conducts, and administers the multiple choir’s program—working with adults and children, and oversees the church’s Organ Scholar/Church Music Intern program. Dr. King holds a Bachelor of Music degree from University of Louisville, a Master of Music degree from Yale University School of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts from Manhattan School of Music, all in organ performance. As an educator and clinician, he served as an adjunct professor of conducting, church music, and music history at Concordia College, Bronxville, lectures for the Scarsdale Adult School and maintains a private organ studio in Scarsdale.
Terence Flanagan
Terence J. Flanagan currently serves as Music Director at the Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco. Previously, Terry served for 3 years at the First Congregational church of Greenwich CT and for over 18 years at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City working with and learning from one of the choral greats, Dr. Richard Westenburg.
Terence J. Flanagan currently serves as Director of Music and Fine Arts at the First Presbyterian Church of New Canaan, CT. Previously, Terry served for 11 years as Music Director at the Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco, and over 18 years at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, working with Dr. Richard Westenburg. Terry studied organ under the instruction of Dr. John Weaver at both the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA and The Juilliard School in NYC. Terry has attended German, French, and British Organ Music Seminars. In 2005, he had the privilege of playing the music of Jean Guillou with the composer present.
Terry is a past Dean and current member of the Westchester County Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. In addition, he is a member of the New York City and Fairfield Chapters. Terry is a member of the St. Wilfrid’s Club. He sings with and accompanies Charis Chamber Voices, performs with the New Baroque Soloists, and serves as Organist for the Columbia Preparatory and Grammar School Commencement Ceremony, held annually in New York City’s Alice Tully Hall.
In his free time, Terry enjoys spending time with his wife, soprano Lisa Flanagan; his son, Terence; and gardening at his home in Mount Kisco, where he continues to design and plant beds, and care for his collection of perennials and conifers.
Dina Foster-Osbourbe
Dina Foster-Osbourne is a native New Yorker. Dina studied piano with Marilyn Alleyne, and pipe organ with Henri Sexton, Oland Gaston and Dr. David Hurd, General Theological Seminary, NYC. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and a Masters Degree in Social Work Administration from Hunter College. Dina served as church organist at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, for 32 years in New York, NY and has also held the position as Assistant Minister of Music at Bridge St. AWME Church, Brooklyn, NY.
Highlights of her performance credits with The Abyssinian Baptist Church Sanctuary & Cathedral Choirs include: rehearsal pianist for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual concerts held at The Abyssinian Baptist Church under the direction of Zubin Mehta, accompanist celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the New York Public Library, rehearsal pianist for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s production of the Abyssinian Mass written by Wynton Marsalis for the 200th anniversary of The Abyssinian Baptist Church, accompanist for Ashford & Simpson in celebration of Abyssinian’s 200th Anniversary, pianist for Mayor Bloomberg’s 2006 Inauguration Ceremony, City Hall, accompanist for the Slavery in New York exhibit at the New York Historical Society, performance at the Winter Garden’s Tribute to Harlem on Broadway - A Tribute to Adolph Caesar at the Schubert Theater, performance at the United Nations Ambassadors Dinner honoring former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary General Kofi Annan held at the Waldorf Astoria. Holiday performances include: Skitch Henderson and The New York Pops Orchestra in a Christmas Holiday Celebration at Carnegie Hall which aired on National Public Radio, Rejoice Christmas Special aired on FOX News television, several annual performances for the opening of Lord & Taylor’s Christmas window display at their Fifth Avenue Store and Christmas performances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Documentary, television and radio appearances include: Barbara Walters Special “Heaven”, The Gospel According to Jesus (PBS), Pulling Out the Stops, a WPIX Christmas Special and a commercial for Con Edison aired on major radio stations in the NYC - metropolitan area as well as a print ad photo in major NYC newspapers. Dina also performed in the Faces of Ground Zero at Rockefeller Center and a nationally televised Abyssinian Baptist Church Sunday worship service the Sunday after the 9/11 tragedy. She was also heard every Sunday for Abyssinian’s weekly church service which aired on 98.7 KISS FM for numerous years.
As guest organist, performances include: St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the Vigil of the Deceased for Cardinal John O’Connor, served as National Baptist Convention organist at Madison Square Garden, annual recitalist at St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University, Visiting Artist series at Hampton University, Riverside Church, St. John the Divine, Fifth Ave. Presbyterian Church, St. Bartholomew, Interchurch Center and numerous historical churches in the tri-state area. She was also a featured organist for the African-Americans and the Bible series at Union Theological Seminary. She is in demand as accompanist for professional artists, recordings and vocal ensembles throughout the metropolitan area.
Dina is a member of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) in NYC and Westchester. She currently serves on the Executive Board of the Westchester (AGO) as member-at-large.
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