Matthew Dirst
Dirst is the first American to win major international prizes in both organ and harpsichord. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Music at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston, where he teaches courses in music history and performance practice. He is also Artistic Director and founder of the period-instrument group Ars Lyrica Houston. Dirst’s degrees include a PhD in musicology from Stanford University and degrees in organ and sacred music from the University of Illinois and Southern Methodist University. A Fulbright scholar to France, he received the coveted Prix de Virtuosité in both organ and harpsichord. The author of numerous articles on the music of Bach and its reception, he is the author of Bach as Idea: Strategies in the Reception of the Keyboard Works, 1750-1850, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.
George Ritchie
Critics have recognized George Ritchie as one of the leading interpreters of the organ music of J. S. Bach. His 11-CD set J. S. Bach: Organ Works Complete (Raven, OAR-875), recorded on nine American organs, has received international praise. He is co-author with George Stauffer of the book Organ Technique: Modern and Early, published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Ritchie is in frequent demand throughout North America for lecture-demonstrations, workshops, and masterclasses and is Professor of Organ Emeritus at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
Carole Terry
Professor of Organ and Harpsichord, Carole Terry has taught at the University of Washington for the past 28 years. Known for her expertise in German romantic organ music and early music performance practices, she has performed concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. As a performer, lecturer and teacher, she has frequently been featured at conventions of the American Guild of Organists and its pedagogy conferences. As a master teacher, she has participated in festivals and courses such as the Oundle Festival in England, the McGill Summer Academy in Montréal, as well as others in Austria, Germany, Japan, and Italy. In addition, she has adjudicated for the Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition in Kaliningrad and the Musashino Organ Competition in Tokyo, Japan.
Wayne Leupold
Mr. Leupold holds a B.M. and a B.A. “with distinction” from Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, and a M.M. in organ performance from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. He has edited over 200 volumes of organ repertory. In 1989 he formed the music publishing company, Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc., with the purpose of publishing organ teaching materials and nineteenth- and twentieth-century organ and choral music.
Crista Miller
In demand as a solo artist, choral conductor, sacred musician, scholar, and teacher, Crista Miller has performed in Europe, Canada, and throughout the United States. In Houston, Dr. Miller serves on the Music faculty of the University of St. Thomas and Houston Baptist University. As Music Director and Cathedral Organist at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, she was responsible for the procurement of Martin Pasi’s Opus 19 for the new cathedral building. Dr. Miller earned the DMA in organ performance and the Sacred Music Diploma at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, studying with Hans Davidsson, where she received the graduate award for the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative, was the sole US competitor in the 2004 Odense International Organ Competition and Festival in Denmark, and was a semifinalist in the 2002 American Guild of Organists national Young Artists’ Competition in Organ Playing. She earned the Master of Music from the University of Houston under Robert Bates. In 2003, research on cultural influences in the organ works of Naji Hakim found Dr. Miller working with the composer in southern France.
James Frazier
James Frazier holds a BA in philosophy from Saint Alphonsus College, the MRE in theology from Mt. Saint Alphonsus Seminary, the MM in organ and liturgical music from Hartt College of the University of Hartford, and the STM in theology from Yale Divinity School, along with a Certificate from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He studied organ with John Holtz, Vernon de Tar, and McNeil Robinson, and coached with Marie-Claire Alain and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé in Paris. His articles have been published in The American Organist and The Diapason, and his music reviews have been published in Worship, a scholarly journal for liturgists. Currently, Frazier is the organist and Music Director at Saint John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was also Visiting Lecturer in liturgical music at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. He is the author of Maurice Duruflé: The Man and His Music (University of Rochester Press, 2007 for the Eastman Studies in Music).