By Vidas Pinkevicius (get free updates of new posts here)
Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #92! I'm an organist and a blogger. This combination has changed my life over the past 5 years. I'm writing these words to you after a long day of teaching at school where I still managed to write a blog post in between of classes after lunch. It's 9:39 pm. I'm ready to go to bed soon but I know my readers are waiting for me to show up in their email inboxes. That's a powerful motivation for me to write tonight. If I remember correctly, I haven't missed a post in five years. Yes, sometimes I write them in advance and schedule them to be published later. But there's something new on my blog to read every day. I do this daily. No matter if I'm tired, no matter what kind of weather it is outside, no matter how I'm feeling. Because I have long ago adopted pro mentality. Long before I became a professional blogger. Mentality is everything. It gives me enormous rewards - as a person, organist, creator, artist, teacher, blogger, or thinker. There are numerous benefits of blogging for any person. When you read a lot and you think a lot, the only way you can sort out ideas that are swirling in your head is through writing down and sharing them. In my mind I'm joining the ranks of influential bloggers, such as Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss or Shaunta Grimes who think that EVERYONE on earth should write a daily blog. For me as an organist specifically blogging has helped spread the word about my expertise, build trust and credibility. If you're a concert organist, when you write regularly, engagingly and honestly about your organ playing activities, over time you'll increase chances of getting more invitations to play organ recitals. Recently, among other places I got invited to play a recital at St. Paul's Cathedral in London (2018) and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (2019). I'm not bragging here. I just want you to see what's possible for you too. Yes, you have to play well. But playing well won't cut it. There are thousands of organists who can play better than I do. But for some of my subscribers, I'm the best in their world. This is because I show up. Day after day. With generous and inspiring words. If I can do this, so can you. Don't try to be me, though. Because the world doesn't need two Vidas'. What the world needs is YOU. Also when the time will come for you start looking for an organist position, you have to remember that the first thing that your future boss will do before they invite you for an interview is to google your name. And what will they find online will determine their opinion about you (unless of course you'll be recommended by some people or sources they trust already). We call them influencers. Blogging for organists will help to build their platform online. That's pretty empowering feeling, trust me. You'll no longer be dependent on your boss, if things go sideways. You'll no longer feel helpless and worthless, if your pastor decides to fire you because you play your hymns too fast or too loud. You'll have options about how to make a living in the future. One of the options might even mean being your own boss (even when somebody else is paying you). I hope you will publish that blog post today before you hit the bed. Your future depends on it. I invite you to join my free 10 day mini course and learn how to get more organ recital opportunities in 60 days or less using my exact blogging system which got me invited to play recitals at St. Paul's Cathedral in London (2018), Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (2019) and many other places. Listen to the podcast
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Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #91!
Today's guest is organ builder Oliver Schulte from Germany, who is the owner of Schulte Orgelbau. He specializes in the development of all kinds of organ concepts and has over 30 years of experience in new construction and restoration. In 1997-2000 Oliver apprenticed in his Dad's workshop and 2001 started working at Martin Vier organbuilding in black forest (restoring German early romantic organs). In 2004 he continued his education by taking a masterclass in Ludwigsburg and in 2005 completing his MBA studies. The most important organ for Oliver is surely the Binns-Schulte organ in the church of Heilig Kreuz, Bonn-Limperich. It was his first project as the owner of Orgelbau Schulte and by far the most important project because it was the first English rebuild they did. His company would not be what it is now without this instrument. In this conversation, among many other things, Oliver talks about what does it take to restore old English organs. Enjoy and share your comments below. And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends. Thanks for caring. Listen to the conversation Related links: http://www.orgelbau-schulte.de Oliver Schulte on Facebook Blessed Easter to you and your loved ones! The eggs you see in the picture above were decorated by Ausra yesterday. It's an old tradition in Lithuania to decorate Easter eggs which comes from the pagan times. The egg symbolizes rebirth. The darker ones are made with the onion peel dye, the lighter ones - with the black currants and the small ones - are natural quail eggs. I have thought long about how could I surprise you on this wonderful occasion and it seems to me that the analysis of the Easter Hymn would work here well. In this video, you will not only hear the famous Easter Hymn "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today" but I will also discuss it's tonal plan, modulations, cadences and each and every chord. I hope this video will inspire you to learn to play and appreciate it on a much deeper level. Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #90!
Today's guest is Peter van Tour who is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Leuven, Belgium. As a scholar in musicology, Peter has specialized in the counterpoint pedagogy and historic improvisation and composition. He studied Music Pedagogy (5 years) at Brabant Conservatory in Tilburg, Master in Musicology at the University of Utrecht and Master in Music Theory (MA) at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Peter's PhD dissertation "Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples" (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Uppsala, 2015) highlights the practical teaching strategies at the Neapolitan conservatories during the late eighteenth century. Listen to our podcast conversation about this publication. In 1995, Peter co-founded the Gotland School of Music Composition, where he has been teaching Music Theory until 2014. In this conversation Peter shares his insights about his new publication on 189 partimenti of Nicola Sala from the late 18th century Naples. They are available here. Enjoy and share your comments below. And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends. Thanks for caring. Listen to the conversation Wolff von Roos on starting learning the piece, extremely slow tempo and organ duo performances4/9/2017 Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #89!
Today's guest is Wolff von Roos, a young and talented organist student from Ball State University, Indiana. Listen to the conversation He took an interest in the organ when he was about three years old. When he was 6 he started piano. Throughout those years he taught himself about the organ and methods. By the time he was 15 he started taking organ instruction. He's 20 years old right now and is currently studying music/organ performance with Raul Prieto Ramirez at Ball State University. He is also taking outside formal instruction from Travis Person who teaches at the University of Indianapolis. Wolff currently serves as Assistant Organist (Organ Scholar) at Broadway United Methodist in Indianapolis, IN. He also works as a solo freelance concert organist and plays in an organ duo team called 2Chamades with Jacob Minns. He loves to study works from Josef Rheinberger to Vaughan Williams, from Olivier Messiaen and Louis Vierne to underrated composers like Grégoire Rolland, etc. Wolff also enjoys learning about improvisation in all kinds of styles, his favorite improviser is Pierre Cochereau. He likes to discover orchestra & piano works that have been turned into organ pieces. and enjoys transcribing works himself. He is a huge fan of the Romantic era in the organ world. English, French, German, you name it. In this conversation among other things, we talk about starting learning the piece, extremely slow tempos and performances for organ duet. Enjoy and share your comments below. And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends. Thanks for caring. Listen to the conversation Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #88!
Today's guest is Samuel Delaunay who is an organist, a flutist and an amateur composer from France. Professionally, he is a project manager in a big IT company. Alongside his scientific studies, he started playing the organ at the age of 20 as a self-taught musician. He learned improvisation with Henri-Franck Beaupérin. He took several diocesan organ courses in order to master the repertoire, accompaniment and a first approach to musical writing. At the conservatoire of Nantes, he took a course in musical composition from composer Christian Villeneuve and another in analysis from conductor Jenö Rehak. A master class with composer Thierry Escaich was also an important step of this training. Samuel loves to write for the organ, sometimes with the flute as a solo part. Compositions for serpents, orchestras and choirs widen his sound universe. His pieces are often organized as thematic suites, explorations of scientific or poetic themes. Among many other things we talk about the influence of astronomy and architecture on his creative style as well of the importance of finding your own way in organ composition. Enjoy and share your comments below. And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends. Thanks for caring. Listen to the conversation Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #87!
Today's guest is Jeff Perks, concert organist and pianist from Charlotte, North Carolina. We talk about sound delays, coordinating hands and feet and playing fugues. Enjoy and share your comments below. And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends. Thanks for caring. Listen to the conversation Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #86!
Today's guest is a young and talented American organist and pianist Matthew Cates who is an avid lover and player of classical music - from Chopin and Rachmaninov at the piano, to Messiaen and Durufle at the organ. He has a huge passion for composition and improvisation as well. Matthew currently studies organ with Dr. Timothy Olsen as a junior organ major in the high school program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He won the Second Prize at the 6th Annual UNCSA/Salem College High School Organ Competition, where he performed works of Bach and Litaize. He also won two superior prizes for piano performance in the 2013 and 2014 ACSI competitions. Matthew started his piano study at the age of nine with Carly Karns. His passion for music continues and he is very dedicated to playing and performing music from the Baroque to contemporary compositions. In this conversation, Matthew shares his insights about the flow in performance, adjusting to tracker action and stories that organ can tell. Enjoy and share your comments below. And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends. Thanks for caring. Listen to conversation Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #85!
Today's guest is and Italian organist and harpsichordist Maurizio Croci. He holds diplomas in organ and harpsichord studies from the conservatoires of music of Milan and Trent (Italy) and spent four years at the Schola Cantorum in Basle (Switzerland) on advanced courses in organ and harpsichord under Jean-Claude Zehnder and Andrea Marcon. He also graduated “Summa cum laude” in musicology at Fribourg University in Switzerland under Prof. Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini. Prize-Winner of the Paul Hofhaimer international competition in Innsbruck (1998), Mr. Croci has concertized throughout Europe, Russia and Japan. He performed J.S. Bach’s complete organ works in Bern to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death. Several of his concerts were broadcasted by radio and television (RAI, SDR, RNE, RSI, RSR) and he had recorded several CD's devotes to G. Frescobaldi, J.S. Bach, G. F. Kauffmann, G.F. Haendel, D. Scarlatti, A. Soler (Conciertos for two organs with Pieter van Dijk) and the organ music of Southern Germany. Among his most recent recordings, a monograph dedicated to Andrea Gabrieli for RSI Rete Due, works for two organs for National Radio España (live recording with P. van Dijk). The debut recording with his ensemble Il Pegaso, first modern execution of newly discovered compositions of Monteverdi and Frescobaldi, has been praised by international critics by getting prestigious awards (5 Diapason, 4 Classica, Nomination for International Classical Music Award). Maurizio Croci gives regularly Masterclasses on early keyboard music (Conservatoire de St-Petersbourg, Organ Festival Holland, Escola Superior de Música de Lisbonne, Yugakan Ishinomaki, Tokyo, Accademia Italiana di musica per Organo in Pistoia, etc.), and seats in the jury of international organ competitions (Alkmaar, Freiberg, Toulouse, Landsberg, Borca di Cadore, Premio delle Arti del Ministero Italiano dell’Università e della Ricerca). Mr. Croci is currently working as Organ Professor at the HEMU (Haute Ecole de Musique Vaud-Valais-Fribourg) and at the Conservatoire de Fribourg (Switzerland), Harpsichord Professor at the Milano Civica Scuola di Musica, organist at the Basilica of the Holy Trinity in Bern and of the Collège St-Michel in Fribourg. In this conversation, we will find out all about Maurizio's organ and harpsichord activities, including most recent CD recording "Bach Mirrored" in which he researched Bach's preludes, fantasias and fugues for organ and harpsichord and found interesting parallels in keys, modes, figures, and textures. Enjoy and share your comments below. And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends. Thanks for caring. Listen to the conversation Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #84!
Today's guest is an American composer, concert organist, writer, editor and consultant Carson Cooman (b. 1982) with a catalog of hundreds of works in many forms—from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. Since 2006, Cooman has held the position of Composer in Residence at The Memorial Church, Harvard University. From 2008-11, he also served as Composer in Residence to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 2015, he has been Organ Editor for Lorenz Publishing Company. Carson's music has been performed on all six inhabited continents in venues that range from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the basket of a hot air balloon. Cooman’s music appears on over forty recordings, including more than twenty complete CDs on the Naxos, Albany, Artek, Gothic, Divine Art, Métier, Diversions, Convivium, Altarus, MSR Classics, Raven, and Zimbel labels. Cooman’s primary composition studies were with Bernard Rands, Judith Weir, Alan Fletcher, and James Willey. As an active concert organist, Cooman specializes in the performance of contemporary music. Over 150 new compositions by more than 100 international composers have been written for him, and his organ performances can be heard on a number of CD recordings. Cooman is also a writer on musical subjects, producing articles and reviews frequently for a number of international publications. He serves as an active consultant on music business matters to composers and performing organizations, specializing particularly in the area of composer estates and archives. In this conversation, Carson shares his insights about his love of contemporary music, about his organ compositions, about his initiative to create new works for chamber organs and many other things. This is a particularly inspiring talk. Enjoy and share your comments below. And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends. Thanks for caring. Listen to the conversation Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #83!
Today's guests are Lydia Vroegindeweij from the Netherlands, the Dutch organist and founder of OrgelKids and Erin Scheessele from the United States who helps bringing OrgelKids to America with OrgelKids USA. Orgelkids is an educational pipe organ curriculum and kit dreamed up by Dutch organist Lydia Vroegindeweij. Lydia enlisted the help of organ builder Wim Janssen to build the first and only two Orgelkids kits in existence. With Orgelkids, young children are empowered to assemble a working two rank, 2-octave pipe organ in under an hour. Orgelkids can be deployed to schools, music festivals, Maker Faires, museums, bringing the King of Instruments to children. See below for how Orgelkids complements AGO’s outreach programs. Erin's son Peter is 7 years old and he loves pipe organs. He’s an active member of the Eugene Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO). Peter likes to play pipe organs, but he sure would like to be able to build pipe organs, too. A Google search for “pipe organ kit” led Peter to Orgelkids. Peter wrote to Lydia Vroegindeweij, founder of Orgelkids in the Netherlands, asking if she’d be willing to share her schematics for building a kit and for them to bring Orgelkids to the USA. Lydia’s prompt reply was an enthusiastic “Ja!” and she expressed joy that her idea of how to bring the pipe organ to children could grow and reach a wider audience. Peter is an enthusiastic ambassador for the organ, and operated a lemonade stand in 2014 benefiting the restoration of a local pipe organ. As he is still too young for most of AGO’s outreach programming, Peter is eager to bring Orgelkids to his peers. In this conversation we talk about this beautiful idea to bring the pipe organ closer to children. Enjoy and share your comments below. And don't forget to help spread the word about the SOP Podcast by sharing it with your organist friends. Thanks for caring. Listen to the conversation |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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