Organ at OU

In memory of an important builder. Pipedreams with Michael Barone this week.

2024 marks the 72nd anniversary of when OU organ alumna Dr. Dorothy Young Riess, at the age of only twenty, won the 1952 American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition, held in San Francisco! This year, the national AGO convention was again held in San Francisco, and Dr. Riess generously funded one of the top three prizes for this year's competition!

Born in Atlanta, GA, Dr. Dorothy started piano at age four and won her first competition at seven. As a teenager she studied advanced piano with Dean Clarence Burg at Oklahoma City University and performed the Gershwin Piano Concerto with the OCU symphony at age 14. The summer of her 16th year she took organ lessons to become Classen high school organist, and had her own radio show of pop tunes on the Hammond at KTOW, Oklahoma City.

At OU she became a protégé of Mildred Andrews and went on to study in France with Marcel Dupré. She held positions at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Nice, France, and later, at St Paul's Within the Walls, Rome, Italy. Awarded a full scholarship to Yale University, she then went on to pre-med studies at Columbia University, New York and returned to the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine for her medical degrees.

Concert organist, composer, pilot, and medical doctor, Marcel Dupré wrote of her in a personal letter, “(She is) "an excellent and perfect musician with a brilliant technique.” And her generosity supported a brilliant young organist again this year at the AGO conference, where OU's organ professor Dr. Damin Spritzer was a judge for the semifinal and final rounds.

Thank you, Dr. Riess!

Thank you to Jennifer Walschap for the invitation to take Dr. Damin Spritzer's Orgelkids USA kit to Imagine Music and Arts's Organ Day!!
We love sharing the kit and are thrilled to participate in music camps and activities like this. The amazing organ students, Galina Brauer, Rosemarie Ochoa, and Christopher Pharo spent their day showing young music students how to build and organ, and Leen Latorre helped them prepare the day prior!

Orgelkids USA represented today by members of the OU organ studio for the 2024 MTNA conference!

This Orgelkids Kit belongs personally to OU organ professor Dr. Damin Spritzer, and we would love to bring this kit to your AGO event, classroom, or church for a session with your students!

OU organ graduate Abe Wallace!

Recital by Abraham Wallace, 2023–24 Gerre Hancock Intern, presented by the Association of Anglican Musicians

Monday, June 10, 2024 at 5:15 PM

Saint Olaf Roman Catholic Church
215 S. 8th St
Minneapolis, MN 55402

Event: Recital by Abraham Wallace, 2023–24 Gerre Hancock Intern

Sponsoring organizations: the Association of Anglican Musicians

Contact: Nils Halker 651-502-8784, [email protected]

As part of the 2024 National Conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians, Abraham Wallace, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, and 2023–24 Gerre Hancock Intern at Saint George's Episcopal Church in Nashville, will be presenting a solo recital including works of Gerre Hancock, Herbert Howells, Olivier Messiaen, George Walker, J.S. Bach, and Gustav Holst.

Organ professor Damin Spritzer performs two recitals in England this week, both on Walker organs, in London and Oxford thanks to hosts Adrian Gunning, Michael Koenig, and Andrew Prior!

Pipedreams this week, with Michael Barone!

Historic Baltimore . . . a primer in preparation for this year’s Organ Historical Convention in and around Charm City.

OU organ and choral graduate Nolan Reilly in concert this weekend, also hosted by OU organ graduate Dr. Alvez Barkoskie!

St. Francis of Assisi will continue its tradition of the Spring Organ Recital Series. The first recital will be Sunday, April 14 at 3 p.m. with our parishioner, Tony Leon, Director of Music and Organist for St. Charles Borromeo and Organ Student at Oklahoma City University. This recital is free and open to the public with a light reception following.

This weekend our organ professor Dr Damin Spritzer begins a brief tour of recitals in Maryland and England with this performance at Grace Church in Hagerstown!

Friends and Colleagues in Maryland, please join us at a recital performed by Damin Spritzer on Sunday, May 19th at 4 pm, at Grace United Methodist Church in Hagerstown. Dr. Spritzer will be playing works by Florent Schmitt, Mary Howe, René Louis Becker, J. S. Bach, Searle Wright, George Baker, Herbert Howells, Freda Swain, Camil van Hulse, and Johanna Senfter. For more information about the event, please seehttps://www.graceumchag.org/events-1/damin-spritzer-organ-concert . Dr. Spritzer is Area Chair and Associate Professor of Organ at the University of Oklahoma, and Artist-in-Residence for Cathedral Arts at the Cathedral Church of Saint Matthew in Dallas; her website is daminspritzer.com .

Dear friends and many organ studio members gathered to celebrate lifetimes of friendship, new jobs, former jobs, new degrees, works-in-progress, cats (and dogs), and the end of the spring semester! Congratulations to everyone!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. STEPHEN WURST!!
The 132nd annual commencement ceremony at the The University of Oklahoma, founded in 1890. Yay, Stephen!! Congratulations to all the graduates! We celebrate you!

Pipedreams this week!

Beyond Words . . . many composers prove surprisingly capable of telling extraordinary stories with their music.

Congratulations to Jacob Drengler on a superb DMA III recital yesterday afternoon! Despite the grim weather, it was a stunning performance of works by Coleridge-Taylor, Tournemire, Bach, Howells, and Senfter. Thank you to those who came to show support, and congratulations on this milestone, Jacob!