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Presenter: Elizabeth George
Location: Hyatt Regency – Dunwoody
This is a training session for all AGO District Conveners.
Presented by: Joseph Golden, MM
Location: Hyatt Regency – Hanover F
A workshop/demonstration that will focus on lifting hymn playing to the highest standards expected of all keyboard playing in the popular realm of Collaborative Arts, presented by a member of the AGO and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).
Emphasis will be on applying a truly collaborative understanding of what all keyboard players can do to assist improved singing. Specific focus will be on the crucial relationship between catch breaths and full breaths and their impact on tempo, phrasing in a vocal rather than instrumental manner, sensitivity to the highest and lowest pitches in melodic lines, and organ registrations that are supportive of good, healthy vocalism for amateur and professional singers.
Presented by: Derek Remeš, MM, MA
Location: Hyatt Regency – Hanover B
Recent archival discoveries have begun to alter long-standing assumptions about the methods and materials of J.S. Bach’s pedagogy. It was not the ornate, four-part, vocal Choralgesänge that played the central role in Bach’s teaching, but rather simpler thoroughbass chorale harmonizations at the keyboard. This two-volume series makes these findings accessible to scholars, teachers, and students by providing translations and modern editions of relevant sources from Bach’s circle.
Volume One provides a modern pedagogical editions of the thoroughbass chorales in C.P.E. Bach’s New Melodies (1787), the thoroughbass exercises from the anonymous Precepts and Principles (1738; attributed to Bach’s circle), the first English translation of David Kellner’s True Instruction in Thoroughbass (1732), J.S. Bach’s list of thoroughbass rules, and an original Thoroughbass Primer for Beginners. Volume Two is a modern edition of the Sibley Chorale Book, which is attributed to J.S. Bach’s circle.
Presented by: Vicki Schaeffer, DMus, Chair of the Board of Regional Councillors
Location: Hyatt Regency – Learning Center
How did you get where you are? What skills do you think are crucial to our careers as organists and church musicians? Who were your mentors? What can we do to support and encourage those who are coming up through the ranks? Vicki Schaeffer will explore all of these questions as we discuss the relationship between mentor and mentee.
By sharing stories and ideas, we will delve into the responsibility we have to encourage and support the next generations. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a rookie, this workshop will offer suggestions on how to, or not to, mentor. Learn how to bring out the best in others while being the best you can be!
Location: Hyatt Regency – Regency V
Presented by: David A. Stech, PhD
Location: Hyatt Regency – Inman
Dr. Stech will discuss his ongoing project to discover obscure and rare sound recordings of organ improvisations performed by renowned French organist Marcel Dupré (1886-1971). A brief discussion regarding the techniques used to transcribe and reconstruct music score engravings for publication will follow.
Also to be discussed will be the task of securing contractual permission from descendants of the composer to publish these engravings. The purpose of this project is to make these improvisations available to today’s organists so that the public can hear and more fully appreciate Dupré’s extraordinary improvisational gifts.
If time permits, visual samples of his music score transcriptions will be presented along with a playback of Dupré’s original recorded performances.
Presented by: Anne Marsden Thomas, MBE, BMus, FRCO, FRSCM, ARAM and Frederick Stocken, PhD
Location: Hyatt Regency – Hanover E
Most students concentrate on learning pieces, postponing the study of keyboard skills until full-time training, diplomas, or church requirements prompt an intensive catch-up course. Instead of this fear-inducing and confidence-sapping approach to learning keyboard skills, we discuss how students can have fun developing their abilities from the earliest stages of playing and then continue building fluency incrementally throughout their learning.
We outline a practical approach accessible to all, integrating harmonization, improvisation, transposition, playing continuo, and score-reading into a systematic syllabus. With effective resources, as little as ten minutes per lesson from the beginning of study allows powerful progress without overburdening the student. We also address how to give students a complete course in harmony through a drip-feed approach in a practical but thorough way.
The aim is to guide the student through finely-graded levels from basic to advanced skills, preparing them for AGO diplomas and church playing.
Presented by: The Rev. Barbara Day Miller, MDiv
Location: Hyatt Regency – Courtland
Those who lead worship on the Sabbath are often without a Sabbath rest themselves. This workshop will provide resources and explore paths for claiming space and time for weekly and seasonal renewal, nourishing spiritual growth, and maintaining energy and passion for our musical vocation.
Location: Hyatt Regency – Hanover C
Presented by: Jillian Gardner, MM, Convener of AGOYO
Location: Hyatt Regency – Learning Center
Not all collegiate organ majors are solely destined to be strictly a church organist or concert organist, so how do you find your niche as our profession is changing? How do you establish yourself in a new community of professionals? We will also discuss some of the challenges faced by young organists, including being a new music staff person in a church with long-time choir members and working with folks mostly significantly older than ourselves.