Organ Recital Series - St. Mark's Episcopal Church

Thirty Five years of Organ Recitals

The Second Sunday Evensong and Organ Recital Series began in 1985, and this year, St. Mark’s celebrates 35 years of welcoming musicians from all over the globe. This year, due to COVID, recitalists will either offer a live-streamed recital from the Flentrop Organ, one of the most notable instruments in the Bay Area or offer a recital either live or via video from a different venue.

Evensong will continue to be offered at 3:00 p.m. via ZOOM. The organ recital will begin at 4:00 p.m. and will last about 45 minutes. Following the concert, the recitalist will join the zoom meeting for the reception which will be moderated by the Director of Music.

These concerts are free and supported by donations. Your support is deeply appreciated.

Contributions are welcome to help support the series at one of the following levels of support: $1-74 Supporter / $75-124 Friend / $125-249 Sponsor / $250-499 Patron / $500 – $999 Sustainer / $1000+ Benefactor.

Please make your check payable to St. Mark’s Choir Association, 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704.

Donations may also be received on-line at https://stmarksberkeley.org/music/friends-of-music/.

Contributions are tax-deductible. Thank you for your continued support.

Recitalists for the Thirty-Fifth Season, 2020–2021

Evensong at 3:00PM

Organ Recital at 4:00PM

September 13

A live interactive ZOOM conversation with the Rector and Director of Music to learn more about the Flentrop Organ and plans for celebrating its 50th birthday in 2021-2022.

****If you missed the Organ Crawl, view the recording HERE

October 11

Edward J. Tipton (Bulletin)
St. Mark’s, New Canaan, CT
This will be via Facebook or you can find the video under our Livestreamed Services tab. There will be a reception to follow via Zoom (please email our office if you do not receive our Weekly Lion for the details).

“Ned” Tipton began his musical studies at the age of four, and gave his first recital at the age of six. He soon took up the violin, organ, trumpet, oboe, french horn, and flute. His first post as church organist was at the age of fourteen in his hometown – Asheville, NC – where he was a student of Marilyn Keiser and William Dan Hardin, and a piano student of Louise Ogle and Thelma Madge. As a winner of a Rotary International Foundation Scholarship for the school year 1979-1980, he continued his piano studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris, with the late Jules Gentil. He received his BM in Piano and his MM in Choral Conducting from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio, as a student of Sedmara Rutstein and Garth Peacock. His studies of the works of Maurice Duruflé were with the wife of the composer, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, in Paris. Ned’s program will include music by Calvin Hampton, Myron J. Roberts, J.S. Bach, William Boyce, Herbert Howells, Maurice Duruflé and Charles Tournemire. (The full bio can be found in the bulletin.)

November 8

Laurent Jochum (Bulletin)
St. Jean-Baptiste Church, Bellville, Paris, France

This will be via Facebook or you can find the video under our Livestreamed Services tab. There will be a reception to follow via Zoom (please email our office if you do not receive our Weekly Lion for the details).

Laurent Jochum, who has had a particularly eclectic career for over twenty years, is the organist of the great Cavaille-Col organ of the Saint Jean Baptiste church in Belleville, Paris, and organist of the middle and high school chapel Saint Louis-de-Gonzague. (The full bio can be found in the bulletin.)

December 13

Christopher Keady (Bulletin)
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

Christopher Keady is the Assistant Director of Music at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California, serving as principal accompanist for the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys. Christopher was raised in Eugene, Oregon and earned a bachelor’s degree from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where he studied organ with Dr. Lee Garrett. He subsequently was Assistant Organist at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, accompanying the cathedral choir in a UK residency at Bristol Cathedral, and serving as course organist for the Pacific Northwest RSCM Training Course. Christopher completed an MM in Organ Performance at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University, having studied with Martin Jean and served concurrently as Sacred Music Intern at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City.

January 10

Brett Judson (Bulletin)
Trinity Church, Folsom, CA and Cal State University, Sacramento

Brett Judsongraduated from Yale School of Music, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Eastman School of Music, and Crystal Cathedral High School and recently completed a doctoral of musical arts degree at the Hartt School, studying conducting with Edward Bolkovac. Brett studied conducting privately with Pamela Perry and Donald Neuen. He was Assistant Director of the New Haven Chorale, preparing works such as J.C. Bach’s Magnificat, Charpentier’s Te Deum, Handel’s Judas Mac- cabaeus, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. At Emanuel Lutheran Church in Manchester, CT, Brett conducted Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Chilcott’s A Little Jazz Mass, Schütz’s Passion According to St. John, and Handel’s Messiah.

At Hartt, Brett taught English Diction and directed the Hartt Camerata. As Assistant Conductor, Brett conducted and performed on the organ with the Connecticut Choral Union Touring Choir in Prague and Budapest in 2017. Brett commissioned five sacred choral anthems from award-winning composer Scott Perkins.

Brett studied organ with J. Christopher Pardini, Mark Thallander, David Goode, Wayne Foster, William Porter, and Martin Jean. He coached with David Higgs, Paul Jacobs, and Fred Swann. Brett received the Barnes Award for Excellence in Pipe Organ at Eastman and was a finalist in the 2010 Poister Organ Competition. He has appeared on the international television program Hour of Power with Robert H. Schuller and the radio broadcast Pipedreams! He has performed at churches and cathedrals throughout the US and Norway. During his studies at Yale, Brett was an organist at Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School. He has held leadership positions in the American Guild of Organists and the American Choral Directors Association.

Brett is currently Director of Music at Trinity Church, Episcopal, a vibrant and growing parish in Folsom, California. He directs two adult choirs and a children’s choir, using the curriculum from the Royal School of Church Music. In 2019 Brett founded Folsom Academy of Music to provide music lessons for students in Folsom’s historic district. He is currently Lecturer at California State University, Sacramento, teaching music theory and musicianship. In 2020 Brett released a recording with the Gothic Label featuring the premiere recording of Scott Perkins’s A New England Requiem and other anthems. www.brettjudson.com

February 14

Nicholas Quardokus (Bulletin)
St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, New York City

Nicholas Quardokus arrived at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue as Assistant Organist in August 2019. Prior to coming to New York, he served as Organ Scholar of St. Paul’s Parish K Street, Washington D.C. In addition to duties at St. Paul’s, he was a part-time interim organist at Washington National Cathedral. He has held similar posts at Yale Divinity School’s Marquand Chapel, Trinity Church on-the-Green, New Haven, CT, and Trinity Church, Indianapolis. He received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music respectively. His principal teachers included Janette Fishell and Martin Jean (organ), Elisabeth Wright and Arthur Haas (harpsichord), and Jeffrey Brillhart (improvisation).

Nicholas has garnered top prizes in competitions around the country, winning first prize and hymn-playing prize at the 2014 Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition in Wethersfield, Connecticut. In 2013, he took first prize in the American Guild of Organists Regional Competition for Young Organists. As a solo recitalist, he has performed throughout the Eastern United States. Among these include appearances at both regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Kennedy Center, and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. His solo performances have been heard broadcast across the nation on public radio’s Harmonia Early Music and Pipedreams. He was the featured organist in the 2018 German documentary The Unanswered Ives, broadcast on French, German, and Czech television. As a collaborator, he has appeared with the Cathedral Choral Society, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Washington Master Chorale.

Taylor and Boody Organ Specifications

Miller Scott Organ Specifications

March 14

Jerome Lenk (Bulletin)
Mission Dolores, San Francisco

Jerome Lenk currently serves as Director of Music and Liturgy, as well as Principal Organist for Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco. His duties include administration of a music program of two choirs, providing musical support for regular weekend liturgies and all major feasts, coordinating and developing cantors, and conducting the Basilica Choir in major concerts each year, as well as coordinating the Basilica organ recitals and guest concert series. Mr. Lenk conducts the Basilica Choir is their ever-popular annual Candlelight Christmas Concerts Mr. Lenk has also served on the San Francisco Archdiocesan Music Commission. He is active as a recitalist and accompanist and maintains a private coaching studio. He has performed recitals and conducted the outstanding Basilica Choir in California, Mexico, and Italy. His extensive experience as an accompanist includes appearances with the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Western Opera Theatre, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, CappellaSF, San Mateo Masterworks Chorale, San Jose Symphony, Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, San Francisco Concert Chorale, San Francisco Lyric Chorus, The Choral Project of San Jose, and the Valley Concert Chorale. He has also collaborated with Robert Shaw, Eugene Butler and Jörg Demus.

Mr. Lenk is also experienced as a vocal coach and conductor. His credits include Opera on Tap, the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Opera San Jose, the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute, San Jose State University Opera Workshop, and The University of Iowa.

Mr. Lenk has performed solo recitals at the Oakland Cathedral as well as San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, and has been a recitalist at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. In 2017 he was the featured organist for the Lou Harrison centennial concerts with the Other Minds Festival of New Music, performing two of Harrison’s solo organ works.

Mr. Lenk began his musical studies on piano at the age of seven and on the organ at age nine. He holds the Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance with an organ minor from Central Methodist University, Fayette, Missouri, and the Master of Fine Arts degree in performance from the University of Iowa. His principal teachers have included Groff Bittner, Thomas Yancey, John Ditto, John Simms and Delores Bruch.

April 11

David Lim (Bulletin)
St. Philip’s Church, Ardmore, Oklahoma

David Lim is a second-year doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma, studying under Adam Pajan. He holds degrees from the University of Iowa (M.A., organ performance) and Gustavus Adolphus College (B.A. music and biology). Other teachers include Gregory Hand, Chad Winterfeldt, Chad Fothergill, and Jon Naatjes. He has played in masterclasses led by Wilma Jensen, Douglas Cleveland, Stephen Tharp, and Jeffery Brillhart.

At Oklahoma, he holds a graduate assistantship in the music theory department, teaching first- and second-year theory courses. At Iowa, he served as a teaching assistant in the organ department, teaching organ and keyboard harmony and also worked as a musicology research assistant with film musicologist Nathan Platte on a critical edition of George Gershwin’s music for Damsel in Distress (1937). Lim was the winner of the 2014 Immanuel Lutheran Church Organ Scholar Award (Evanston, IL). In 2017, he was awarded an E. Power Biggs Fellowship from the Organ Historical Society and was inducted to the University of Iowa’s chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda, the national music honor society. He has held various roles in the American Guild of Organists with Sioux Trails and Twin Cities chapters and most recently served as the dean/chair for the North Central Region of the AGO Young Organists (AGOYO). He served on the 2017 regional convention committee and on the faculty for the regional Pipe Organ Encounter at Dordt College.

Lim is Director of Music at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Ardmore, OK and has formerly served at Roman Catholic and Lutheran parishes.

Program:
Jan Bender (1909-1994): “Sanctus” from Missa pro Organo, op. 52 (1970)
Florence Beatrice Price (1887-1953): In Quiet Mood and “Fantasy” from Suite no.
Jean Jacques Grunenwald (1911-1982): Cinq pieces pour l’office divin (1952)
Frank Ferko (b. 1950) : Hildegard Organ Cycle (1996/2000): IV: Articulation of the Body
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963): Organ Sonata No. 1 (1937)

May 9

Joy-Leilani Garbutt
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, San Francisco

Joy-Leilani Garbutt is Director of Music at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, San Francisco and co-founder of the Boulanger Initiative.

Joy-Leilani is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and spent 2018-19 in France pursuing research on early 20th-century French organ music by female composers, particularly Joséphine Boulay, Mel Bonis, Nadia and Lili Boulanger, Jeanne Demessieux, and Marie-Véra Maixandeau. She is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology, and has recently been a student of Dr. Jeremy Filsell and Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin. In the spring of 2018 she co-founded the Boulanger Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting music composed by women through performance, education, commissions, and advocacy.

She holds a Master of Education degree from The Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Master of Music in organ performance from Northwestern University, where she served as Organ Scholar for the Alice Millar Chapel. In addition to solo recitals in the U.S. and France, Joy-Leilani has performed with the New England Youth Ensemble in Australia, England, New Zealand, Mexico, and South Africa.

June 13

Susan Jane Matthews
St. Paul’s Church, Burlingame