The Inaugural Festival for the Craighead Saunders Organ at Christ Church will take place October 16-20, 2008 in conjunction with the University of Rochester’s Meliora Weekend and the Eastman School of Music's Eastman Weekend. Centered on two themes—Johann Sebastian Bach and the Organ and The Craighead Saunders Organ: Reconstruction as a Model for Research and Creation—the festival will bring together the world’s leading Bach scholars, organ builders, performers, and distinguished Eastman alumni. Registration materials will be available online on the EROI website in April 2008. For more information on the Craighead Saunders Organ and recent photos, please visit www.esm.rochester.edu/EROI/c-s.php.
For more information on the EROI festival, get a pdf of the brochure here.
Johann Sebastian Bach and the Organ
Co-sponsored by Westfield Center
Guest scholars and performers will include:
Christoph Wolff, Keynote Speaker
Bach-Archiv & Harvard University
Harald Vogel
Hochschule für Künste, Bremen
Gregory Butler
University of British Columbia; President, American Bach Society
George Stauffer
Dean, Mason Gross School of Arts at Rutgers University
David Yearsley
Cornell University
Robin Leaver
Westminster Choir College of Rider University
Craig Cramer
University of Notre Dame
David Higgs, Hans Davidsson, William Porter
Eastman School of Music
Christ Church Schola Cantorum
under the direction of Stephen Kennedy
The Craighead Saunders Organ:
Reconstruction as Model for Research
and Creation
Co-sponsored by American Organ Historical Society
Presentations by:
Laurence Libin
President, Organ Historical Society
John Watson
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Steve Dieck
C.B. Fisk & Co.
Paul Fritts
Paul Fritts & Co.
George Taylor
Taylor and Boody Organbuilders
Bruce Fowkes
Richards, Fowkes & Co.
Martin Pasi
Pasi Organbuilders
Munetaka Yokota
Göteborg Organ Art Center, Sweden
Mats Arvidsson
Göteborg Organ Art Center, Sweden
Kerala Snyder
Professor Emerita, Eastman School of Music
Joel Speerstra
Göteborg Organ Art Center, Sweden
About EROI
When the Eastman School of Music opened its doors in 1921, it housed the largest and most lavish organ collection in the nation, opulent facilities, and a stellar faculty, creating an expansive vision for organ art and education and one of the most distinguished organ programs in the world. In keeping with this tradition of excellence, we have embarked upon the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI), a collection of new and historic organs of diverse styles and traditions unparalleled in North America. An Italian Baroque organ was installed in the University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery in 2005. A new instrument closely modeled after a Casparini organ of 1776 is being installed in Christ Church(Episcopal). The renovation of the Eastman School’s historic E.M. Skinner organ, and the restoration and replacement of the School’s 14 practice organs, will complete the initial phase of this 10-year plan.
Organ Historical Society
The Organ Historical Society is composed of 4,000 music lovers, performers, organbuilders, historians, and scholars worldwide. Governed by a National Council, the organization issues a quarterly journal, The Tracker, an annual Organ Atlas, and publishes scholarly books, facsimiles, monographs, and recordings. More information can be found at www.organsociety.org.
Westfield Center
The Westfield Center is the only organization with a mission of promoting dialog among keyboard performers, scholars, and instrument makers. It is an advocate on behalf of the organ, harpsichord, fortepiano, and clavichord; a publisher of keyboard-related materials; a presenter of workshops, symposia, concerts, and tours; and a national organization with an international reach. For more information: www.westfield.org.