Drawing upon its esteemed philosophy of education that aims for a synthesis of practical and theoretical aspects of the organ art, the organ department at Eastman has articulated an ambitious set of goals to continue its mission in the decades ahead.
The foundation of any education in organ is the instrument itself. Eastman's new partnership with GOArt provides an unparalleled opportunity for interdisciplinary research on organ design and construction, and for historical study of the complex relations between the instrument, its repertory and its culture.
Our vision is to establish a center for organ study at Eastman that would attract a select group of organists and organ builders from around the world for graduate and post-graduate studies. The center would facilitate collaboration with other divisions of the University of Rochester as well as with Eastman's highly respected departments of musicology and music theory, and its Sibley Music Library, the largest academic music library in the Americas.
The successful realization of our vision depends, in part, on an exciting new initiative to upgrad Eastman's collection of organs.
The Eastman School of Music has launched a 10-year plan to assemble a collection of new and historic instruments unparalleled in North America in its stylistic diversity. Current technological, historical, and musicological research provides an ever increasing ability to discover the processes and methods employed by master builders to creat the worlds greatest organs.
Utilizing these techniques in the design of new instruments brings to life the connections between instrument and technique, instrument and sound aesthetic, and instrument and composition for both players and listeners. It inspires the evolution of new styles of organs and music.
The first phrase of EROI includes the realization of the following projects:
An American concert organ
Kilbourn Hall, Eastman's 459-seat chamber music hall, houses a 92 rank E.M. Skinner organ built in 1921. Aeolian Skinner rebuilt the instrument in 1951, under the direction of Harold Gleason. This important American concert organ will be renovated in several phases.
A new organ in late-baroque style
A new organ in 18th-century style will be built for Christ Church, immediately adjacent to the Eastman campus. It will be modeled after one of the best-preserved organs in Northern Europe, the instrument built in 1776 by Adam Gottlob Casparini (31 stops, 2 manuals and pedal) for the Church of Dominicans in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Casparini organ, closely related to the central German organ tradition, has been researched and thoroughly documented by GOArt in collaboration with local organ builders and the Ministry of Culture in Lithuania. The new Christ Church organ will include a third manual and will be particularly suited to the music of J.S. Bach and his circle. The building process will be a research project, coordinated with the actual restoration of the Casparini organ in Lithuania. Our new instrument, the Craighead-Saunders organ, should be completed in 2007.
An antique Italian organ
An antique Italian organ (15 stops, 1 manual and pedal), originally built in the 1770s in the region of Naples, will be restored and brought to Rochester, This unique organ has a lavishly ornamented case, which indicates a possible connection to the Italian court culture of the 18th century. Its wind chest and some pipe ranks are even older, most likely from the 17th century. Gerald Woehl, the renowned German organ builder and instrument restorer, purchased this instrument from an antiques dealer in Florence in the 1970s, rescuing it from being sold as furniture and its pipes from being demolished. All parts except the key action are well preserved. This organ will be completely documented and carefully restored. We plan to install it in the Fountain Court at the University's Memorial Art Gallery in 2004. It will be the first full-size Italian baroque organ in North America.
The vision of EROI
A romantic organ (ca. 50 stops) to be built for Christ Church as a primary teaching and recital venue for Eastman's organ department.
A new organ specially designed for symphony orchestra performance to be built for the splendid Eastman Theatre (3,094 seats).
An enhanced collection of practice instruments for the Main Building. Ultimately, we wish to acquire 12 new organs in various styles, rebuild others, and add a 19th-century pedal piano and a French harmonium.
An even richer diversity of teaching and performance instruments at various locations throughout Rochester.
Tradition
The study and teaching of organ at the Eastman School of Music has had a distinguished tradition since the School's founding in 1921. Eastman organ faculty have included Harold Gleason, Joseph Bonnet, Abel Decaux, Catherine Crozier Gleason, David Craighead, Russell Saunders, and Michael Farris, each an exceptional artist and teacher. Their legacy is carried forward now by David Higgs, Hans Davidsson and William Porter.
Eastman provides the full range of study in organ performance, at both the undergraduate (BM) and graduate levels (MM and DMA). Its organ program constistently attracts students of the highest level from the United States and abroad, and regularly produces winners of regional, national, and international organ competitions. Eastman graduates are found in prestigious teaching and church music positions nationwide.
In 2000, the Dobson Organ Company renovated the Van Daalen organ in Eastman's Schmitt Organ Recital Hall with funding from the Kilian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Foundation. In 2001, Eastman commissioned a strict reproduction of an 18th–century pedal clavichord built in the Organ Research Workshop of the Göteborg Organ Art Center, Sweden (GOArt). Acknowledging that two crucial aspects of today's organ education are the study of sacred music and improvisation. Eastman established a Diploma in Sacred Music in 2001 and appointed William Porter professor of organ improvisation in 2002.
Modified by M.W.