Abbey Music - Canon John Bruce Memorial Concerts

Paul Weber, January 17, 2009

Paul Mathew Weber is assistant professor of music and director of the program in organ at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he directs the Schola Cantorum Franciscana, the liturgical choir of Franciscan University, and the Franciscan Chamber Orchestra. As a concert organist, he has recently been heard in New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and at the Hildebrandt-Tage Festival in Naumburg, Germany with the Saechsische Barok Orchester and the Concerto Vocale of Leipzig. Recent premiers of Dr. Weber's music were heard in Boston, Steubenville and New Haven. As a successful competitor, Dr. Weber has won first prize at the American Guild of Organists Region VI competition, second prize at the Arthur Poister National Competition in Organ Performance and was a finalist at the Erfurt (Germany) International Competition in Organ Performance. As a theorist with a particular interest in the music of Olivier Messiaen, he has recently published articles on Messiaen in The American Organist and Sacred Music. Dr. Weber holds the bachelor of music degree in organ and theory/composition from Lawrence University, where he studied with Miriam Clapp Duncan, Wolfgang Ruebsam (organ), Allen Gimbel and Philippe Bodin (composition). He earned the master of music, master of musical arts and doctor of musical arts degrees from Yale University, where he studied with Martin Jean, Thomas Murray and William Porter (improvisation).

Alan Morrison, March 28, 2009

Alan Morrison is recognized as one of America's premier concert organists and his concert appearances in some of the most prestigious organ concert venues in North America emphasize his achievements as a performer and the respect Mr. Morrison has gained in the concert organ world:  Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Alice Tully Hall (NYC); Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia, PA); St. Patrick's Cathedral (NYC); Ocean Grove Auditorium (Ocean Grove, NJ); The Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH), and numerous others.  His recent performance during the inaugural festival of the Dobson organ in Verizon Hall drew laudatory reviews from numerous national publications.  A versatile artist, this season brings collaborations with The Curtis Symphony Orchestra in the premier of a new concerto for organ by Eric Sessler (Verizon Hall), concerts with trumpeter Rodney Mack and Philadelphia Big Brass (Verizon Hall), a concerto performance and adjudication in Denver, CO, duo concerts with his mother, pianist Jeannine Morrison, a radio broadcast from Philadelphia's famed Wanamaker Organ, along with numerous solo appearances across the country.

At the age of 33, Mr. Morrison was appointed Head of the Organ Department at the world renowned conservatory, The Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia).  He recently was honored with the Haas Charitable Trust Chair in Organ Studies at Curtis.  He is in his twelfth year as College Organist at Ursinus College (Collegeville, PA.) and recently joined the faculty of Westminster Choir College.  Born and raised in Atlanta, GA, Mr. Morrison has been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.  He is a graduate of both The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School of Music receiving degrees in both organ and piano accompanying/chamber music.  His teachers include John Weaver, Cherry Rhodes, Sarah Martin (organ), Robert Harvey, Vladimir Sokoloff and Susan Starr (piano).  He is under the exclusive management of Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc. (Cleveland, Ohio).

Olivier Latry, Sunday, April 26, 2009

Olivier Latry, titular organist of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, is one of the world’s most distinguished organists, not only in France, but in the international community as well. He was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France in 1962, and began his study of piano at the age of 7, and his study of the organ at age 12; he later attended the Academy of Music at St. Maur-des-Fossés, studying organ with Gaston Litaize.  From 1981-1985 Olivier Latry was titular organist of Meaux Cathedral and at age 23 he won a competition to become one of the three titular organists of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. Since 1995 he has taught at the Paris Conservatory. Olivier Latry and his wife Marie-Therese have three children and live in a little village outside Paris.