American Guild of Organists Newsletter
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Central Hudson Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists Newsletter – February 2019 Officers Laura Russell – Dean Eric Hepp – Sub-Dean 845-485-1648 – [email protected] 845-790-3381 – erhepp @gmail.com.net Nancy Vanderlee – Secretary Susan Guse – Treasurer 914-204-6472 – [email protected] 845-242-1478 – [email protected] Craig Williams - Membership Chairman Susan LaGrande – Newsletter Editor 845-239-2262 – [email protected] 845-226-6496 – [email protected] Elaine Simpson – Board Member Anthony Rispo – Board Member 845-562-1591 – [email protected] 914-979-5181 – [email protected] Iouri Grichetchkine – Board Member 917-974-6231 – [email protected] Chapter Web Site www.chvago.org Letter from the Dean “He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names.” Psalm 147: 4 To be named is to be known, acknowledged, recognized! More in a moment about this. As I write this letter, we are still definitely in the throes of winter, but the sun is staying up longer, and the angle of its light is starting to change. This brings us hope of spring arriving – eventually. It is easy to become socially isolated in these weeks of deep freeze, when we are told to “stay inside,” “keep off the roads,” and when rehearsals, concerts, and even religious services are canceled! Yes – of course we can connect on social media, and on the telephone, but there is something special and unique about real, in-your-face physical interactions with friends, family, and colleagues. During January CHVAGO sponsored two such “in-you-face” events that brought many of us together to celebrate music and friendship: On the 25th our former Dean, Craig S. Williams, Page 1 presented an amazing organ recital entitled “Musical Portraits of Consolation, Courage, and Triumph” on the Gress-Miles organ at Christ Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie. Introducing each piece with pithy historic and social commentary, Craig played works of Mozart, Bach, and Dupre, and a set of patriotic selections arranged by Calvin Hampton and Dudley Buck. He also included works composed or arranged by three women (somewhat of a rarity on organ programs) Florence B. Price, Marilyn Rinehart, and Nancy Plummer Faxon, mother of local violinist Emily Faxon. A lovely set of African-American Spirituals arranged for organ closed the program. The program was beautifully crafted, and Craig’s sensitive and intelligent playing brought out many colors of the organ. The concert brought excitement to over fifty people – several of whom had never attended an organ recital before. One young man told me that he’d never heard an organ playing anything except hymns, and he had no idea the instrument could “do that kind of cool stuff!” Two days later we held our annual Spuds and Sundaes gathering at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Poughkeepsie, which had been postponed from the previous weekend because of the weather. It was a small, intimate gathering because of the schedule change, but it was a lovely opportunity to spend some in-your-face quality time with colleagues. We also perused the extensive collection of piano and organ works donated to the Chapter by Don Filkins’ family. There is still a lot of music left, and we will bring it out again for all to look through at the annual summer picnic, and perhaps at the members’ recital as well. All music proceeds benefit our scholarship fund. Now back to the message of Psalm 147: We all need to be counted, to feel valued, to be seen, heard, named, and KNOWN. Throughout much of the historical records, not all people have been valued. In historical texts, and in the Bible, most of the women mentioned are not named. In historic records, enslaved peoples frequently were not mentioned by name – they were considered to be “merely chattel.” Shifting to today, and specifically to the Central Hudson Valley: a much less extreme case, but nonetheless a reflection of the value or lack thereof placed on them, is the lack of mention of musicians on many church websites. Susan LaGrande has done a detailed survey of churches in our region and has come up with some sobering statistics and conclusions. Her article follows this letter. She sent a draft of the survey to AGO Executive Director James Thomashower (a member or our Chapter), who encouraged her to publicize it further. I encourage you to read it carefully! I close as I began: “He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names.” Psalm 147: 4 To be named is to be known, acknowledged, recognized. I look forward to meeting you “in-person” in upcoming months at our programs. We all need to recognize and name each other as worthy and of value! In hope, Laura Ramsey Russell, DMA Dean, Central Hudson Valley AGO Page 2 Are Organists Recognized by the Churches They Serve? A Survey of Church Web Sites in the Central Hudson Valley by Susan LaGrande In addition to editing our chapter’s monthly newsletter, I also maintain the Calendar and Position Openings pages on our web site on a daily basis. This usually involves getting some information about a church, either as a venue for a concert or as a potential employer. I get this information by doing a lot of Google searches. After viewing dozens of church web sites, I began to notice certain trends, and I wondered if these trends might be consistent over a wider sample. So I began conducting an informal survey. The research is totally based on information available through Google. I searched for churches in the area served by the Central Hudson Valley Chapter (Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, Putnam, and Rockland counties). My specific search parameters were: “[denomination] churches in [name] county,” for example “Catholic Churches in Dutchess County.” I recorded the following information for each church which appeared in the list of search results: 1. Name 2. Address, phone number, and web site URL. I wanted this information so I could contact a church later for further information if necessary. 3. Name of Organist/Music Director. Names of current chapter members were highlighted in red. 4. Assumed gender of Organist/Music Director. This was highly subjective, since there are names which are often used by either sex such as Dana, Chris, and Leslie. There are also cases where a position is shared by two or more people who may not share the same gender. 5. CHVAGO member? Yes or No. I wanted this information so that our chapter would have a better idea of who we might want to recruit in the future. The complete spreadsheet with my results is available on the chapter’s private Facebook page, but a summary table is provided below. Here are the highlights: 1. The total number of churches surveyed was 339. 2. Of that number, 263 churches have a web site of some description. The remainder, 76, or 22%, do not. 3. Of the churches which do have a web site, 121, or 46%, do not name the organist on the web site (even though nearly every other church position, including the custodian, is likely to be mentioned). 4. Of the 155 churches which do have a web site and do mention their organist, 31, or 20%, are members of CHVAGO. (Note, however, that in our chapter of about 65 members, many are inactive, retired or play in churches outside the survey area.) 5. It is worth noting that 5 organists who are chapter members, including myself, are not named on their church’s web site. An additional organist, who is known to me but not a chapter member, is not named on his church’s web site. Page 3 6. There is a strong correlation between the church denomination and the recognition afforded to the organist. For example, of the 36 Episcopal churches, all of which had web sites, only 7, or 19%, did not mention the organist on the web site. Also, more than half of Episcopal organists are members of CHVAGO. By contrast, of the 76 Catholic churches having web sites, 22 organists, or nearly 30%, were not mentioned on the church web site, and only 6 are members of CHVAGO. 7. Of the 147 organists mentioned by name, 66, or 45%, are assumed to be male; 56, or 38%, are assumed to be female, and in 10 cases, or 15%, the gender was unclear from the name, or the position was shared between a male and a female. The only denomination in which there was a clear majority of one gender was Episcopalian, where there were 18 men versus 6 women and only 3 whose gender was unclear (see above). Conclusions: 1. If an organist is featured or mentioned on a church’s web site, that church is more likely to place a high value on traditional music. 2. Organists who are highly valued by their churches, as evidenced by their mention on the church's website, are more likely to be AGO members, whereas those who are not deemed worthy of mention are less likely to be AGO members. Recommendations for CHVAGO and for AGO Chapters in general: 1. CHVAGO members and board should make an effort to reach out to churches who do not list music or musicians, to persuade them that music and musicians, especially organists, are valuable and should be included on the church's website. 2. We should be especially supportive of CHVAGO chapter members who are not named on their church’s web site. 3. Since we now have contact information for 124 organists in the Hudson Valley who are not already members of our chapter, we should do our best to recruit them as potential new members.