This summer we welcome three esteemed organists to share the bench while Patrick Allen is away.
Please make them welcome and say hello!
12 June – 30 June, 1 August through 25 August
Dr. Catherine Rodland
Catherine Rodland, whose playing has been described as “transcendent” (The American Organist), is Artist in Residence at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. She graduated cum laude with departmental distinction in organ performance from St. Olaf in 1987 and received both the MM and DMA from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY where she was a student of Russell Saunders. At Eastman, Catherine received the prestigious Performer’s Certificate and the Ann Anway Award for excellence in organ performance. She is a prizewinner in several competitions including the 1994 and 1998 American Guild of Organists Young Artists Competition, the 1994 Calgary International Organ Competition, and the 1988 International Organ Competition at the University of Michigan for which she received first prize. Catherine has concertized extensively throughout the United States and Canada, and has been featured often on the syndicated radio program “Pipedreams” on National Public Radio. She was a featured performer at the American Guild of Organists National Convention online in July 2020.
At St. Olaf College Catherine teaches a full studio of organ students as well as music theory and ear training classes. She performs regularly at St. Olaf, dedicating the Holtkamp organ in Boe Memorial Chapel in 2007, and performing as a featured soloist with the St. Olaf Orchestra and the St. Olaf Band. These performances were all recorded and released as CDs through St. Olaf Records. Currently Catherine is presenting a series of recitals featuring the complete organ symphonies of Louis Vierne, after having spent a recent sabbatical leave researching organs in Paris. In 2010 she released two CDs: “Dedication”on the newly installed Nichols and Simpson Organ at West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, NJ and “American Weavings”, recorded in Boe Chapel at St. Olaf College with violist and duo partner Carol Rodland and released by Crystal Records. The Rodland Duo is currently part of the Concert Artists Cooperative, and was featured at both the American Guild of Organists national convention in Houston, Texas, and the American Viola Congress in Oberlin, Ohio during the spring of 2016.
During July Sam Wetly and Wilden Dannenberg
Organist, pianist, and educator Sam Westley hails originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He holds a BM in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied under noted pedagogue Phillip Kawin.
Since 2014, Sam has been Organist and Music Director of the Episcopal Church of the Mediator in Kingsbridge, home to the last playable E.M Skinner organ in the Bronx. He is also the Executive Director of the Washington Heights Choir School, a free after-school choir program based out of Holyrood Church, and maintains an active piano teaching studio.
Wilden Dannenberg is a multifaceted musician committed to engaging people in a range of musical styles and experiences. With a firm foundation in the repertoire of early to contemporary works, Wilden is regularly engaged as a hornist, conductor, arranger and organist. Recent highlights include the Weill Hall premiere of a Carnegie Hall commission, multiple collaborations as a conductor and performer with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Tania León, and performances aired on NPR and WQXR.
Originally from South Georgia, Wilden holds degrees from Florida State and Stony Brook Universities, and is an alumnus of Ensemble Connect, a fellowship program of Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School. He is a resident artist with the Bronx Arts Ensemble, member of the nationally touring Frisson Ensemble, Assistant Director of the Westchester-based Hudson Chorale, teaching artist for Carnegie Hall, and faculty member at Adelphi University.
Wilden believes strongly in God’s ability to to use music to inspire people to contemplation and action– to go into the world and do the work of the Gospel. He is delighted to serve in the fulfilling role of Music Director and Organist at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.