Grace Church in New York is pleased to welcome back Dr. Catherine Rodland to the bench of the Bicentennial Organ on 14 and 15 February 2025.
PROGRAM: Friday 14 February at 12:20 p.m.
Toccata in F Major, BWV 540
Air (From Suite for Orchestra in D, BWV 1068) , arr. Alec Rowley
Sheep May Safely Graze, BWV 208, arr. E. Power Biggs
Fugue in F Major, BWV 540
PROGRAM: Saturday 15 February at 4:00 p.m.
Music of Female Composers
Prelude für Orgel in F-dur…….Fanny (Mendelssohn) Hensel (1805-1847)
Trio in C Major…….Anna Amalia (Princess of Prussia) (1739-1807)
Two Settings of “O Gott, du frommer Gott”…….Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)
Trois Improvisations…….Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)
Prélude, Petit Canon, Improvisation
Adoration…….Florence Price (1887-1953)
Toccato (Suite No. 1)
Choral et Variations…….Rachel Laurin (1961-2023)
Postludium in G-dur…….Fanny (Mendelssohn) Hensel
BIO:
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.
