Hector Zeoli began his musical studies in Rosario, his hometown, with professors Manuel Cuevas (piano), Ricardo Engelbrecht (harmony) and Franz Mülemkaft (organ).

At 18, he was appointed to the Cathedral of Rosario, giving recitals for LT8 Radio Littoral.
Fellow of the Foundation Santamaria, he traveled to Buenos Aires in 1944 and then to the United States in 1947 to continue his training. There, he studied conducting with Rudolf Thomas (Columbia University), winning a scholarship from the Julliard School of Music in New York. Finalist in the International Competition of Organists (Texas, 1949), and in 1954 graduated from the Julliard School of Music, he returned to his country where he was appointed by competition, organist and choir director of the National College of Buenos Aires.

Hector Zeoli is the coordinator of the International Organ Days organized by the Cultural Department of the University of Buenos Aires, and member of the Board of Directors of the Cultural Foundation Promusica.

Since 1958 he was organist of the Basilica of Santo Domingo, Buenos Aires participating in the selection of the new organ registers installed in 1964. In 1979, with the organ builder the National College of Buenos Aires, Ing. Merlassino, he planned the restoration of the great organ of that institution.

Hector Zeoli was the first Latin American guest organist at bi-annual meeting organized by the American Guild of Organist in Los Angeles in 1962, where he played premiered his Sonata for Organ.

His recordings stand a disc dedicated to the works of J. S. Bach, as well as tapes of his improvisations and his works of biblical inspiration (“La Ciudad del Manana”, “El Nacimiento de Jesus”, “Oratorio de Pascua” , etc…).

Hector Zeoli pursues an international concert career, making many tours in Latin American and European countries.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9ctor_Zeoli

Lynn Zeigler holds an organ performance degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she was a student of David Boe and Fenner Douglass. Ms. Zeigler holds the Masters of Music degree from Northwestern University where she studied with Grigg Fountain. After two years of study with organist Lionel Rogg at the Conservatory of Music in Geneva, Switzerland, Ms. Zeigler was awarded the Premier Prix de Virtuosité, the highest performance degree given in Europe. Lynn Zeigler has attended master classes with several noted organists : Werner Jacob, Luigi Tagliavini, Flor Peeters, and Harald Vogel.

Lynn Zeigler has won several first prizes in European organ competitions and makes concert tours throughout Europe, including The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, and Norway. She has performed on three separate occasions in Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii. Lynn Zeigler has appeared on Eurovision (European television) and has made numerous recordings for Dutch, Swiss, Danish and Norwegian radios. She is heard on American radio and on Minnesota Public Radios’s well known “Pipedreams”. She gives concerts, workshops and master classes throughout the United States and Europe and server as an adjudicator for organ competitions.

Lynn Zeigler recorded eleven organ and harpsichord pieces for a music history textbook, The Development of Western Music, A History by K Marie Stolba. She has recorded for Raven Records, Organ Historical Society, organ music of various periods and styles on the 1987 organ of John Brombaugh at Iowa State University. She has also recorded the complete organ version of J. S. Bach’s Art of Fugue, a double compact disc and has recorded a compact disc of organ pieces from the twentieth century American composers.

As a Professor of Music at Iowa State University, Lynn Zeigler teaches organ, harpsichord and music theory. She plays continuo in Basically Baroque, a quartet with Baroque oboe, flute and gamba. She also plays continuo in The Lyremar Trio which includes Baroque flute and gamba. The Lyremar Trio has recorded sonatas of Marcello for CD. Lynn Zeigler organizes two guest organ recitals and a weekly organ recital series at Iowa State each year. She is also organist at the Collegiate Presbyterian Church in Ames.

Lynn Zeigler has devoted much of her research to writing a book on the organ and musicianship geared to informing the non-trained church organist.

She received the 1998 Liberal Arts and Sciences Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity from Iowa State University.

http://www.music.iastate.edu/faculty/zeigler

Chantal de Zeeuw is titular organist of Aix-en-Provence St-Sauveur Cathedral and conservatory. She is frequently invited in France and abroad to give recitals and to perform in orchestral concerts (Saint-Saens’ Third Symphony, Poulenc’s Concerto, Fauré’s Requiem….)

Chantal de Zeeuw won the French Record Academy’s grand prize in 1984 and 1985 for her recordings of the works of Franz Lizst and a series of works by French composera from “the Revolution to the Empire”. She has recently recorded Darius Milhaud’s Sacred Service as well as contemporary works.

She studied under Maurice Gay, Jean Langlais, Jean Costa, Daniel Roth and Louis Robilliard at the conservatories of Aix, Marseille, and Lyon, and at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. She has taken masterclasses with Marie-Claire Alain, Pierre Cochereau and Jean Guillou.

Todd Wilson is Director of Music and Organist of the Church of the Covenant (Presbyterian) in Cleveland, Ohio. where he heads a program of chairs as well as a concert series.

He is also Head of the Organ Department at The Cleveland Institute of Music and directs the Instituts University Code Chorale and Chamber Choir.

Todd Wilson received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where he studied organ with Wayne Fischer. Further coaching in organ répertoire was with Russell Saunders at The Eastman School of Music.

He has won numerous competitions, including the Grand Prix de Chartres and the Fort Wayne Competition. An active member of the American Guild of Organiste, he holds the Fellow and Choirmaster certificates, and will be featured during the Centennal National Convention of the Guild in July, 1996.

Todd Wilson has been heard in concert in many major cities throughout the US and Europe, including concerts at Chicago s Orchestra Hall and Uihlein Hall in Milwaukee.

During 1992 he appeared as a solo recitalist for Austrian Radio in Vienna, as well as in concert with the Slovakian Radio Synphony. Recent orchestral appearances include performances with members of the Atlanta the Naples (FL) Philharmonie, the Calgary Philharmonic and the City of London Sinfonia

A sought-after adjudicator Todd Wilson has been a jury member for numerous national and international competitions.

An active interest in improvisation has led to his popular improvised accompaniments to classic silent films.

Todd Wison appears frequently with his wife, Anne, in duo-organ or organ/piano recitals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Wilson_(organist)

William’s WHITEHEAD solo organ-playing career took off when he won First Prize at the Odense International Organ Competition in Denmark, 2004. Trained at Oxford University and the Royal Academy of Music, London, his teachers have included David Sanger, James O’ Donnell and Dame Gillian Weir. Valuable inspiration was gained in his year as Organ Scholar of Westminster Abbey, where he played for services and occasionally conducted the choir. This led naturally on to a period as Assistant Organist at Rochester Cathedral, where he accompanied the Cathedral Choir and helped to found the new Girls’ Choir. After four years in this post, he moved on to become a Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music, and took up a position as Director of Music at St Mary’s Bourne Street, London.

William now travels around the world playing organ concerts and giving masterclasses. 2007 has seen him in Pretoria, South Africa, Vienna, Toulouse, Berlin and Denmark. He gave his Royal Albert Hall début playing the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony with the New Queens Hall Orchestra under Ivor Setterfield, and has made a disc of Edwardian organ music on the Herald label.

Other activities include teaching the organ at Trinity College of Music, using the historic instrument in the Old Royal Naval College Chapel amongst others. His teaching is thoroughly informed, though always led by the music. He also co-runs the London Organ Forum (www.londonorganforum.com), which puts on yearly study-days around organist-composers.

http://www.william-whitehead.com/

Hailed as “A world-class virtuoso” and “an expert at defining darks, lights, shadows and colors,” Bradley Hunter Welch is increasingly in demand as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and collaborative artist. A native of Knoxville, TN, Bradley holds the Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of Musical Arts, Master of Music degrees, and the Artist Diploma from Yale University where he studied with Thomas Murray and Martin Jean. He also holds the Bachelor of Music degree magna cum laude from Baylor University where he studied with Joyce Jones. Dr. Welch has also continued his study of organ and piano technique with Sheila Paige.

Dr. Welch is the 2003 First Place winner of the Dallas International Organ Competition and was also awarded the Audience Prize for the second time, having previously won it in 2000. In 2005, he was a featured artist at three regional conventions of The American Guild of Organists, and he made his European debut in France performing in the Chartres Festival. He has appeared as soloist with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. With the DSO, he gave the world premier of Stephen Paulus’ Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra, the piece written for Bradley as the winner of the Dallas International Organ Competition. Additionally, he has taught at Southern Methodist University and Baylor University. He is Director of Music & Arts/Organist at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, TX. In addition to these duties, he performs approximately 20 concerts annually under the exclusive artistic management of Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, Hartford, CT.

His premier recording is the first solo organ recording of the Cliburn Organ at Broadway Baptist Church, and his recording on the magnificent Fisk organ at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas is currently in production. Bradley is married to Kara Kirkendoll Welch, a flutist in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Flute at Southern Methodist University. They have a son – Ethan Hunter Welch.

http://www.concertartists.com/BW.html

Born : January 17, 1941 – Martinborough, New Zealand

The New Zealand-born concert organist and harpsichordist, Gillian Constance Weir, studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1962 to 1965. In 1965-1966 she also studied privately with Anton Heiller, Marie-Claire Alain and Nadia Boulanger.

Gillian Weir made her solo recital debut at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 1965. The same year she made her debut as concerto soloist on the Opening Night of the Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. Since 1965 she is recognised as Britain’s foremost concert organist and latterly harpsichordist. She has appeared in concerts with all leading British orchestras, and numerous foreign orchestras, including Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Australian ABC, and Württemberg Chamber Orchestra. She has played under noted conductors, such as : Claudio Abbado, Malcolm Sargent, Colin Davis, Andrew Davis, Raymond Leppard and Michael Gielen. She appears regularly at all major International Festivals, including : Edinburg, Flanders and Aldeburgh.

Through her unique career as an internationally acclaimed concert organist, performing world-wide at the major festivals and with leading orchestras and conductors, Gillian Weir has become established as a distinguished musician known for her virtuosity and integrity, her reputation extending well beyond the world of the organ. Her renown as a performer, which has stimulated numerous young players to follow her, is backed by her scholarly reputation ; she is in demand as an adjudicator for all the leading international competitions and as lecturer, broadcaster, teacher and writer, while her television appearances have reached vast new audiences.

Her repertoire is exceptional in its breadth and variety, stretching from the Renaissance to contemporary works. Gillian Weir has performed the complete works of Bach as well as others including Messiaen, and her pre-eminent position as Messiaen interpreter has been underlined with her CD release of his complete organ works – received universally with such plaudits as that from Le Monde : “This intégrale is a worthy successor to that by Messiaen himself” – and also by her contribution to Faber’s The Messiaen Companion and other publications.

Gillian Weir has received many prizes, awards and honours, and in the 1996 New Year’s Honours List was created Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her services to music, having been made CBE in 1989. Her achievements have been marked by the reissue on CD of her famed series of Argo recordings, and her nomination by Classic CD magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Keyboard Players of the Century, as well as by The Sunday Times as one of the 1000 Music Makers of the Millennium. In December 2000, ITV South Bank Show chronicled her world-wide activities as a performer, teacher and recording artist in a highly acclaimed documentary. She has recently accepted the appointment of Distinguished Visiting Artist at the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore USA.

Gillian Weir’s schedule last year (2006) included recital and concerto appearances in Berlin, Canada and the USA (including the spectacular Disney Hall in Los Angeles), the new Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, and festivals throughout Europe. In October she gave the first full-scale recital for several decades at the Royal Albert Hall, to an audience of over 2000. Her much praised Organ Master Series for Priory Records continued with the double-CD sets of Bach, including the Leipzig Chorales on the new organ at Bach’s own church of St Thomas, Leipzig. This was followed by the first in a new series of concert-hall recordings, celebrating the Albert Hall’s refurbished organ ; the next, made in the Royal Festival Hall just before the organ was removed for restoration, followed in February, and the third in the series, from Symphony Hall, Birmingham, is just released. The re-release of her legendary Messiaen recordings (containing the three posthumously published works and thus one only two complete sets) have received further acclaim, being hailed by Gramophone as “one of the finest organ recordings ever made”.

http://www.gillianweir.com/

Jane Watts is regarded as one of Britain’s leading concert organists. She made her Royal Festival Hall recital debut in 1986, a season during which she also became the Royal College of Organists’ first ‘Performer of the Year’ : her debut in the world-famous BBC Promenade Concerts in London’s Royal Albert Hall took place in 1988, as soloist under conductor John Mauceri. Since then her career has taken her all over the world, with performances in the USA, Europe, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand in addition to numerous appearances throughout Great Britain. “Seldom do you hear an instrumentalist so confident and capable as Jane Watts : she demonstrated total self-possession, in addition to ample musical knowledge” – wrote the reviewer in New York – The Sun of her recital in Trinity Church, Wall Street in July 2008. She will return to the USA in 2013.

In July 2011 Jane Watts gave the opening recital of the first international organ series in the Frits-Philips Concert Hall, Eindhoven.

Miss Watts has recorded exclusively for Priory Records since 1988. Her many recital recordings have garnered superlative reviews from a widely-respected range of publications : the next will be from St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney. In 2007 she recorded the two organ concertos by Richard Popplewell with the Ulster Orchestra under Sir David Willcocks. She has also recorded several recital programmes for the BBC, in Britain, France and Germany, and additionally broadcast on radio in the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Jane Watts has appeared as concerto soloist under conductors including Matthias Bamert, Richard Hickox, Sir Roger Norrington, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Sir David Willcocks, and with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Ulster Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.

From 1991 Jane Watts was, in parallel with her busy career as a soloist, the organist of the world-famous Bach Choir of London – the first woman to hold the post since the Choir’s foundation in 1876. Under Musical Director Sir David Willcocks, and his successor in 1998 David Hill, Miss Watts appeared both as soloist and as organ accompanist to the Choir in Britain, the USA, Europe, the Middle East and New Zealand. During its visit to the 10th Al Bustan Festival in Beirut, she undertook the formidable organ part in the world premiere of Naji Hakim’s Gloria. She relinquished this position in July 2010, when the Musical Director required the postholder additionally to act as Assistant Conductor.

http://www.janewatts.co.uk/index.html

Ulrich Walther (born in 1980) studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart (Germany), where he passed all exams (bachelor in Church music, diplomas in concert performance and music teaching, magister in school music) with distinction. During that time his professors were Prof.Dr.Ludger Lohmann (organ), Prof.Dieter Kurz (Conducting) and Hans-Martin Corrinth (Improvisation).

He took part in organ master classes with Lorenzo Ghielmi, Daniel Roth, Hans-Ola Ericcson, David Sanger, Heinz Wunderlich, Gerhard Weinberger, Jon Laukvik.

He gained several prizes : 2005 1.prize of the International Organ Competition in Korschenbroich (Germany), 2006 2.Second prize and spezial award for the comissioned modern piece of Thomas Daniel Schlee at the International Organ Competition in Graz (Austria), 2006 2.prize of the International Organ competition in Heidenheim (Germany), 2007 1.prize and audience prize at the International Organ Festival in St.Albans (GB), 2008 Scholarship of the “Deutscher Musikrat”, where he was taken up in the federal choice “Konzerte Junger Künstler”.

From October 2008 until 2010 he taught as a guest professor organ, improvisation and figured bass at the Conservatory in Graz (Austria). Since October 2010 he is regularly working as a professor in Graz.

He played concerts at well known organs or festivals (Nürnberger Orgelwoche ION, Thüringer Bachwochen, Bodensee Musikfestival, Oberstdorfer Kunstsommer, Organ Festival Oviedo, Orgelfestival Bergamo, St.Albans, Los Angeles St.James’ Episcopal Church, Wormser Dom, Chartres Cathedral, Stadthalle Wuppertal, Edinbourgh St.Giles, Birmingham Townhall, St.Bavo Haarlem and a tour through Russia).

In August 2010 he released his first CD mit Bach-Arrangements by Max Reger with the british Label Priory, recorded at the historic Sauer-organ in Bremen Dom. Soon he will make a recording of the complete Bach-transcriptions for organ by Max Reger.

Ulrich WALTHER – Chartres 2009

http://ulrichwalther.com/

Jean Wallet is an french organist, improviser and teacher.

Born in 1930, Jean Wallet began his musical studies at the Nice region National Conservatory in 1945 where he learned the piano, violin and harmony.

In 1949 he began studying the organ at the Institute for Blind Youth in Paris under the direction of Master André Marchal he has the honor of replacing for years with great organ of Saint Eustache .
He comes right at the end of study at the Paris Conservatory in the class of Rollande Falcinelli, where he obtained a first organ and improvisation price. Appointed at the request of Peter Cochereau, professor at the Nice Conservatory, where he taught from 1964 to 1998 (adult classes and improvisation).

Appointed titular organist of the Cathedral of Nice in 1964, he stayed 40 years and receive the title of Knight of St. Gregory.

Also in 1964 he became organ professor (adult class) and improvisation at the Conservatory of Nice, a position he held until 1998.

He continues to teach each summer at the session of the liturgical organists Annecy and the National liturgical organ internship Montbrison.

Jean Wallet died on 17 September 2012 in Nice.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Wallet