Frederick Swann is the immediate past President (2002-2008) of the American Guild of Organists, an organization of over 20,000 members in Chapters throughout the United States and several foreign countries. He is Organist Emeritus of the Crystal Cathedral and of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, and Organ Artist-in-residence at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert. Frederick Swann is also University Organist and Artist Teacher of Organ at the University of Redlands, and Organist for the Mark Thallander Foundation choral festivals held in various parts of the country each season.

One reviewer noted that Frederick Swann has probably presided over more ranks of pipes and stopknobs than any other organist in history. This is perhaps true given the size and prominence of the instruments with which his career has been notably associated… Riverside Church in New York City (1957-1982), The Crystal Cathedral (1982-1998) and First Congregational Church of Los Angeles (1998-2001).

Frederick Swann holds degrees from Northwestern University and the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary, each granted “with distinction”. In addition to his prominent church positions, he was for ten years Chair of the Organ Department at the Manhattan School of Music and served on the faculties of Teacher’s College of Columbia University, and the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Although officially “retired”, Frederick Swann continues to perform on a reduced schedule of solo recitals and in concert with orchestras and choral groups. In the past two years he has presented recitals in major churches and concert halls in the United States, England, Germany and Russia. In 2004 he was selected by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to perform the Inaugural solo organ recital on the spectacular new organ in The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Prior to that, he played the inaugural recitals on the organs in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, and Davies Hall in San Francisco. In the summer of 2006 he performed on world-famous organs in Australia (Sydney : Town Hall, Opera House, and the Anglican and Roman Catholic Cathedrals, as well as the Town Hall and St. Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne). In the 2007-2008 season Frederick Swann performed 24 solo recitals in Arkansas, California, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, DC. In the 2008-2009 season he can be heard in California, Illinois, South Carolina, Florida, Hawaii, West Virginia, Maryland, and Arizona.

In June of 2008 Frederick Swann performed two Preview Recitals on the William J. Gillepsie Concert Organ in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, and has recorded the first CD on this major new instrument.

Frederick Swann is sought after as a leader of organ and church music workshops and has been retained frequently as a consultant for new pipe organs, including some of the largest and most prominent in the country. His many recordings, past and present, have assisted in making his name one of the best known throughout the music world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Swann

Organist and choir director born in England, Graham Steed studied music with his uncle JE Hutchinson and is also a graduate of the Royal College of Organists in London.

He began his career as an organist at the age of 16 at St. James Church, and in his early twenties, he began directing various choirs and to record the concerts for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1948, he moved to Canada and became organist and choirmaster in Saskatoon. He later held the same functions in Victoria (British Columbia) at Christ Church Cathedral and also heads the Victoria Choral Society. In 1959 he moved to Ontario and founded a choir of 36 singers, Graham Steed Chorale.

From the 1960s, Graham Steed devoted himself mainly to his organist of activities and occurs in several countries including France, Germany, Belgium, New Zealand and Australia.

Frank Speller, Associate Professor Emeritus of Organ at the University of Texas at Austin, has been described in reviews as “one of the most brilliant organists in America” and a “remarkably gifted performer”. He has appeared in recitals in Europe, the US, on National Public Radio, and in one national and three regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

His organ and choral compositions are published by various American editors, and two commercial compact discs of his works have been released by Albany and Pro Organo. Dr. Speller was integral in developing the Visser-Rowland organ of UT Austin, the largest tracker organ in the United States when it was completed in 1981.

His students have won many competitions and prizes. He holds a D.M.A., University of Colorado ; Performer’s Certificate, Indiana University, and studied in Paris with Jeanne Demessieux.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Speller

Iain Simcock was organ scholar at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and Christ Church, Oxford, before being appointed Sub-Organist at Westminster Abbey and, for seven years, Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral. He was the first British prize-winner in the Chartres International Organ Competition and studied with David Sanger in London and Jean Langlais in Paris.

He recorded several CDs for Hyperion Records with the choir of Westminster Cathedral as well as several solo organ recordings, including two Symphonies by Louis Vierne and notably the world première recording of Christus – A Passion Symphony for Organ by Francis Pott. During this period, recital tours took him all over Europe as well as to Australia. He also appeared regularly on BBC radio and television and played in two BBC Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. He gave many duo concerts during this time with Jonathan Freeman-Attwood (trumpet).

Since living in France, Iain has been professor of choral singing at the Conservatoire National in Angers and organist at the Abbey of Saint Pierre in Solesmes, whilst continuing his solo freelance career. He performed the complete organ works of Bach in Angers in 1996 recording a solo CD of highlights from the performances. He also performed all Bach’s major harpsichord works including the Goldberg Variations on the famous Taskin harpsichord in the Russell collection at the Edinburgh Festival.

In 2000 Iain Simcock became Musical Director of the Maîtrise de l’Académie Vocale de Paris, which he has built into the most ambitious choral project in France. The Maîtrise travels increasingly, giving concerts of a vast repertoire of great choral music from Manchicourt to MacMillan. He also works with the opera houses in Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux, preparing young singers for roles in Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Turn of the Screw, Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande, Berlioz Damnation of Faust, Mozart Magic Flute and as assistant to Jane Glover and harpsichordist for Handel Jephtha.

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

Winner of the Lemmens Institute and the Conservatory of Brussels where he worked with Paul de Maleingrau and Flor Peeters. He won the award Alphonse Mailly in 1953.

Previously, he was appointed organist of Saints Peter and Guidon before the age of 18 until his military service, which lasted two years. After that, he found himself in the church of the Rosary in Uccle for five years.

He occupied the podium of the church of Finistère for 34 years until his pension in 1993.
It takes the organist of the Church holds the Sacred Heart (The Cat).

Paul Sprimont gave numerous concerts mainly abroad, and especially in France and Germany.

Sprimont Paul died in July 2012.

Herndon Spillman was born in Huntsville, Alabama, where he began his early musical training.

After his study at Dillard University, Boston University, and Indiana University, he came to Paris to continue his formation under the direction of Maurice Duruflé, Andre Marchal and Marie-Claire Alain.

For his doctoral thesis, “The Organ Works of Maurice Duruflé,” he conducted extensive research under the guidance of the composer.

By his appearances at Notre-Dame cathedral, l’Office de Radiodiffusion- Télévision, and the Federation Francophone des Amis de l’Orgue, this young American organist has gained a reputation as an organist of exceptional technique and musicality and a specialist in the interpretation of the organ music of Maurice Duruflé.

In 1974 he was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque from the Académie du Disque Français for the first complete recording of the complete organ works of Maurice Duruflé. He was awarded the Doctorate of Music in Organ from Indiana University in 1975 and currently coordinates the organ program in the School of Music at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is managed in North America by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists.

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

Édouard Souberbielle (b. Tarbes, June 17, 1899 ; d. Paris, january 29, 1986) studied first with his mother, who had been a student of Émile Delaborde (Charles-Valentin Alkan’s son).

He later studied at the Schola Cantorum and at the Paris Conservatoire, winning first prizes in 1925 in harmony and organ. He was choirmaster of Saint-Ambroise (1929-43), organist of Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix-de-Ménilmontant and Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes.

He was later maître-de-chapelle of Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot.

He taught at the Schola Cantorum from 1926 and at the Institut Grégorien from 1943.

Edouard SOUBERBIELLE – Chartres_concours_Jury_1974. Édouard Souberbielle on the left.
( coll. A. Galpérine )

http://www.musimem.com/souberbielle_edouard.htm

Campbell SMITH. Music teacher and organist at Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas), Campbell Smith received his degrees at Yale University.

He was also a student of Marcel Dupré.

Campbell Smith not only plays many concerts in the United States but is also applauding in England and France, including Notre-Dame de Paris.

Born in Gaasbeek in 1936, Jozef SLUYS gained his diploma at the Lemmens Institute in Louvain and completed his studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in Brussels where, in addition to various First Prizes, he obtained the Mailly and Arnold Prizes for organ.

Appointed organist to the Civitas Dei church at the Brussels Universal Exhibition in 1958, then to St. Peter’s, Jette (Brussels), he became the Organist of the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in 1971.

He began his international career as a prize-winner at the International Bach Competition in 1963. Both at home and abroad his outstanding reputation as a concert organist has taken him throughout Europe, to the United States, to the former countries of the Soviet Union, the Congo, New Zealand, Mexico and South Africa.

Very active on the Belgian musical scene, Jozef Sluys has launched and directs a number of concert series : the Cathedral Concerts, the Brussels International Organ Week, and the Historical Concerts at the church of Our Blessed Lady at Lombeek. He also taught the organ at the Lemmens Institute at Louvain for a number of years, and founded the Public Academy of Music in Schaerbeek of which he remained the Director until 1995.

He has also been instrumental in revealing the riches of the organ tradition in Belgium to the wider public. He has issued a number of CDs in the “Organa Belgica” series devoted to the works of Belgian composers such as A. De Boeck, E. Tinel, J. Jongen, F. Peeters, and P. Verkaeren. His recording of the works of Lemmens was honoured with the prize of the Belgian Musical Press Association in 1979.

Jozef SLUYS has recently made two CDs of the music of the Belgian Court organists P. Cornet and A. van den Kerckhoven, and a series of CDs of Bach on the organs of Gottfried Silbermann for the firm Gailly. His collection also includes the six Sonatas by Mendelssohn performed on the monumental Walcker organ in Riga, Latvia.

He has given numerous radio and television performances and taken part in events such as the funeral of King Baudouin and the marriage of Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde. In 2000 he played for the Spanish sovereigns when they visited the exhibition of the “Tapestries of the Spanish Crown” and on Eurovision when the new G renzing organ in the Cathedral was blessed by Cardinal Danneels.

In 1990 the Minister of Culture of France conferred the title of “Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters” on Jozef SLUYS.

In 1996 and again in 1997 he was appointed “Cultural Ambassador of Flanders”.

In 2000 he was awarded the “Fuga” trophy for his work in publicising the achievements of Belgian composers.

http://www.jozef.sluys.org/

Linda Cechová Sitková comes from Roznov pod Radhostem, the Czech Republic. After finishing grammar school in 1999, she started to study in the Organ close with prof. Jan Hora at the Prague Conservatory. She has studied at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with prof. Jan Hora since 2003 and Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart with an excellent Norwich organist prof. Jon Laukvik since 2005.

Her honors include First Price in Organ Competition for Young Organists in Opava, Czech Republic, (2000) and laureate of the Czech Music Fund. She also became a holder of Third Price in competition “Voriskuv Vamberk” (2000, Third Price in the International Organ Competition in Brno (2002) and Third Price in the International Organ Competition J. P. Sweelincka in Gdansk (2003). She became an absolute winner of the International Organ Competition in German Mülheim in 2004. She achieved Second Price in the International Competition for Bach Price in Wiesbaden in 2005. She became a holder of title of laureate in the International Competition “Prague Spring” in 2006. She was a finalist and winner of the Langlais Price from St. Albans International Competition.

She regularly takes part in virtuoso courses with prominent pedagogues and interpreters of organ literature (E. Koimann, L. Lohmann, M. Sander, H. Vogel, A. Rôssier, T.Mechler, etc… )

She cooperates with Janacek Philharmonic, Jihocesky chamber Philharmonic and other Symphony and chamber orchestras.

Linda Cechová SITKOVÁ – Chartres 2009

http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_%C4%8Cechov%C3%A1_S%C3%ADtkov%C3%A1