David Higgs

David Higgspicture: Stephen Kennedy

One of America’s leading concert organists, David Higgs is also Chair of the Organ Department at the Eastman School of Music. He performs extensively throughout the United States and abroad, and has inaugurated many important new instruments including St. Stephan’s Cathedral, Vienna; the Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, or St. Albans Cathedral, England. His performances with numerous ensembles have included the San Francisco Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orpheus Ensemble, Chanticleer, and the Empire Brass.
Mr. Higgs performs, teaches, and adjudicates at festivals and competitions throughout the world. He earned the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the Manhattan School of Music, and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. His teachers have included Claire Coci, Peter Hurford, Russell Saunders, and Frederick Swann.
In addition to his significant performing career, Mr. Higgs has distinguished himself as a pedagogue.  He has been a member of the faculty of the Eastman School of Music since 1992. Mr. Higgs has recorded for different labels.

Michel Bouvard

Michel BouvardMichel Bouvard (c) Louis Nespoulous

Over the past thirty years, Michel Bouvard has enjoyed a remarkable double career as concert artist and professor of organ. Recognized internationally as one of the most engaging French interpreters, he is regularly invited to perform upon the most beautiful historic organs throughout Europe, as well as in the great concert halls of Asia and prominent venues of North America. He has given more than 1,000 concerts in more than 25 countries.
In 1995, Michel Bouvard was named Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatory (CNSM de Paris) with his friend Olivier Latry. Together they have developed a unique, collaborative method of pedagogy, attracting the finest young international organists with varying career goals to the program. He completed teaching residencies at Yale University in 2015, and at the National University of the Arts in Tokyo in 2016.
Michel Bouvard has been the titular organist of the renowned Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Romanesque Basilica of St. Sernin in Toulouse since 1996. In 2010, he was named of the four principal organists of the Chapel Royal at the Château in Versailles.

Martin Schmeding

Martin Schmeding

was born in 1975 and studied church music, music education, recorder and organ, choir and orchestra conducting, harpsichord, and music theory in Hannover, Amsterdam and Düsseldorf. Among his teachers are Ulrich Bremsteller, Lajos Rovatkay, Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jacques van Oortmerssen and Jean Boyer. He was a prizewinner in many competitions, among them the Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Berlin, the Pachelbel in Nuremberg, the German music competition in Berlin/Bonn, the European competition for young organists in Ljubljana/Slovenia, and the Musica antiqua in Bruges/Belgium. Martin Schmeding was choir director and organist of the Nazareth Church in Hanover, worked at the Neander Church in Düsseldorf ansd was titular organist of the Kreuzkirche in Dresden from 2002 until 2004. He has taught as professor of organ at the University of Music in Freiburg from 2004 to 2016, where he was also the chair of the church-music and organ department. Since 2016 he is professor for artistic organ playing at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig and artistic director oft he European Organ Academy Leipzig. 2017 Martin Schmeding was awarded "Professor of the Year", since 2018 he is visiting professor at the Royal Conservatoire Birmingham.
Martin Schmeding has made numerous radio and CD recordings, among them the complete organ music of F. Schmidt, J. Brahms, F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, as well as the first recordings on a period instrument of the complete music for pedal piano by Robert Schumann and of the organ version of the Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach on a baroque instrument. He has written for many publications and has given concerts as a soloist, chamber musician and with orchestras all over the world. Martin Schmeding is also active as a guest-lecturer at master-classes, publishes articles and music editions for important magazines and publishers. Engagements as a juror at competitions, conductor and composer complete his artistic career.

www.martin-schmeding.de

Jon Laukvik

Jon LaukvikJon Laukvik (c) privat

is an organist, composer and pedagoge. He was born in Oslo and studied in his home town, Cologne and Paris. He taught as a professor at universities in Stuttgart, Oslo, London and New Haven (Yale University).

His concert activities as organist and harpsichordist have taken him to European countries, Israel, Japan, Canada, Korea and the USA. He is a juror of numerous international organ competitions. His three-volume organ school on historical performance practice and the collected organ works of Louis Vierne (in collaboration with David Sanger) have been published by Carus-Verlag in Stuttgart.

Ken Cowan

Ken CowanKen Cowan (c) Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

is Professor of Organ and head of the organ program at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, Texas.
Regarded as one of North America’s finest concert organists and praised for his dazzling artistry, impeccable technique, and imaginative programming by audiences and critics alike, Ken Cowan maintains a rigorous performing schedule that takes him to major concert venues in America, Canada, Europe, and Asia. 
Recent feature performances have included appearances at Verizon Hall in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Orchestra or Berlin Philharmonie. In addition, Mr. Cowan has been a featured artist in recent years at national conventions of the American Guild of Organists in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Houston. He has been featured at several conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.
Numerous critically acclaimed compact disc recordings by Ken Cowan are available. A native of Thorold, Ontario, Canada, Ken Cowan received the Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, studying organ with Thomas Murray.

Jeremy Joseph

Jeremy JosephJeremy Joseph (c) Moritz Schell

is organist of the Vienna Court Chapel, where he performs the weekly Sunday mass

together with the Vienna Boys Choir and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He studied privately with Hans Fagius in Copenhagen and furthered his studies under Martin Haselböck at the University of Music in Lübeck and with Jürgen Essl at the State University of Music and

Performing Arts in Stuttgart.

Winner of the Gottfried Silbermann International Organ Competition in 1999, Joseph has performed as a soloist at festivals and venues throughout Europe, such as the Schleswig-Holstein Musik-Festival, Nuremberg International Organ Week or Hildebrandt-Festival in Naumburg, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg or Leipzig Gewandhaus, as well as in Hong-Kong, Seoul, USA, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

Jeremy Joseph’s improvisation CD recorded at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City was listed as “CD of the year” in 2018 by Fono Forum Magazine.

As a continuo player he has performed with ensembles such as the Wiener Akademie Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, Kammerorchester Basel and Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble. In 2019 he was appointed Professor for Organ and Improvisation at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

Bine Bryndorf

is cathedral organist at Roskilde Cathedral and professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

After studies in Vienna, Saarbrücken and Boston (organ, church music and harpsichord) she taught for four years at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna as assistant to Michael Radulescu. In 1994 she became professor for organ and church music, later also head of department, at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. In 2017 she changed to the main profession of church musician as castle organist at Frederiksborg Castle Church with the world-famous Esaias-Compenius organ from 1610. Since 2020 Bine Bryndorf is cathedral organist at Roskilde Cathedral.

Bine Bryndorf pursues an active international career as a soloist, teacher and juror at international organ competitions.

In 2019 she became Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In the same year she was awarded the Grand Prix of the Frobenius organ building company for her versatile musical and pedagogical work.

She has recorded CDs with works by Dieterich Buxtehude, Heinrich Scheidemann, Nicolaus Bruhns, Johann Sebastian Bach and the Danish composers Carl Nielsen and Niels la Cour.

Pieter van Dijk

Pieter van DijkPieter van Dijk (c) Frits de Beer

was born in 1958 and studied organ with Bert Matter, piano and church music at the Academy of Music in Arnhem. He also had lessons with Gustav Leonhardt, Marie Claire Alain and Jan Raas. He won prizes at the international organ competitions in Deventer (1979) and Innsbruck (1986).
Pieter van Dijk is professor for organ at the Hamburg Univeristy of Music and Theatre and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He is organist of the Grote Sint Laurenskerk in Alkmaar, where he is in charge of the Van Hagerbeer/Schnitger organ and the Van Covelens organ of 1511. In 2004 he was appointed town organist.

His DVD "Alkmaar - the Organs of the Laurenskerk" was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize in 2013.

Since 2017 Pieter van Dijk has been working on recordings of the complete organ works of Bach. The project will be completed in spring 2023 (for more information see dmp-records.nl). A busy concert schedule has taken him to various European countries, Japan and the United States. Pieter van Dijk is artistic director of the Holland Organ Festival.

Erwan le Prado

Erwan le Prado

began studying music at the Conservatoire de Caen (France) and continued his studies with Pierre Pincemaille, André Isoir, Michel Chapuis, Olivier Latry and Marie-Claire Alain. He has made a name for himself in numerous international organ competitions: prize winner in Biarritz, Luzern, St Alban’s, he won the Prix J. S. Bach in Chartres (1996). In 1999 he won first prize at the Concours International Suisse in Genève and, in 2000, he is the winner of the prestigious Grand Prix de Chartres Interprétation by unanimous decision and of the Audience Prize too.
He has given numerous recitals throughout Europe, Japan, the USA, Canada, South Africa, and South America. He is engaged by several International Festivals and appears in famous concert places. Erwan le Prado is invited also as jury member at international organ competitions of St-Albans, Nuremberg, Chartres, Angers, Freiberg, Armagh a. o. He has made radio broadcasts in France and abroad and recorded a CD recital at Radio-France in Paris.
Erwan Le Prado has been teaching for many years organ interpretation and improvisation at the Caen Conservatoire. He is also organist titulaire at the Cavaillé-Coll in the Abbatiale Saint-Etienne of Caen and at the Parisot historical organ in Notre Dame de Guibray in Falaise. Besides he is often invited abroad to give master-classes in different universities as well as teacher during international organ academies.

Johannes Lang

Johannes Lang
was born in Düsseldorf in 1989. He studied church music (organ with Martin Schmeding, improvisation with Karl Ludwig Kreutz), historical keyboard instruments/harpsichord with Robert Hill and concert organ at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. After winning eleven first prizes as organist, harpsichordist and pianist at the German national competition "Jugend musiziert", he went on to win competitions in Lübeck (2009), Bellelay (2011), Leipzig (Bach Competition 2012) and prizes at competitions in Ljubljana (2007), Herford (2008) and Munich (ARD Competition 2011). Johannes Lang devotes himself to an intensive, worldwide concert activity. Various activities as a juror, radio and CD recordings (including Clavierübung III with the Bach Foundation St. Gallen and his debut CD "In the Spirit of Bach" as Thomas organist) and training as a bell expert broaden his profile. In 2022 Johannes Lang was inaugurated as organist of St Thomas. He teaches organ at the HMT Leipzig.