Key Details
Sunday, January 7, 2024
4 PM - 5:30 PM
Christ Church Episcopal
72 stop, 54 rank - 4 manual Schantz (Opus 2294; 2009)
Meet Katelyn Emerson
Organist, lecturer, and pedagogue Katelyn Emerson, hailed as “one of the world’s most promising organists” (Listvinafélag Hallgrímskirkju, Iceland), is internationally renowned for performances throughout North America, Europe, and Asia that are "thrilling from beginning to end" and that showcase repertoire from the 14th — 21st centuries with “impressive technical facility and musicianship” (Cleveland Classical). Upcoming and past recital venues include Walt Disney Hall (Los Angeles, California), Hallgrímskirja (Reykjavik, Iceland), Krasnoyarsk Philharmonic Hall (Russia), Cathédrale Saint-Omer (France), Kurhaus Wiesbaden (Germany), the Basilica of Santa Maria de Montserrat (Spain), Cathédrale St-Quentin (Hasselt, Belgium), Hauptkirche St. Petri (Hamburg, Germany), the Cathédrale Poitiers (France), Västerås Cathedral (Sweden), Longwood Gardens (Pennsylvania), Musashino Civic Cultural Hall (Japan), the Riverside Church (New York, New York), Benaroya Hall (Seattle, Washington), and Merrill Auditorium (Portland, Maine), among others, as well as inauguration performances at churches that include Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and Trinity Wall Street (both New York, New York).
Prizewinner of competitions on three continents, Katelyn garners acclaim from audiences ranging from those new to classical music to organ aficionados for her “beautifully designed program[s]” (Orgue Canada), “refreshingly original and interesting” program notes (The Diapason), and “careful ear and sense of musicality that puts her at the top of recitalists performing today” (Journal of American Organbuilding). As first prizewinner of the American Guild of Organists’ (AGO) 2016 National Young Artists’ Competition in Organ Performance (Houston, Texas), the Guild's premier performance competition, Katelyn performed at the 2018 National Convention of the AGO in Kansas City (Missouri) after giving over 70 concerts throughout the United States and Europe in the intervening two years. She additionally received the Second Jean Boyer Award in the 2014 Fifth International Organ Competition “Pierre de Manchicourt” (Béthune and Saint-Omer, France), the second prize of the 2015 Arthur Poister Scholarship Competition (Syracuse, New York), the third prize of the VIII Musashino International Organ Competition (Tokyo, Japan), and, as the youngest finalist of the VIII Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition (Kaliningrad, Russia), was awarded the title of “Laureate” and Third Place, as well as additional recital prizes. First prizewinner of the 2011 Region V AGO/Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists (Lexington, Kentucky), Katelyn has also received numerous scholarships for her musical and academic work, including the 2013 M. Louise Miller Scholarship, the 2015 McClelland Community Music Foundation Scholarship. She was selected as part of the inaugural “20 under 30” class of 2015 for The Diapason magazine, which “recognizes young talents in the fields of organ and harpsichord performance, organ and harpsichord building, carillon, and church music” who show “superior accomplishments, leadership, creativity, and innovative thinking.” Katelyn’s two CD recordings appear on the Pro Organo label: Evocations (2017), featuring the historic 1936 Aeolian-Skinner organ at the Church of the Advent (Boston, Massachusetts) and Inspirations (2018), sponsored by the Andover Organ Company in honor of their 70th anniversary and recorded on their Op. 114 at Christ Lutheran Church (Baltimore, Maryland). Her interviews and performances are regularly heard on such radio programs as Radio Russia, American Public Media’s Pipedreams, WXXI-FM’s With Heart and Voice, Radio VM’s Récit au grand orgue, Québec, Canada, and Radio Présence, Toulouse, France.
Between travels for performances, Katelyn is based in both the USA and the UK, having been awarded a Studentship from the Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership (ESRC DTP) and a Bursary from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for an MPhil and PhD in Music at the University of Cambridge. Katelyn holds a Master of Arts in organ from the Musikhochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Stuttgart, Germany), where she was supported by a German Academic Exchange Scholarship (DAAD), and, as recipient of the prestigious J. William Fulbright Study/Research Grant, Katelyn studied organ en perfectionnement at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse (France) with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen. She holds double bachelor’s degrees in organ performance and French as well as minors in music history and historical performance (fortepiano) from Oberlin College and Conservatory (Ohio). During her time at Oberlin, she taught music theory at the Oberlin Community Music School, received the Selby Harlan Houston prize for distinguished work in organ and music theory, and was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, the national music honors society. Katelyn began her organ studies in 2005 through a scholarship of the Young Organist Collaborative (Portsmouth, New Hampshire). She has studied with Ludger Lohmann, Olivier Latry, Hans-Ola Ericsson, James David Christie, Marie-Louise Langlais, Ray Cornils, and Dr. Abbey Hallberg-Siegfried. She has also studied organ improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart, Marie-Louise Langlais, and Bálint Karosi, piano with Arlene Kies, fortepiano with David Breitman, both harpsichord and continuo with Webb Wiggins, flute with Trisha Craig, and voice with Ellen Hargis.
In addition to teaching privately, Katelyn has served on the faculties of the St. Andrews Organ Academy (Scotland), the McGill Student Organ Academy (Montréal, Canada), numerous AGO-sponsored Pipe Organ Encounters throughout the United States, and the Oberlin Summer Organ Academy (Ohio), and has been invited to join the juries of recent national organ interpretation and church music competitions and scholarships. Having received a Certificate in Advanced Occupational Ergonomics from Colorado State University, she regularly presents masterclasses and lectures on healthy practice techniques, organ interpretation, and sacred music for regional and national AGO-sponsored events and conventions as well as at universities in the USA and UK.
Katelyn was Associate Organist & Choirmaster at the Church of the Advent (Boston, Massachusetts) from 2016-2018, where she worked with the professional Choir of the Church of the Advent, the volunteer Parish Choir, and the historic Aeolian-Skinner organ. From 2010 – 2015, Ms. Emerson was music director of St. Paul Lutheran Church (Amherst, Ohio) where she oversaw all musical aspects of the liturgy while working with the adult and bell choirs. In January 2012, Katelyn served as the Oberlin Sacred Music Intern under music director Keith Tóth at the Brick Presbyterian Church (New York, New York), where she subsequently substituted for Mr. Tóth for the months of July from 2012 through 2015. She is regularly invited to present workshops on recently published organ music for church services at regional AGO conventions. She is associate editor of the online editorial journal Vox Humana (voxhumanajournal.com) and a regular contributor of feature articles for the UK's Choir & Organ magazine. She serves on the Membership Committee of the Organ Historical Society and as a board member of the European Chapter of the AGO. She holds professional memberships in the Association of Anglican Musicians, the American Musicological Society, and the Organ Historical Society.
The Reviews Are In!
BOSTON, MA “Boston’s Historic Park Street Church made a felicitous decision when it chose Katelyn Emerson for the recital celebrating the near completion of the church’s 1960 Aeolian-Skinner’s full restoration … she tailored her selections to the instrument, keeping her pair of stop-pullers busy making myriad changes of combinations to show off as many different tone-colors as possible … Emerson spoke with poise, enthusiasm, and considerable knowledge about both the works played and this organ’s history.
“… powerfully theatrical, with multiple opportunities to highlight the grandeur of full organ, generate tension … create power and mystery via the swell shades, and of course, display considerable virtuosity. Emerson did all this handily in an electrifying account.”
Geoffrey Wieting, Boston Music Intelligencer, March 2019