Stephen Tharp has been hailed as "the organist for the connoisseur" and "the thinking person´s performer." In demand at a rate of nearly sixty concerts per season worldwide, Stephen Tharp is respected today as one of the most active concert organists in the world. From Erbach in Weingarten to Bach's Goldberg Variations at St. Eustache, Paris; Grigny's Messe at Ste. Croix, Bordeaux to Stravinsky's Petrouchka at The Hong Kong Cultural Centre; Messiaen's Livre du Saint Sacrement at Woolsey Hall, Yale University to Xenakis' GMEEOORH in Trier, Stephen Tharp has been internationally recognized for years as one of the most stylistically informed and intelligently eclectic performers of our age.

Having previously held the position as Organist and Director of Cathedral Concerts at New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral, Mr. Tharp has become one of those rare organists in the world for whom performing, recording and teaching exclusively is the sole artistic focus. His 800 hundred U.S. concerts and twenty-six intercontinental solo tours throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia since 1987 have included major performances at such distinguished venues as The Royal Albert Hall and St. Paul's Cathedral, London; St. George's Hall, Liverpool; Grote Kerk St. Bavo, Haarlem, the Netherlands; Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris; The Hong Kong Cultural Centre; the Tonhalle, Zürich; the Duomo, Milano, Italy; the Cathedrals in Berlin, Köln, Merseburg, München, Passau, Weingarten and Würzburg, the Gewandhaus and the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, Germany; the Cathedral, Aarhus, Denmark, Jack Singer Hall, Calgary; Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; the Riverside Church, New York; The Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove, CA; Rice University, Houston; the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles; Spivey Hall, Atlanta; the Museum of Art and Severance Hall, Cleveland; and Orchestra Hall, Chicago.

An important champion of new music, Stephen Tharp continues to commission and premiere numerous new compositions for the organ. The first such piece was Jean Guillou's Instants - Poème Symphonique in seven movements, Op. 57, which Tharp premiered at King's College, Cambridge, England in February 1998. Works subsequently dedicated to him include Eugenio Fagiani's Stèle (2003/St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York); Thierry Escaich's Trois Poèmes (2002/Passau Dom); Philip Moore's Sinfonietta (2001/York Minster, England); Anthony Newman's Tombeau d'Igor Stravinsky (2000/St. Bartholomew's, New York City), Toccata and Fuga Sinfonica on BACH (1999/Trinity Church, Boston) and the Second Symphony (dedicated to S. Tharp, 1992/St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England); Martha Sullivan's Slingshot Shivaree for Organ and Percussion (1999/St. Bartholomew's, New York); and a pedal solo suite entitled Sequencia Pedalia (1998/Marktkirche, Wiesbaden, Germany) by Chicago composer Morgan Simmons. Tharp is also a leading advocate of the art of transcription, having adapted for the organ J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations; G. F. Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks; Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5; Copland's Symphony No. 3, Liszt's Sonata in B Minor, Dante Sonata and Totentanz; Mussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain; Stravinsky's Petrouchka and the Circus Polka; the Toccata from Jongen's Symphonie Concertante, arranged for four-hands/four-feet; and an organ/percussion transcription of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps. Tharp's Concerto repertoire is equally as vast, having performed works for organ and orchestra by C.P.E. Bach, Barber, Copland, Dupre, Eben, Escaich, Guillou, Guilmant, Handel, Jongen, Langlais, Piston, Poulenc, Rheinberger, Widor and Wills, throughout both the United States and in Europe.

Tharp holds the M. M. degree in Organ Performance from Northwestern University, where was a student of Wolfgang Rübsam, Principal Organist for the University's Alice Millar Chapel, and harpsichordist for the Northwestern University Chamber Music Ensemble. He received the B. A. degree in Organ Performance, Piano Performance and Accompaniment, magna cum laude, from Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, studying organ with Rudolf Zuiderveld and piano with Garrett Allman. Additional private studies in improvisation were later undertaken with Jean Guillou in Paris.

As a teacher, Stephen Tharp is especially known for his insights into the 19th and 20th Century American, French and German repertoire, and the transcription of unusual orchestral works for the organ. He has served an adjudicator for the Concerto Competitions at the Julliard School and Northwestern University, and has been a guest organ teacher and lecturer in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik, Stuttgart; the Hochschule für Musik, Trossingen; and the Hochschule für Musik, Bochum, in addition to continuous engagements at Yale University.

Mr. Tharp's playing has been broadcast on both English and Irish national television, on Radio Prague, and in the U. S. on American Public Media's Pipedreams. Based in New York City, Tharp is also an active chamber musician, having performed with Jessye Norman, Jennifer Larmore, Rachel Barton Pine, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the American Boychoir, the Orchestra of St. Luke's (New York), and at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. His seven solo organ recordings can be found on the JAV, Naxos, Organum and Ethereal labels. The first with JAV Recordings in 2002, Stephen Tharp at St. Sulpice, Paris, France, was the first commercially released recording by an American organist on this monumental and historic instrument. His second St. Sulpice disc for JAV, of Marcel Dupré's Le Chemin de la Croix, will be available by Christmas 2005. Tharp's next European release, on the Aeolus label (Germany), will be a two volume series documenting the complete solo organ works of Jeanne Demessieux, including the legendary Six Etudes as well as several unpublished, never-before recorded scores. All of his solo organ recordings are available from the Organ Historical Society and JAV Recordings.