Executive Board 2008-2010 |
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| Frank Crosio, Dean |
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Frank Crosio, F.A.G.O., is Director of Music and Organist at the Church of Saint Patrick (R.C.) in Huntington, N.Y. He is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, and has studied with Frederick Swann and Walter Hilse. Mr. Crosio was awarded the F.A.G.O. (Fellow of the American Guild of Organists) in 1999. In 2003, Mr Crosio was awarded the Fellow's Diploma (FTCL) by the International Examinations Board of Trinity College, London. He is a past Dean of the Nassau County Chapter, and is a member of the Board of Examiners for the Professional Certification Program of the AGO. Mr. Crosio has presented recitals at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre, and at St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City. His first CD recording, "Ceremonial Wedding Music" for organ and brass, was released in 1996. |
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| Paul Murray, Sub-Dean |
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A native of Boston, Paul Murray is the Director of Music and Organist at the Church of the Holy Family, the United Nations Parish, in Manhattan. A graduate of the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School and Westminster Choir College, he is presently a candidate for the Master of Music degree in organ performance at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studies with McNeil Robinson. An active member of the American Guild of Organists, Mr. Murray has served as a member-at-large of the Executive Board of the New York City Chapter and has served on the faculty of three Pipe Organ Encounters for high school students. In frequent demand as a recitalist, he has performed throughout the United States. In recognition of his contributions to church music and organ performance, Mr. Murray received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School in November 2007. |
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| Paul Sanner, Registrar |
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Paul Sanner has been Minister of Music at Second Presbyterian Church since 1998 and music teacher for the Alexander Robertson School since 1999. Prior to his tenure at Second Presbyterian Church, Paul served churches in the New York and Boston areas as organist and/or choir director, and has been an active accompanist and choral singer. Paul holds a Master's degree in organ performance from Hunter College (CUNY) where he studied with Stephen Hamilton, and a Bachelor's degree in piano performance from Oberlin College where he studied piano with Frances Walker and organ with Garth Peacock. During the 2007-8 season, Paul gave duo-recitals with Haim Avitsur, trombone, at Second Presbyterian and Queens College; and was an organist substitute for the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. |
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| Mary Wannamaker Huff Secretary |
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Mary Wannamaker Huff is the Associate Director of Music at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and Director of Children's Choirs at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City. At Madison Avenue Presbyterian, she plays the organ on Sunday mornings, accompanies and assists in conducting the semi-professional Church Choir and the 50-voice Saint Andrew Chorale, and directs three Children's Choirs. At St. Ignatius Loyola, she administers and conducts four graded choirs for 100 children in grades one through twelve. Ms. Huff graduated cum laude from Furman University with a BMus degree in organ performance. She continued her musical studies at the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music, where she earned an MMus degree in May 2001. Her teachers have included Charles Tompkins, Thomas Murray, and Martin Jean. Mary is married to Canadian organist, Andrew Henderson, and they have two young boys. |
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Dr. F. Anthony Thurman
Treasurer |
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F. Anthony Thurman is Director of Development and Communications at AGO National Headquarters in New York City, a position he has held since 1998. He holds bachelor and master of music degrees in organ performance from the University of Louisville, and a doctor of musical arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Dr. Thurman currently serves as music director at The Presbyterian Church, Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y. Before joining the National Headquarters staff, Dr. Thurman served as associate director of community outreach and the orchestral performance program at the Manhattan School of Music and was actively involved in the development department there. He is treasurer for the New York City AGO Chapter and holds memberships in the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the American Society of Association Executives. |
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| David Enlow, Auditor |
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David Enlow is Organist and Choir Master of the Church of the Resurrection, New York City, where he directs a professional choir which offers over fifty mass settings each season, often with orchestra. Mr Enlow is also on the organ faculty at Juilliard, where he teaches service playing to the organ majors, founder-director of Cappella New York, a semi-professional choral society, and organist to the Welsh Church of New York. The recipient of two Juilliard degrees and the Fellowship of the American Guild of Organists, Mr Enlow studied with Paul Jacobs and John Weaver at the Curtis Institute of Music and Juilliard, and with John Tuttle. Mr Enlow has won national first prizes in the Arthur Poister Competition (2004), and the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival (USA) (2003). |
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| Renée Anne Louprette Auditor |
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Renée Anne Louprette is the Associate Director of Music at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City and on the faculty of the John J. Cali School of Music, Montclair State University in New Jersey as Visiting Specialist in Organ. She previously served as Dean of the Greater Hartford, Conn. Chapter AGO. She has performed recitals at the festivals of Magadino, Switzerland; In Tempore Organi, Italy; Ghent and Hasselt, Belgium; Toulouse Les Orgues, France and worked with many New York City ensembles including Musica Sacra, the Oratorio Society of New York, the Dessoff Choirs, the American Symphony Orchestra and Piffaro. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in piano performance and a Graduate Professional Diploma in organ performance from the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford. She was awarded a Premier Prix mention très bien from the Conservatoire National de Région de Toulouse, France, and a Diplôme Supérieur in organ performance from the Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse. |
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Class of 2010 |
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| Dr. Tina Frühauf |
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Tina Frühauf, Ph.D., is a musicologist and a professional organist. Her scholarly work explores Jewish music in Western Diaspora. She is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Tina Frühauf's German and English publications include articles in the Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy and Orgel International, numerous book chapters and encyclopedia contributions on the German-Jewish music culture, organs and organ music, the piano and the violin. She co-edited Tage Synagogaler Musik, a compilation of essays on synagogue music, and is the author of Orgeln and Orgelmusik in deutsch-jüdischer Kultur (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2005). The English edition, The Organ and Its Music in German-Jewish Culture, is in production with Oxford University Press. |
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| Walter Klauss |
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Walter Klauss, conductor and organist, received his M.A. degree from Case Western Reserve University and pursued doctoral studies at Union Theological Seminary. At the age of 17, Mr. Klauss made his debut as an organ recitalist at the Cleveland Museum of Art and was later invited by the Museum to perform the American premiere of Jean Langlais’ Organ Concerto for the May Festival of Contemporary Music. At the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Mr. Klauss was one of six organists invited to perform the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in a concert honoring the composer, who was present. He continues to appear as a recitalist and most recently appeared with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra, performing Jean Langlais' Pièce en Style Libre at the Tonhalle in Zurich. Walter Klauss is the founder and conductor of the critically acclaimed Musica Viva concert series in New York. He has also appeared as guest conductor of festival choruses and led workshops in choral conducting and performance techniques. In recent years, Mr. Klauss has appeared as guest conductor of various choral and orchestral works with L'Orchestre de J.L. Petit in Paris. In August of 2005 he performed and was a guest conductor at several concerts in Zimbabwe. Mr. Klauss studied conducting with F. Karl Grossman in Cleveland, Ohio, and Wolfram Wehnert in Hanover, Germany. Since 1976 he has been Minister of Music at the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City. Mr. Klauss also served as Chairman of the Music Department and Professor of Music at the C.W. Post Center of Long Island University. Upon his retirement the university honored Walter Klauss with the status of Professor Emeritus. |
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| Robert McDermitt |
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Robert McDermitt, associate organist of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, previously was associate director of music at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York City, and assistant university organist to Joan Lippincott at Princeton University. He also spent one year as fellow in church music at Christ and St. Stephen's Church, New York City. Mr. McDermitt is conductor of the Marsh Singers, a corporate-sponsored mixed-voice choral ensemble. He also is on the faculty of the James Weldon Johnson School in New York City, where he teaches vocal music. Mr. McDermitt holds the MMus degree with distinction and the BMus degree from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, Princeton, N.J., where he studied organ with Eugene Roan and Donald McDonald. |
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| The Rev. Dr. Victoria Sirota |
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Victoria Sirota, priest and musician, is Canon Pastor and Vicar of the Congregation at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. The former vicar of Church of the Holy Nativity, an Episcopal urban mission church in northwest Baltimore, she holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.Mus.), Boston University (M.Mus. D.M.A.) and Harvard Divinity School (M.Div.), and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College. She was the National Chaplain of the American Guild of Organists from 1998-2002 and former Chair of the Liturgy and Music Committee in the Diocese of Maryland. Currently she is Chair of the Professional Concerns Committee of the Association of Anglican Musicians.
The Rev. Canon Sirota has served on the faculties of Yale Divinity School, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, The Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University, and Boston University. Awards include the Bishop’s Award for Outstanding Ordained Ministry, the Ecumenical Service Award from the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council, the Newington-Cropsey Foundation Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Dunning Distinguished Lecturer Award at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology. Widely known as lecturer, preacher and musician, she has published numerous articles and reviews, and is recorded on Northeastern and Gasparo Records. Her book, Preaching to the Choir: Claiming the Role of Sacred Musician, is available from Church Publishing. |
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Vacancy #1 to be appointed by the Dean. Previously filled by Mary Wannamaker Huff.
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Vacancy #2 to be appointed by the Dean. Previously filled by Paul Murray.
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Class of 2012 |
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| Dr. Neal Campbell |
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Neal Campbell is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Frederick Swann, John Walker, James Litton, and McNeil Robinson, and where his DMA dissertation dealt with the life and works of New York organist and composer Harold Friedell. His research interests on the history of organ and sacred music in New York are ongoing. From 2000-2006 he served as Region III Councilor on the AGO National Council, and he has held leadership positions in the Philadelphia and Richmond Chapters of the Guild.
Since 2006 he has been the Director of Music and Organist of St. Luke’s Church in Darien, Conn. Prior to that he was for 21 years the Organist and Choirmaster of St. Stephen’s Church, Richmond, Va., and was on the faculty of the University of Richmond. At St. Stephen’s, he conducted the American premiere of Francis Jackson’s Concerto for Organ, Strings, Timpani, and Celesta, conducted a revival of several works for organ and orchestra by Leo Sowerby on the centennial of Sowerby’s birth, and directed the restoration of the church’s noted Aeolian-Skinner organ. His choir made three professional recordings, including a CD of the works of Friedell which appeared on the Pro Organo label. |
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| John Cantrell |
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John Edward Cantrell, organist and choirmaster of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan, is known to his colleagues as a "musician's musician." As an organist, pianist, and multi-instrumentalist, Mr. Cantrell has toured the United States, Ireland, England, and Western Europe, performing not only as a solo concert artist, but also as an ensemble accompanist, and with jazz and pop groups that entertained audiences of 3,000 people per show. As a champion of 20th century music, Mr. Cantrell, along with an ensemble created for the sole purpose of performing contemporary works, was invited to participate in the "Meer den Worten" festival in Holland. While there, they premiered new works and collaborated with other musicians and writers from around the world. As a composer, Mr. Cantrell has works commissioned by the Kentucky Governor's School for the Arts, Christ Church Cathedral of Louisville, and film and multimedia projects, funded by the NEA, specializing in Arts Education for Children. Mr. Cantrell holds a Master of Music degree in Organ Performance from Yale University and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Louisville. His teachers have included noted performers and scholars Thomas Murray, Melvin Dickinson, and Martin Jean. Mr. Cantrell has also received private coaching sessions with artists Susan Landale, Charles Kriegbaum, and Ludger Lohman. |
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| Dr. John T. King |
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Dr. John T. King currently serves as full-time Minster of Music at Hitchcock Presbyterian Church, Scarsdale, N.Y., where he administers and conducts the multiple choir program. Dr. King has given organ concerts throughout the United States and Europe and has performed and guest conducted for several American Guild of Organists workshops and choral festivals. In 1994, he founded the New Choral Society of Westchester and serves as Artistic Director and Conductor. During his tenure, he has been responsible for two choral commissions from Stephen Paulus, Mass for Chorus and Orchestra and You Shall Love for chorus and organ, having conducted their world premieres. As a conductor, he has recorded Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Cantata No. 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, Haydn’s Utrecht Te Deum, Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, Brahms’ Requiem, and the world premiere recording of Stephen Paulus’ Mass. Dr. King holds a Bachelor of Music degree from University of Louisville, a Master of Music degree from Yale University and Doctor of Musical Arts from Manhattan School of Music. His principal teachers were Melvin Dickinson, Thomas Murray, Alec Wyton and John Walker. He has been the recipient of a number of prizes in organ performance, and serves as an adjunct at Concordia College, Bronxville, where he teaches music history and conducting. |
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| Nigel Potts |
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Born in New Zealand, Nigel Potts has given recitals spanning four continents, including performances at such distinguished venues as Westminster Abbey & St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Liverpool Cathedral; the Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavík, Iceland; Notre Dame de Paris, France; the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, and extensively across the USA, Australia and NZ. His recitals and CDs have been broadcast on radio stations around the world and have been favorably reviewed by critics. An exponent of transcriptions and English romantic music, Nigel Potts has performed recitals across the USA of programs solely devoted to Whitlock & Elgar in celebration of their 100th & 150th Anniversaries, respectively.
Nigel Potts graduated with an MM from Yale University in 2002, where he studied with Thomas Murray. He has also achieved Diplomas from the Conservatorium of Music in Wellington and Trinity College of Music, London. A recipient of the Gillian Weir Waitangi Foundation Scholarship, Nigel Potts has held Organ Scholarships in New Zealand and English Cathedrals. In London he studied the organ with Jeremy Filsell and John Scott, and studied Church Music at the Royal Academy of Music. Nigel Potts is Organist & Choirmaster of Christ & St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in New York City, and Adjunct Lecturer of Music at Dowling College, N.Y. |
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| Robert Ridgell |
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Robert P. Ridgell is the Founding Director of the Trinity Choristers, Associate Organist, and Program Leader of Music and the Arts at historic Trinity Wall Street in New York City. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Ridgell was the Associate Director of Music of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City and Director of Music of the Cathedral Church of the Savior, Philadelphia. Mr. Ridgell holds degrees from the Indiana University School of Music and Westminster Choir College where his professors included Marilyn Keiser and Stefan Engels. Mr. Ridgell was a finalist in the 2004 American Guild of Organist's National Competition in Organ Improvisation (Los Angeles) and a featured artist for the 2005 National Convention of the National Pastoral Musicians (Milwaukee), the 2006 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists (Chicago), and the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival and Spoleto Festival. Mr. Ridgell has toured throughout North America, Europe, and Asia offering concerts and lectures specializing in liturgical music, youth choir training, community music initiatives and improvisation. He is the author of several articles published by Liturgical Press and Church Publishing.
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| Preston Smith |
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Preston Smith moved to New York in October 2003 to be Associate Director of Music and Director of Choristers at Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Park Avenue. In January 2007 he was named Organist and Director of Music at Church of the Ascension, 107th Street and Broadway, where he oversees and plays four weekend masses, conducts a semiprofessional choir of adults, performs noonday Advent and Lenten recitals, and runs a new concert series, “Eight Thursdays at Eight.” Preston has served churches and universities in Tampa, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina. In Tampa he was Sub-Dean and Dean of the local A.G.O. chapter. In Charleston he coordinated the Piccolo Spoleto Festival of Churches. A native South Carolinian, Mr. Smith is a graduate of Furman University, U.S.C., and Westminster Choir College. He has concertized as organist in London and Oxford, England, Miami, Atlanta, Charleston, and the major churches of New York City, and has played and taught at A.G.O. and A.A.M. (Association of Anglican Musicians) regional and national conventions. As pianist and choral conductor, Preston has performed for Oprah Winfrey, Miss Black America, Star Jones, NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, and Sounds of the Holidays for Fox television, and has shared the stage with pop singers Josh Groban and Patti LaBelle. Other television credits include Inside Edition, NBC Nightly News, Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and a number of nationally-broadcast commercials. |
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