We are informed that legendary organist and teacher
+ Catharine Crozier +
died peacefully Friday, September 19, 2003, following a stroke.
Her extensive career began before WWII, spanning decades and continents. Crozier taught at Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, later at Rollins College. Her impressive list of awards and honors, includes five honorary doctorates. A Crozier Master Class is featured in the "Master Teacher" series published in VHS and DVD by the American Guild of Organists.
Karen McFarlane (long-time concert manager and friend) writes:
"Her passing is a great loss to all who knew her and loved her playing. All her life she stood for the highest personal and musical standards. She was fortunate in "retiring" to Portland [1993]...practicing almost every day on the Rosales organ at Trinity, teaching and playing recitals. We all owe John Strege, Canon in Music at Trinity, a debt of gratitude for his great care of Catharine during the past ten years. His friendship and professional relationship with her greatly enhanced her last decade.
"She was a great lady and a superb artist in every sense of the word. I have never known anyone quite like her."
A memorial service/concert and reception will be held on January 26, 2004, at Trinity Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, with the Trinity Cathedral Choir (John Strege, director) and organists David Higgs and Frederick Swann.
Memorial donations may be sent to:
Music Endowment Fund, Trinity Cathedral, 147 NW 19th Avenue, Portland OR 97209
We have not received an Officer Report Form (ORF) from for the 2003-04 year from a number of chapters! The official deadline was June 15th. ORF's can be accepted by mail or online at www.agohq.org/orf Thank you!
-- Jennifer Morris, Membership Coordinator
To which I add: This is the Chapter Dean's responsibility. Personaly I think the on-line way is the fastest and most expeditious. Please see to it!
Visit the National AGO web page for downloadable documents, www.agohq.org/docs/doc.html and scroll down to "Competitions and Conventions." Here you will find documents that walk you through every step of the way!
Welcome to your Region VIII Leadership newsletter. If you are a newly elected chapter officers, you may be receiving this newsletter for the very first time.
As your Region VIII Councillor, one of my duties is to establish communications with each of our 19 chapters. Not just with the chapters, but within each chapters!
My goal is to reach not just chapter deans, but also deans emeriti, treasurers, secretaries, newsletter editors, really any recognized leader of note! Let's all stay connected! One chapter forwarded my newsletter to all members, but that is NOT the intention.
Nuts and bolts... At first this newsletter was available three ways: the plain text of an e-mail message, a more colorful version published on the web, and as a Microsoft Word attachment. It was quickly learned that the (time-consuming) MS-Word attachment, even in "rtf" format was not working well for everyone.
Comments always welcome! It is my hope that each chapter officer will read closely and find something interesting or useful. There is always a provision for your feedback.
Special to newsletter editors: You have automatic permission to reprint any thought, message, or graphic in your newsletter, subject to prevailing copyrights, if any.
Inspired by a conversation with my friend Robert Gault from Eugene, Oregon, I hit upon the idea of creating a Region VIII Speaker's Bureau.
Robert asked for suggestions of any local folk who might be available for chapter programming. I thought, "What a great question!" We considered, where can the smaller chapter find programs of interest from local people? Sure, we can (and should) bring nationally known icons. However, not every chapter can afford the fee -- sometimes over $1,000. (Real amounts vary, of course.)
Region VIII is blessed with a host of major and minor luminaries. We noted that author, Marva Dawn ("Reaching out without dumbing down") lives in Vancouver, WA. Then there was Nancy Cooper (Missoula) recent presentations on music from Thomas Jefferson's times. Surely there are many others.
Robert Gault surmises: "I think there are also chapter members who have given talks on musical investigations. Having just read Eidam's book The True Life of J.S. Bach, I think there would be fodder for a new perspective on who he was. The author shoots a lot of holes in erroneous concepts that have been perpetuated, and there is new research."
"There might even be a builder who would talk on organ building concepts...fad vs practicality, etc. Seems that many organists have little understanding of what happens inside an organ."
What does Region VIII think?
Told you NOT to read it!
Pipe up with your thoughts.
The "wise gargoyle" me fecit, mmiii. 