Feb. 15, 2011
NEW YORK CITY — The American Guild of Organists (AGO) will sponsor a Recital and Gala Benefit Reception honoring organist THOMAS MURRAY on Sunday, May 15, 2011, at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. The recital will begin at 4 p.m. at Woolsey Hall and will feature Thomas Murray giving a solo performance on Yale’s world-renown Newberry Memorial Organ. The recital is free and open to the public. The gala benefit reception (tickets required) will follow in the Yale President’s Room. The gala is sponsored by the AGO National Council, Eileen Guenther, president, and the AGO Development Committee, Marcia van Oyen, director. All proceeds will benefit the AGO Endowment Fund in Thomas Murray’s honor.
Gala Reception Tickets are $100 ($75 tax deductible) and may be purchased online at www.agohq.org or by calling 212-870-2311, ext. 4308. The names of those who purchase their tickets by April 30 will be printed in the souvenir program book. Those unable to attend the Recital and Gala Benefit Reception can make a contribution to the AGO Endowment Fund in honor of Thomas Murray online at www.agohq.org/contributions. These names will also be published in the program book, but contributions must be received by April 30.
Display advertising in the souvenir recital program book is offered for a full page ($1,000 and includes two gala tickets) and a half page insertion ($500 and includes one gala ticket). Advertising insertion orders can be placed online at www.agohq.org. E-mail gala@agohq.org for further information. Advertising deadline is April 15. The publication will become a part of the American Organ Archives.
THOMAS MURRAY, concert organist and recording artist, is university organist and professor of music at Yale University, where he has served on the faculty for 30 years and has taught many of the leading performers of a younger generation. Widely known for his interpretations of Romantic repertoire and orchestral transcriptions, his recordings are highly acclaimed. The American Record Guide declared "Murray’s performance and his handling of the immense resources of the Woolsey Hall organ are beyond superlatives...the shape of every phrase, the use of every color...could not be more perfect."
Born in California in 1943, Murray studied with Clarence Mader at Occidental College. He has appeared in recitals and lectures at six AGO National Conventions, and received the International Performer of the Year Award from the New York City AGO Chapter in 1986, joining other such luminaries as Marie-Claire Alain, Jean Guillou, and Dame Gillian Weir, all of whom had previously received the award. In 2003, he was named an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Organists in England, and in 2005 he was awarded the Gustave Stoeckel Award for excellence in teaching by the Yale University School of Music. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Organ Historical Society in 2010.
Thomas Murray has performed throughout the U.S. and has appeared in Japan, South America, and Australia, as well as in most countries of continental Europe. His performances have included recitals for the International Congress of Organists in Cambridge (1987) and the Lahti Organ Festival in Finland, where he was soloist with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Constantin Orbelian. As a soloist in North America, he has performed with the Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Houston, and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, as well as the National Chamber Orchestra in Washington D.C., the Yale Philharmonia and Yale Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, his appearances have included the debut recital on the renovated E.M. Skinner organ at the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel, at Disney Hall in Los Angeles for the Anglican Association of Musicians, Severance Hall in Cleveland for the Organ Historical Society, and an inaugural recital on the Romantic-style Klais organ in the new concert hall at Aarhus, Denmark.
NEWBERRY MEMORIAL ORGAN
E.M. Skinner, four manuals, 1928
Looming above and behind the Woolsey Hall stage is the Newberry Memorial Organ, one of the most renowned Romantic organs in the world. Originally constructed by the Hutchings-Votey Company in 1902, entirely rebuilt and enlarged by J.W. Streere & Son Organ Company in 1915, and finally rebuilt and enlarged by the Skinner Organ Company in 1928, the instrument has remained essentially unchanged since that time.
The AMERICAN GUILD OF ORGANISTS is the national professional association serving the organ and choral music fields. Founded in 1896 as both an educational and service organization, it sets and maintains high musical standards and promotes the understanding and appreciation of all aspects of organ and choral music. The mission of the AGO is to enrich lives through organ and choral music. The Guild currently serves approximately 19,000 members in more than 300 local chapters throughout the United States and abroad. The American Organist Magazine, the official journal of the AGO and the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America, reaches an audience of more than 20,000 readers each month.
This information is submitted by F. Anthony Thurman, Director of Development and Communications at the National Headquarters of the American Guild of Organists and The American Organist Magazine. For further information, please contact Dr. Thurman by TEL (212) 870-2310, FAX (212) 870-2163 or E-MAIL fathurman@agohq.org.
