Katelyn Emerson - Inspirations (2019)

Prizewinner of competitions on three continents, Katelyn has garnered acclaim from listeners new to classical music and audiences of colleagues and organ aficionados alike. After winning first prize in 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 solo and collaborative concerts throughout the United States and Europe in the intervening two years.
She 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), and the third prize of the VIII Musashino International Organ Competition (Tokyo, Japan). Katelyn was awarded the title of “Laureate” and Third Place, as well as recital prizes, in the VIII Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition (Kaliningrad, Russia). Winner of the 2011 Region V AGO/Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists (Lexington, Kentucky), she has also received numerous scholarships for her musical and academic work, including the 2013 M. Louise Miller Scholarship and the 2015 McClelland Community Music Foundation Scholarship. 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, MA) and Inspirations (2018), in celebration of the Andover Organ Company's 70th anniversary, recorded on their Op. 114 at Christ Lutheran Church (Baltimore, MD). Her interviews and performances can be heard on such radio programs as Radio Russia, NPR’s Pipedreams, WWFM's With Heart and Voice, Radio VM's Récit au grand orgue, Québec, and Radio Présence Toulouse, France.

Based in Stuttgart, Germany, Katelyn is pursuing a Master's Degree in Organ with Ludger Lohmann at the Musikhochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, having been awarded a German Academic Exchange Scholarship (DAAD). Recipient of the prestigious J. William Fulbright Study/Research Grant, Katelyn studied organ en perfectionnement at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Toulouse, France for the 2015-2016 academic year with Michel Bouvard, Jan Willem Jansen, and Yasuko Uyama-Bouvard. In May 2015, she graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory (Oberlin, OH) with double bachelor's degrees in organ performance and French as well as with minors in music history and historical performance (fortepiano). 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 James David Christie, Olivier Latry, Hans-Ola Ericsson, 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.
Katelyn was Associate Organist & Choirmaster at the Church of the Advent (Boston, Massachusetts) from 2016-2018, where she worked with the historic Aeolian-Skinner organ, the professional Choir of the Church of the Advent, and the volunteer Parish Choir. 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 also substituted for Mr. Tóth for the months of July 2012-2015. Katelyn has been on the faculty of the McGill Student Organ Academy (Montréal, Canada), numerous AGO-sponsored Pipe Organ Encounters throughout the United States, and the Oberlin Summer Organ Academy (Ohio). She regularly presents masterclasses on organ interpretation and sacred music for AGO-sponsored events and was

invited to present workshops on recently published organ music for church services in the 2013 Regional Convention of the AGO (Hartford, Connecticut) Regions I & II, and the 2015 Northeastern Regional Convention of the AGO (New Haven, Connecticut). She is associate editor of the online editorial journal Vox Humana (voxhumanajournal.com) and has served on the Executive Committee of the Boston Chapter of the AGO. She continues to serve the Guild as an officer of the Northeast Division of the AGO Young Organists, and is also a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians, the American Musicological Society, and the Organ Historical Society.

Tracklist:

01. Finale, Op. 78
02. Organ Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 65: III. Allegretto
03. Organ Sonata No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 132: I. Praeludium
04. Organ Sonata No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 132: II. Intermezzo
05. Organ Sonata No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 132: III. Scherzoso
06. Organ Sonata No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 132: IV. Passacaglia
07. Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BuxWV 223
08. Meditation
09. Premier livre d'orgue contenant une messe et les hymnes des principales festes de l'année :Veni Creator Spiritus:: No. 1, A Solis
10. Premier livre d'orgue contenant une messe et les hymnes des principales festes de l'année :Veni Creator Spiritus:: No. 2, Fugue à
11. Premier livre d'orgue contenant une messe et les hymnes des principales festes de l'année :Veni Creator Spiritus:: No. 3, Trio
12. Premier livre d'orgue contenant une messe et les hymnes des principales festes de l'année :Veni Creator Spiritus:: No. 4, Point d'
13. Sonate en trio
14. Prélude et fugue sur le nom d'Alain, Op. 7