1. October 2014
A Letter from the Dean
!
Greetings!
!
Our opening hymn festival 'Lord Send Out Your
Spirit' was an afternoon of joyful song led by
director/organist Michael Burkhardt, the amazing
massed choirs,instrumentalists and the beautiful
grand organ of Pease Auditorium. This collaborative
event celebrated both the 100th anniversary of Pease
and also marks our 45th year as a Chapter... And
adding the celeste, congratulations to our founding
Dean, Michele Johns upon her retirement Our
Chapter is strong and true.
!
I'd like to briefly address with you, dear members,
the concept of 'gigs' and 'chops'.
!
It's a tough world out there for organists. Changing
musical styles, changing liturgical paradigms, poor or
broken instruments, etc can really drag us down.
Why? We are called to be artists in service to our art
and craft and also we are either called to music
ministry and/or solo performance. We need to make
music, we're wired for it.
Finding inner discipline to practice and building in a
reason to practice can add meaning to our lives, and
of course, we all know what organ music can mean
to us and others.
!
So, here are some basic ideas on 'chops and gigs,’
some drawn from my own experience:
!
• Often your church 'guilds' or clubs can be a great
source of support, attendance and monies to back
a concert.
• Your children's groups, youth, and young adults
and young families are all great sources of
resources as well as audience. Working with your
various youth/young adult leaders, you may be
surprised. Young people love the instrument but
they need to be approached.
• After church on a special Sunday, try a 'pass the
hat concert' featuring a 'tea' or dessert after, with
Choir or guild sponsorship.
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Timothy Huth addressing the audience at the opening hymn
festival at Pease Auditorium in Ypsilanti.

2. • Use your 'Music Sunday' for extra musics, have
an open loft or mini recital.
• Try more lengthy extended preludes for major
Services,these can be interwoven with
congregational song to get people there early.
• Deliberately practice new/difficult preludes and
postludes (someone somewhere is listening).
• You can use liturgical seasons or 'themes' to
highlight special works,composers or styles like
chant.
• Start a concert series (start modest, but worship
committees often welcome a challenge).
• Try a hymn festival/or combo festival (eg:I work
with a band every week, we're composing some
concert stuff integrating our pipe organ with
band).
• Make calls, look for concert series to play on if
you feel called to public playing.
• Weaving in different instruments with the organ,
and even dance can enhance the range of
people's experience of organ music.
• Gig with a friend or two, maybe a theme recital,
like 'Organists of Dearborn', or 'Two wild and
crazy Organists', or as the ypsipipes.org ‘Organ
Spooktacular'.
• As I learned early on, 'networking is everything'.
!
I'm sure you can think up other things, the trick is to
not only keep your chops up through gigs (even if it's
the prelude on 'low Sunday'), but to remember that it
is our bounden duty as organists to share this
wonderful and magical instrument with others, our
audience.
!
All best to you.
!
Pax et summum bonum
Timothy Huth
Dean, AGO Ann Arbor
!!
A Letter from Subdean Sipkje Pesnichak
!
Another wonderful season of concerts, workshops
and presentations has begun and what a superb start
it has been. November will have a handbell workshop
lead by our very own Dave Hunsche. December will
feature Dr. Michael Burkhardt, Dr. James Kibbie and
Dr. Kola Olowabi, our local and world-famous organ
faculty members on our annual Organist's Christmas
concert, co-sponsored by the First United Methodist
Church in Ann Arbor. In January we celebrate 45
years as a chapter at an Epiphany Gala with the
Detroit AGO Chapter and Marijim Thoene will present
about wild beasts who played the organ in ancient
manuscripts. Wayne Leupold, well-known music
publisher will be in Ann Arbor for a variety of
presentations in February and we will kick off another
season of Lenten Recitals at First Congregational
Church in Ann Arbor. We will also be co-sponsoring a
concert by Vincent Dubois as part of the Ypsilanti
Pipe Organ Festival at First Presbyterian Church in
Ypsilanti. A very special event is being finalized in
conjunction with the Michigan Theater for May which
will bring us together for an amazing evening. Each of
these events takes hours of planning by our board
and hours of preparation by our own members.
!
As we plan such events we take into consider a
variety of factors, for example the many resources we
have available here in our area. We are extremely
fortunate to have numerous outstanding universities,
organists and scholars in southeastern Michigan. We
think about what we can do for you, our membership,
to enliven, enrich and encourage you as musicians. It
is my sincere hope that you all will take full
advantage of these many offerings. If you usually
attend just one event a season, try getting to two this
season. If you attend as many events as you can, try
to bring one new person (or more!) with you to the
event. There are some wonderful things taking place
this season, we hope you will be part of it all!
!
Sipkje Pesnichak, Subdean
!
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3. POEA Report
Pipe Organ Encounters Advanced,
Ann Arbor, Michigan 2014
!
The 2014 POEA in Ann Arbor, Michigan was a
testament to POEAs as an energizing endeavor with
a multi-purpose acronym: Practice Only Excellence
Always, and Peers Offer Encouragement in
Abundance.
!
Inspiration Abounds
The eighteen students from across the country who
gathered in Ann Arbor listed their personal highlights:
• The social aspect of being with organ peers
• Open console time after recitals, including
spontaneous hymn sings
• Detroit Day
• The Improvisation Fest, with its diversity of
culture, language, and style, and emphasis
on participation (Wilhelm, First
Congregational, Ann Arbor)
• Stephen Warner’s film accompaniment to
“Our Hospitality” at the Senate Theater,
Detroit
• Being interviewed by Dr. Dave Wagner live on
WRCJ, Detroit Classical Radio about “Why I
love the organ”
• The mighty E. M. Skinner at Jefferson
Avenue Presbyterian, Detroit
• The beautiful Casavant at Blessed
Sacrament Cathedral, Detroit
• Playing the University of Michigan carillon
• Kind chaperones
• Strong organization
• Air-conditioned dorms.
The faculty and planning team added their
reflections:
• Being around young, motivated students
inspired all of us!
• We were impressed with the participants’
maturity and passion.
• Everyone performed to the best of his/her
abilities.
• The students were exposed to diverse
instruments, repertoire, services, and
improvisation.
• Offering the POEA was a tremendous
amount of work and planning, but the event
itself brought us together as a chapter, and
showed us what we can do when we
collaborate.
!
Ideas Flow
Our suggestions for future POEs:
• Every student wished the POEA lasted longer
—a full week or even 10 days.
• Plan daily services in diverse styles, and have
the students participate each day by singing
in liturgical choirs and playing hymns,
Psalms, and liturgy for the services. Prepare
them optimally for future employment in
sacred music.
• The more hands-on time, the better; offer
open console time whenever possible;
maximize practice time.
• Students requested more masterclasses and
fewer lessons, as they wished to have
experience working with multiple teachers.
• To avoid having two or more students arriving
with the same piece to perform, ask each
student to arrive with two or more prepared
pieces. In addition, assign each student one
brief piece that they learn from scratch
during the POEA to give the opportunity to
discuss how to practice and plan your
progress most effectively and efficiently.
• Maximize local publicity to build support for
the organ.
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POEA students checking out the organ at Blessed
Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit

4. It Truly Takes A Village
Kudos to the Planning Team: Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra,
Joshua Boyd, Gale Kramer, Kipp Cortez, Matthew
Dempsey, Mary Zelinski, Andrew Meagher, James
Wagner, Colin Knapp, Sherri Brown, Marcia Van
Oyen, and Timothy Huth.
!
Cheers to the Faculty and Artists: Joseph Balistreri,
Gale Kramer, Michael Burkhardt, Michele Johns,
Joanne Vollendorf Clark, James Kibbie, Michele
Johns, Deborah Friauff, Stephen Warner, David
Wagner, Huw Lewis, Jonathan Moyer, Pamela Ruiter-
Feenstra, Naki Sung Kripfgans, Timothy Huth, and
James Wagner.
!
Thanks to our Chaperones and Hosts: Sarah Albright,
Linda Aldrich, Phillip Burgess, Meghan Meloy,
Cornelia Landes, Ted Emch, Tom Kean, Betsy Hill,
Thomas Granum, Dana Hull, MaryAnn Balduff, David
Hunsche, and Darlene Kuperus.
!
Hats off to the Organ Technicians: Jerry Adams,
David Hufford, Elgin Clingaman, Helmut Schick,
Stephen Warner, and the Holden Pipe Organ
Company.
!
Heartfelt gratitude to our Gracious Donors: AGO
National Headquarters, the San Francisco AGO,
APOBA, CHI Press, Wilnella Bush, M. Janice Jacobi,
Alan Knight, Steve Feenstra and Pamela Ruiter-
Feenstra, Robert U. Smith, and Marcia Van Oyen.
!
Congratulations to the POEA 2014 Participants:
David Boeckh, Meg Cutting, Clayton Farmer, Clara
Gerdes, Michelle Good, Joseph Huang, Maks
Jurasek, Noah Klein, Dominic Kryst, Alexandra Lang,
Michael LeGrand, Christopher Lindsay, Katherine
Matthews, Jared Post, Kyle Walker, Emily Wheeler,
Madeleine Woodworth, and Alden Wright.
!
A Closing Blessing
Blessed are you who gave your time
To plan this POEA,
To organize and to design,
With meetings day after day. !
Blessed are you who raised the funds
All donors who gave with bliss,
Planting seeds of musical love
For bright high school organists. !
Blessed are you who mentored youth
Encouraging, listening….
You nurtured these most precious seeds
And helped the organ to sing. !
Blessed are you who chaperoned
And planned the journeys with care.
You kept them safe and showed them sites
They treasured from here to there. !
Blessed are you who lent a hand,
And said a supportive word,
Inspiring by your actions just
As much as the playing heard. !
Blessed are you, who, together,
Showed spirit of unity.
We organists are strongest when
We work in community. !!
With deepest gratitude for your blessings, please
consider yourselves most richly blessed!
!
Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra
Co-Director, POEA 2014, Ann Arbor, Michigan
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POEA Students at Hill Auditorium

5. Let Them Ring!
Handbells in Worship
Saturday, November 8
9:45 a.m. - 12 p.m.
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Ann Arbor
This workshop will begin with basic ringing technique
and then focus on how to incorporate handbells in
the worship service--from the very basic “random
ringing” to accompany a hymn through written hymn
and anthem accompaniments, and on to handbell
ensemble pieces. Examples of these pieces will be
demonstrated. Information about where to find
handbell music, how to evaluate pieces (e.g.,
difficulty, people/equipment needed), how to read the
markings that are unique to handbell music will also
be covered. No prior experience is required.
The workshop will be held in the chapel at St.
Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 306 N. Division St., Ann
Arbor. To reach the chapel please walk through the
parking lot behind the church (entrance on Catherine
St.) and through the memorial garden to the office
entrance. We will gather in the lobby at 9:45 for
“caffeine and carbs” and then move into the chapel
at 10:00 to begin our workshop. If you think that you
will be attending please send a quick note to Dave
Hunsche (dhunsche@gmail.com) no later than
Wednesday morning, Nov. 5, so that we can insure
that there are sufficient goodies and handouts on
hand. (If you miss the deadline, don’t despair; we
won’t turn anyone away.)
!
An Organist’s Christmas
Friday, December 5
7:30 p.m.
First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor
!
An Ann Arbor musical tradition, Organist’s Christmas
returns once again to First United Methodist Church.
This year’s performers feature some of our very fine
local organ faculty members. Dr. Michael Burkhardt
from Eastern Michigan University, Dr. James Kibbie
and Dr. Kola Owolabi from the University of Michigan
will present a top notch evening of organ music to
put everyone in the holiday spirit.
!
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Students at Bethlehem United Church of Christ before
the student performance Students being interview on-air at WRCJ in Detroit
Upcoming A2AGO Events

6. Did you know we spend $2,500 per year for 832 radio spots that are 30 second each on
WRCJ? That comes out to $3 per ad. Or $48 per week, $192 per month. If we had a 30 second
spot with another area classical station it would cost $43 per 30 second radio ad. For almost
the same price as one, 30 second ad we get 16 ads per week through WRCJ and have the
opportunity to help keep classical radio and programs like PipeDreams alive and well in our
area. By the end of the month you will be receiving a letter asking for support for our WRCJ
pledge. Consider sponsoring one week's worth of ads. Or may you'd like to sponsor an entire
month. Maybe all you can do is help with three ads. But any amount helps! We hope you will
give as you are able to help this collaboration we are so pleased to have with WRCJ.
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Announcements
WRCJ - $3 can go a long way
!
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A Pipe Organ
SPOOKTACULAR!
featuring
Students from the University of Michigan
Sunday, October 26 at 4 pm
First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti
300 N. Washington St., Ypsilanti
FREE!
!
Calling all ghouls, goblins, and ghosts!
Throw on your Halloween best and join us for
an afternoon of spooky and fun organ music.
Students from the University of Michigan will
present a frighteningly delightful program of
organ music, including Bach's Toccata and
Fugue in D minor and Boëllmann’s Suite
Gothique, to coincide with the year's
spookiest week.

7. Steven Ball to perform at
THE 2014 INTERNATIONAL VISUAL LITERACY CONFERENCE
Film: Buster Keaton’s “The Camerman” with live music performed by Dr. Steven Ball on the 1926
E.M. Skinner pipe organ.
Nov. 6 at 7 p.m., Peristyle Theater, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH.
Organist Steven Ball will perform his own musical score to the 1928 silent film “The Cameraman",
which stars Buster Keaton.
Dr. Ball is the Director of Outreach and Organist at Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, NJ, presiding over
the world's largest pipe organ.
!
Conference: http://www.vislit.org/welcome/
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Sunday, Oct. 19, 4:00 pm, Plymouth First United Methodist Church
Lonnie Reed, tenor, in recital
The program will include works by Handel, Schumann, and spirituals. Mr. Reed wowed the audience
this past spring with his beautiful tone and soulful performance as soloist for the NOTEworthy
Festival of Hymns. He is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance at the University of
Michigan. Prior to the concert and at the intermission, students from the Music@First Fine Arts
Academy, which is part of the music ministry at First United Methodist Church, will perform.
Admission is free; a free-will offering will be received to benefit the Music@First scholarship fund and
the CROP Walk, which funds efforts to end world hunger. A reception will follow the recital.
!
Sunday, Nov. 23, 4:00 pm, Plymouth First United Methodist Church
Thanksgiving Choir Festival
A musical celebration of Thanksgiving, with a 100-voice community choir singing anthems
accompanied by handbells, brass quintet, organ and piano, as well as audience sing-along of
familiar Thanksgiving hymns. Admission is free; a free-will offering will be received to benefit the
Salvation Army.

8. Dr. Timothy Huth, Organ
With Rebekka Dicks, Flute
A program of works based on chant to commemorate the
Feast of All Souls Day
Sunday, Nov. 2, 3 p.m.
Free-will offering • Public welcome
610 W. Elm Ave.
Monroe, Mich.
Timothy Huth grew up in Fostoria, Ohio, and began his musical career early on
at St. Wendelin's Catholic Church and Schools. He earned his bachelor’s degree
in philosophy from St. Meinrad College Seminary and holds a master’s and
doctorate degree in organ performance from the University of Michigan. He
is currently the organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Dearborn and is the
dean of the Ann Arbor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
! !
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9. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ye Mee Kim
Organ Recital
Monday, October 27th • 8 PM
Hill Auditorium • Ann Arbor
Works by Buxtehude, Mendelssohn, Bach,
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Duruflé, Vierne, and Morrison