
James David Christie will perform music of Buxtehude on the 1977 Bedient Organ at Cornerstone Chapel for the Region VI Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Lincoln, Nebraska in June, 2007.
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James David Christie was the first American
to win the prestigious International Organ Competition in Bruges, Belgium, and the first person in the history
of the competition to win both the first prize and the "Prize of the Audience". Mr. Christie received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied organ with David Boe and harpsichord with Doris Ornstein. After his junior year at Oberlin, he studied under a private grant with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris. He received the Master of Music degree and the coveted Artist's Diploma from the New England Conservatory. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and has soloed frequently with orchestras including performances with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Baltimore Symphony, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Springfield Symphony and others. He was featured at the 1990 AGO national convention in Boston in a performance with the Boston Pops, and was a featured artist at AGO national conventions in Seattle (2000) and Philadelphia (2002). James David Christie has served on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory, Wellesley College, and currently teaches at Holy Cross (Worcester) where he is Distinguished Artist in Residence and College Organist. In 2002 he was appointed Professor of Music at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Ohio and will divide his work between his positions in the East and Midwest. He has served on the juries of numerous major international organ performance competitions in Europe, most recently that of the Grand Prix de Chartres in France in 2006. |
| "The excellent organist James David Christie...[a] notable early-music exponent." (The New York Times) As a featured performer at national convention of the American Guild of Organists, Seattle WA, 2000: "There's a reason James David Christie keeps getting invited to play Baroque music on instruments like this. He does it with both intellectual understanding and visceral flair--and, where appropriate, playfulness. He makes the music live and breathe and dance." (The American Organist, Scott Cantrell) "In this literature Christie has few peers. Beneath his hands and feet Sweelinck, Scheidt, and Scheidemann, music as much as 400 years old, lived and breathed, danced and sang. Subtly buoyant throughout...exquisitely registered." (The American Organist) "One of the outstanding concerts of the entire [AGO] convention week....performance was one of transparent charm and graceful energy perfectly suited to the style of the music...one of those rare evenings when program, instrument, space and performers, all of high quality, came together for real music making." (The Diapason) | |
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