Organ

To develop liturgical experience, each organist accepted to the program may be placed as a paid organ scholar in a Philadelphia-area church. Churches currently collaborating with Curtis in this program include:

• “Michael Stairs Organ Scholar” at Church of the Redeemer, Bryn Mawr
• Saint Mark’s Church, Philadelphia
• St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill
• St. Thomas’ Church, Whitemarsh

Students in the program enjoy multiple opportunities to perform on campus in student and studio recitals as well as annual recital opportunities outside of Curtis. The organ program currently partners with the Princeton University Chapel, the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Michael, the Wanamaker Organ at Macy’s Center City (Philadelphia), noontime series from the American Guild of Organists, St. Paul’s Chapel at Trinity Church Wall Street (New York), Central Synagogue (New York), and many other local churches for organ performance series.

Every other year, students in the program accompany Mr. Morrison on an all-expense-paid study tour in France to gain experience with instruments outside of their immediate vicinity. In recent years, the tour has brought Curtis organists to Paris (Notre-Dame, Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais, Sainte-Clotilde, Sainte-Trinité, La Madeleine, Saint-Étienne-du-Mont) and Toulouse (Saint-Sernin and Notre-Dame du Taur). Alternating tours of Germany and northern European countries are also planned in future years.

Curtis welcomes master teachers and performers from around the world five times per year. Recent visitors include Ken Cowan (Rice University), David Higgs (Eastman School of Music), Nicole Keller (Baldwin Wallace University), Olivier Jean-Claude Latry (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris and Conservatoire de Paris), Joan Lippincott, James O’Donnell (Westminster Abbey), Cherry Rhodes (University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music), Dame Gillian Weir, and Todd Wilson (Cleveland Institute of Music). 2021–22 master classes include visiting artists Nicole Keller, Paul Jacobs (The Juilliard School), Kola Owalabi (University of Notre Dame), and Daryl Robinson (University of Houston).

Curtis organists are required to collaborate with fellow students in a variety of chamber music repertoire.

Curtis loans a limited number of in-home practice instruments to students in the program.

Organists and pianists at Curtis have the opportunity to earn a harpsichord certificate studying with Leon Schelhase.

Organ students at Curtis receive a minimum of two full years of improvisation training.

On a regular basis, Curtis organists obtain practical experience practicing on instruments of historic importance in the Philadelphia area, including instruments at Girard College, Longwood Gardens, Macy’s Center City (Wanamaker Organ), and Christ Church Philadelphia. Other venues available for practice feature organs by Fisk and Dobson, and three exceptional historic Moeller organs.

Students at Curtis have access to several organs on campus including the organ in Field Concert Hall which is an Aeolian-Skinner with 5 manuals and 116 ranks. More specifications and photographs here.