Program for April 28, 2017

This week’s program will be performed by Dr. Phillip Kloeckner. His program will be:

Batalla Imperial, No. 1 – Juan Cabanilles (1644-1712)
Blues – Michael Thorn (b. 1950)

Symphonie II, Op. 20 (1903) – Louis Vierne – (1870-1937)

Variations and Fugue on Heil dir im Siegerkranz, WoO 4, No. 7 – Max Reger (1873-1916)

Since 2012, Phillip Kloeckner has served on the music faculty at the University of Chicago and is the founding director of the Rockefeller Chapel Organ Studio. He held a similar position for ten years in Houston at Rice University in the Shepherd School of Music and was an integral part of the creation of the landmark Fisk-Rosales organ at the school. His recent recording of that organ, Exotic Variations, is available from Raven Recordings (ravencds.com). His textbook, Functional Hearing: A Contextual Method for Ear Training, written with Arthur Gottschalk in 1997, is now being revised for the publication of a second edition.

Dr. Kloeckner’s solo and collaborative performances as organist, harpsichordist, and conductor continue to be critically praised and appreciated by live and broadcast audiences in many of the most prominent venues in the USA, Europe, and Latin America. His mission is to bring positive, transformative, and inspiring energy to his audiences through the beauty and thoughtfulness of his interpretations of both standard and less-recognized literature, and through instinctive and intuitive improvisations. His most gratifying musical experiences continue to result from being part of uniting people through experiencing and sharing music. His interest and research in the realm of nineteenth-century organs lead him to the first comprehensive study of these instruments in Perú. An article describing the highlights of this work appears in the December 2009 issue of The American Organist. From 2003 through 2012 he was the artistic director of the 100-voice United Nations Association International Choir, establishing the ensemble during as an important part of Houston’s cultural fabric by collaborating with a refreshing array of soloists and ensembles that represent the great indigenous musical traditions of the world.

An adjudicator in organ competitions and a sought-after leader of workshops and retreats on subjects ranging from organs, organ playing, and organ literature to a wide variety of topics in church music and liturgies, Phillip Kloeckner served for almost twenty years on the Music Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas and has recently completed two years of service on the board of the Chicago Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He holds degrees from Swarthmore College, the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and from the Shepherd School of Music. His mentors at the organ have been John Russell, Brian Webb, Robert Smart, Haskell Thomson, and Clyde Holloway. Details of his professional activities may be found at www.phillipkloeckner.net.