Monthly programs for 2024 – 2025

Here is the lineup of AGO meetings for this season, 2024-2025. Our meetings take place at various venues throughout the area and are typically the third Monday evening of the month although there are exceptions.

Monday, September 23, 2024

Dinner –  6:00 p.m.
Service – 7:00 p.m.

Service of Installation with Grand Rapids and Muskegon /Lakeshore Chapters

First Congregational Church, UCC
1201 Jefferson Street
Muskegon, MI 49441

Monday, October 21, 2024, 7:00 p.m.

James Kibbie Organ Recital

Mayflower Congregational Church
2345 Robinson Rd. SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506

Mondays at Mayflower in conjunction with the Grand Rapids Chapter of the American Guild of Organists presents James Kibbie, Professor Emeritus of Music, University of Michigan, in concert.

James Kibbie maintains a full schedule of concert, recording, and festival engagements throughout North America and Europe, including appearances at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, Royal Festival Hall in London, Dvořak Hall in Prague, and Lincoln Center in New York. During his month-long concert tour of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newspaper Pravda hailed him as “a marvelous organist, a brilliant interpreter.” A frequent jury member of international organ competitions, he has himself been awarded the Grand Prix d’Interprétation at the prestigious International Organ Competition of Chartres, France, and is also the only American to have won the International Organ Competition of the Prague Spring Festival in the former Czechoslovakia.

James Kibbie’s performances have been broadcast on radio and television in the USA, Canada and Europe. His extensive discography includes “Merrily on Hill,” performed on the famed Skinner organ in Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, works of Dieterich Buxtehude recorded on the historic 1687 Schnitger organ of Norden, Germany, and discs of music by Bach, Franck, Alain, Tournemire, Sowande, Buck, Morrison, and contemporary Czech composers. Dr. Kibbie’s “audio holiday cards,” recorded on the Létourneau organ in his residence and issued as free internet downloads, are a popular annual tradition.

James Kibbie is internationally renowned as an authority on the organ music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He has performed the complete cycle of Bach organ works in a series of eighteen recitals and is in constant demand as a Bach recitalist and clinician.  His recordings of the complete Bach works on historic baroque organs in Germany have been welcomed with enthusiastic critical and audience acclaim. Thanks to generous support from Dr. Barbara Furin Sloat in honor of J. Barry Sloat, the University of Michigan is offering Dr. Kibbie’s recordings of all 274 Bach works as free internet downloads at www.blockmrecords.org/bach.

James Kibbie is Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, where his 42-year tenure included service as University Organist and Chair of the Organ Department. His former students hold key positions in college teaching and church music nationally. Among the honors he has received, he is particularly proud of the James Kibbie Scholarship, endowed in perpetuity by the University of Michigan to support students majoring in organ performance and sacred music.

Monday, November 4, 2024,  7:00 p.m.

Annamae Rotman Young Organists Competition

First (Park) Congregational Church
10 East Park Place NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

The Annamae Rotman Young Organist Competition was founded in 2013 by Dr. Richard Rotman in honor of his mother and is an annual competition.  We thank him for his generous support of young organists.

Eligibility – A competitor must be 24 years of age or under as of August 1 of the competition year and be a resident of Kent County, MI or any county adjacent to Kent County and/or a resident student attending a junior high school, senior high school, college, or university in Kent County or any county adjacent to Kent County (Ottawa, Muskegon, Newaygo, Montcalm, Ionia, Barry, or Allegan Counties)
For more details, see our Competitions page: Competitions

Pictured are the judges and winners in 2024 competition held in April of 2024:  Back row: Olivia Amting, Seth TenElshof, Sam Grosskreuz, Sam Shuler. Front row: Dr. Richard Rotman, Alexis VanZalen, Matthew Jakubisin, Rhonda Sider Edgington.

Sunday, December 31, 2024, 7:30 p.m.

New Year’s Eve Concert

Central Reformed Church
10 College Avenue N.E.
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

It has been a long-standing tradition for Central Reformed Church to present a New Year’s Eve recital. For many of those years, GRAGO has cosponsored the event. This year’s artist is Christopher Houlihan.

The organist Christopher Houlihan has established an international reputation as a “passionate and intelligently virtuoso musician” (Gramophone), hailed for his “glowing, miraculously life-affirming performances” (Los Angeles Times).  

Houlihan has performed at Disney Concert Hall with the principal brass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, presented by the Philadelphia Orchestra; and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., presented by the National Symphony Orchestra. The Los Angeles Times raved about his Disney Hall debut, proclaiming, “Houlihan is the next big organ talent.”

Highlights of Mr. Houlihan’s 2019-20 season included performances of Joseph Jongen’s monumental Symphonie Concertante with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra (opening concert of the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival) and the St. Ann’s Festival Orchestra in Washington D.C.; solo recitals in St. Louis, Seattle, New York City, Eureka (CA), Rohnert Park (CA), and Birmingham (AL); and chamber performances as part of the Screendoor Summer Music Festival in Camden, Maine.

Houlihan’s performances with orchestras in past seasons include Barber’s Toccata Festiva with the Hartford Symphony (Edward Cumming, conductor), Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 and Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with the Columbus (GA) Symphony (George Del Gobbo, conductor), and the Organ Concerto by Robert Edward Smith with the Boston Chamber Orchestra (David Feltner, conductor). 

Christopher Houlihan has appeared in recital at celebrated venues across North America and Europe including the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, Glasgow Cathedral in Scotland and San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral and Davies Symphony Hall, as well as at numerous conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. In 2017 he was featured performer at the closing concert of the AGO Southeast Regional Convention at Jacoby Symphony Hall in Jacksonville, where he presented the world premiere of Hannah Lash’s Ludus (written specifically for Houlihan).  In 2014, Houlihan performed in a prime-time slot of WQXR’s All-Day Bach Organ Marathon in New York City which was webcast live and seen by thousands. Houlihan’s “Vierne 2012” tour attracted international attention and critical acclaim for his marathon performances of the six organ symphonies of Louis Vierne in six major North American cities. The Los Angeles Times called his performance there “a major surprise of the summer, a true revelation.”

Building on the excitement and acclaim of “Vierne2012”, in Christopher Houlihan’s next recording on the Azica label features music by Vierne and César Franck. Recorded on the Church of the Ascension’s Pascal Quoirin Organ, the album includes Vierne’s Symphony No. 6 in B Major and Franck’s Grande Pièce Symphonique. In 2017, Houlihan released Christopher Houlihan plays Bach (Azica). Recorded at Trinity College, the CD was praised as “playful, celebratory and sparkling with color” (The Whole Note), and American Record Guide stated, “there’s no denying Houlihan’s extraordinary achievement.” Houlihan’s other recordings include music by Maurice Duruflé and Jehan Alain, and Organ Symphony No. 2 by Louis Vierne, both on Towerhill Records.

In 2017 Christopher Houlihan was appointed to the John Rose College Organist-and-Directorship Distinguished Chair of Chapel Music at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. succeeding his former teacher, John Rose. He was previously artist-in-residence at Trinity College, as well as Director of Music and Organist at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan.

In addition to his studies at Trinity College, Houlihan studied with the Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs at The Juilliard School, where he earned a master’s degree, and with Jean-Baptiste Robin at the French National Regional Conservatory in Versailles. In 2015 he was selected for The Diapason’s “20 Under 30”, a distinguished list of leaders in the organ world.

Christopher Houlihan is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists.

Sunday, January 19, 2025, 3:00 p.m. 

Member Recital

Calvin Christian Reformed Church
700 Ethel St. SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506

The Grand Rapids Chapter presents a Members’ Recital for the season at Calvin Christian Reformed Church. Performers and program to be announced.

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 4:00 p.m
Friday, February 7, 2025, 3:45 p.m.

Calvin Symposium on Worship

Calvin University
3201 Burton Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546

Sunday, March 9, 2025, 4:00 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church
508 Franklin Street
Grand Haven, MI 49417

Young Artist Recital: Sarah Simko

Dr. Sarah Simko is the Associate Organist and Communications Coordinator at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, in Detroit Michigan. She is the Adjunct Faculty Instructor of Organ at Madonna University. A recent graduate of the University of Michigan, Dr. Simko completed her studies with Dr. James Kibbie and Dr. Kola Owolabi. She received her Bachelors degree from the Eastman School of Music, with Professors Nathan Laube, Edoardo Bellotti, William Porter and Hans Davidsson.

Dr. Simko is the recipient of a Graduate Award from the Presser Foundation, to be used to create a comprehensive set of recordings of organ music by living American female composers. The goal of this project is to expand the accessibility of a rich, and overlooked body of repertoire. More information, including purchasing information for this series of three CDs, can be found under the “Living Voices” tab on this website.

During her time at the University of Michigan, Dr. Simko served as a Research Assistant for a team headed by Dr. Kibbie and Dr. Daniel Forger from the Department of Mathematics. This collaborative project focused on how the brain processes music, through detailed study of the Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Sonatas (BWV 525-530). Recorded rehearsals and performances of the Sonatas were processed using big data analysis techniques. In conjunction with this work, Dr. Simko has given coaching sessions on these Sonatas. This project concluded in Summer, 2019.

Dr. Simko has given recitals at such notable venues as Methuen Memorial Music Hall, Methuen, Massachusetts; St. Paul’s Cathedral (Anglican), London, Ontario, Canada; Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church, Detroit; the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Episcopal), Detroit; Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor; among others.

Friday, May 16, 2025, 7:00 p.m.

LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church
107 LaGrave Avenue, SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
 

Caroline Robinson Organ Recital

Organist and church musician Dr. Caroline Robinson has been featured as a solo recitalist across the United States, in venues including New York City churches St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, St. John the Divine, Trinity Church Wall Street, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral; in Boston: Church of the Advent, Harvard Memorial Church, Cambridge, Methuen Memorial Music Hall; St. James in the City, Los Angeles; and Kansas City’s the Kauffman Center.  She has also performed in England, France, and Germany.  Her playing has been broadcast multiple times on American Public Media’s “Pipedreams,” “Pipedreams LIVE!,” and Philadelphia-based public radio station 90.1 WRTI’s Wanamaker Organ Hour.  She has been a featured performer at conventions of the Organ Historical Society, the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival, and the American Guild of Organists, for which she performed on the closing concert at the 2022 National AGO Convention in Seattle, collaborating with Seattle Pro Musica on choral and organ works including James MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados.

Dr. Robinson is a laureate of the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP), held as part of the 2018 AGO Convention in Kansas City.  She holds First Prize from the 11^th annual Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival (2008) and from the 10^th annual West Chester University Organ Competition (2010).  She was a semifinalist in the 2014 Dublin International Organ Competition.  In 2016, she was chosen as one of the Diapason’s “20 Under 30” promising young organists in the United States.

Caroline Robinson is Assistant Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan.  Previously she served as Organist and Associate Choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta.  There, under the direction of Canon Dale Adelmann, she shared organ playing and accompanying responsibilities and led the cathedral’s RSCM-based Chorister program.  She is an active continuo player with early music ensembles, having performed at the Rochester Early Music Festival, San Francisco’s American Bach Soloists Academy, and now regularly with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. 

Dr. Robinson completed her undergraduate work at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Alan Morrison.  Aided by a grant from the J. William Fulbright fellowship fund, Caroline studied at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen (organ) and Yasuko Bouvard (harpsichord).  Caroline holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and the Master of Music in Organ Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with David Higgs.  Dr. Robinson also received from Eastman the Performer’s Certificate and the Advanced Teaching Certificate in Theory Pedagogy.

Dr. Robinson is represented in North America by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.