|
Cathedral Welcomes Organ Scholar 2008 |
|
 Riyehee Hong, Director of Music and the Arts at Philadelphia Cathedral, is pleased to announce the appointment of Karen Electra Christianson as the 2008 Organ Scholar at Philadelphia Cathedral. As Organ Scholar, Karen will assist the Director of Music in providing music in the Cathedral for both liturgical and concert settings, serve as accompanist for the Cathedral Singers at major concerts and festivals and perform an organ recital as part of the Summer Noontime Organ Concert Series.
Karen, who is 12 years old and a seventh grade student at The Episcopal
Academy in Merion, PA, started studying piano at age 5 and organ at age
7. She made her organ performance debut on Christmas Eve 2002 at
historic Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She currently
studies organ with Alan Morrison and music theory and composition with
Matthew Glandorf, both on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music
in Philadelphia. Karen has performed in recital and worship services at
numerous venues in the US and Europe, including the Kimmel Center in
Philadelphia, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and King's College
Chapel at the University of Cambridge, England. Karen also has a
growing reputation as a young composer. Her choral composition "Psalm
of Thanksgiving", scored for soprano and alto voices, was one of
seventeen original compositions selected nationwide from
elementary-through-university level submissions for performance at the
2006 national meeting of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC)
in Salt Lake City, Utah. This piece was also featured at the 2007
Eastern US Division meeting of the MENC in Hartford, Connecticut, at a
young composers symposium chaired by internationally acclaimed composer
William Bolcolm of the University of Michigan. Her most recent choral
composition, "Echoes", had its premiere in March 2007 at the West Road
Concert Hall of the University of Cambridge, England. This work is a
dialogue between a full choir, which sings selected text from the
Psalms, and a soprano soloist who sings selected text from the Diary of
a Young Girl by Anne Frank. "Echoes" won first place honors in the 2007
Young Composer of the Year competition administered by the Cambridge
Youth Music Charitable Trust. Ms. Christianson also received the Gordon
Jacob Composition Prize from King's College School, Cambridge, in 2007.
Recently, "Echoes" was one of twenty-two original compositions selected
nationwide for performance at the 2008 national MENC meeting in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
|
