Pipeworks Competition
Jury
David Higgs (USA), Chair
Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin (France)
Jon Laukvik (Norway)
Jacques Van Oortmerssen (Netherlands)
David Titterington (UK)
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David Higgs (USA), Chair David Higgs is one of America's leading concert organists and is the chair of the organ department at the Eastman School of Music. He has inaugurated many important new instruments including St Stephan's Cathedral, Vienna; the Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas; and the Church of St Ignatius Loyola in New York City. His performances with ensembles have included the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chanticleer, the Orpheus Ensemble, and the Empire Brass. |
For twelve consecutive years he played annual Christmas recitals with the San Francisco Symphony to capacity audiences at Davies Symphony Hall.
Mr Higgs appears frequently at major national and international organ festivals and conventions. Recent engagements have included the international organ festivals of Calgary, Naples, Redlands, San Anselmo; and the summer organ academies of the Interlochen School for the Arts and Mt Royal College-Conservatory in Calgary. His performances for professional colleagues include three national and eight regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists, as well as national conventions of the American Pipe Organ Builders Association and the Organ Historical Society. In England he has appeared several times at the Oundle International Festival, the St Albans International Festival and the Cambridge Summer Festival.
His teachers have included Claire Coci, Peter Hurford, Russell Saunders, and Frederick Swann. In New York City, he was Director of Music and Organist at Park Avenue Christian Church, and later Associate Organist of the Riverside Church, where he also conducted the Riverside Choral Society. After moving to San Francisco in 1986, he became Director of Music and Organist at St Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley, and Organist/Choir Director at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco.
Mr Higgs gives frequent lectures and masterclasses at conferences, workshops, and festivals on both sides of the Atlantic, and for colleges, universities, and chapters of the American Guild of Organists. He was appointed to the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in 1992, and since that time his students have won major competitions and hold many of the top positions in the United States.
Recent and upcoming concerts include solo recitals at Grace Cathedral (San Francisco), Washington National Cathedral, Vilnius University in Lithuania, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and a regional convention of the American Guild of Organists in Colorado Springs. Mr Higgs has recorded for Delos International, Pro Organo, and Gothic records.
She was awarded the first prizes in organ, improvisation, harmony, fugue and counterpoint (in the classes of Jean Lemaire, Michel Merlet and Jean-Claude Henry). Her academic success was rewarded in 1980 with a prize from the French Ministry of Culture.
Sophie-Véronique CAUCHEFER-CHOPLIN was named titular of the Grand Orgue of Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle in Paris in 1983. In 1985, she added the position of co-titular of the Grand Orgue of Saint Sulpice Paris with Daniel Roth. In 1990 after an advanced teaching by Loïc Mallié, she became the first woman to win the second prize in improvisation at the Chartres International Organ Improvisation Competition.
Sophie-Véronique has an extensive international career, having given recitals in Europe, Russia, Japan, Singapore, China, Iceland, United States, Canada and Australia. Since 1998, she has given master classes of improvisation (Dallas, Chicago, New-York, Washington, Minneapolis, Tokyo, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, etc. and in many French places) and she has lead organ improvisation course (Biarritz, London). From September 2008, she will be Organ Professor at the Royal College of Music of London. She is regularly invited as a judge in national and international organ competitions (AGO National Convention - Chicago 2006, Biarritz 2007, Angers 2008, Chartres International Competition 2008).
She is considered by her peers to be one of the best improvisers of her generation. Her compact discs of Bach, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Franck, Rheinberger, Messiaen, Grunenwald, Roth along with her recorded improvisations have garnered high praise. Her last recording (Mendelssohn, Bédard) received a “5 diapasons” award in June 2008.
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He is author of a highly successful organ tutor Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing in two volumes, published by Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart. He has also edited the Handel Organ Concerti Op. 7 for Carus-Verlag (together with Werner Jacob). A complete edition of the organ works of Louis Vierne in 13 volumes (edited together with David Sanger) was published by Carus in February 2008. His compositions include works for solo organ, organ with other instruments and vocal and instrumental works.
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He was appointed Professor of Organ at the Amsterdam Conservatory in 1979, at an exceptionally young age, and, in 1982, succeeded Gustav Leonhardt as Organiste-Titulaire of the Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam.
Jacques van Oortmerssen enjoys an international reputation as both soloist and pedagogue, in which context he is regularly invited to teach at universities and conservatories throughout the world. A former visiting Professor of Organ at the universities of Gothenburg and Helsinki, as well as at the Conservatory of Lyon, van Oortmerssen was nominated Guest Professor of Organ (Betts Fellow) at the University of Oxford during the academic year 1993/94. He regularly performs throughout Europe, North and South America, Africa, Japan, and South Korea, and is frequently invited to play at prestigious international festivals such as the BBC Proms, the City of London Festival, and the Prague Spring Festival. As a recording artist, van Oortmerssen has featured on more than 50 CD releases for prominent international labels, as well as broadcasting on both radio and television. He is presently under contract to Challenge Classics, for whom he is recording the complete organ works of J.S. Bach; a project which has generated significant international interest and recognition.
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He made his solo debut at the Royal Festival Hall in 1986 and his BBC Prom debut in 1990. He has performed in recitals and concertos at major festivals throughout the world, including the Bicentennial Festival of Sydney, and the International Festivals of Hong Kong, Israel, New Zealand, Schleswig Holstein, Tokyo, City of London etc. In the BBC Proms 2000, he gave the UK premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s 9th Symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Ingo Metzmacher; in 2004, he played in the 50th anniversary series at the Royal Festival Hall featuring a commissioned work Toccare Incandescent by Stephen Montague.
Titterington has collaborated with many distinguished soloists, orchestras and composers including Hakan Hardenberger, Christian Lindberg, John Wallace, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, La Camerata of Athens, BBc Symphony Orchestra and numerous leading composers have written for him, including Petr Eben (Job 1984), Diana Burrell and Lionel Rogg.
He was organ consultant to Pembroke College, Oxford (1995), the Chapel Royal at HM Tower of London (2000), St Catharine’s College, Cambridge (2002) and is currently organ consultant to both Sidney Sussex College Cambridge and Canterbury Cathedral.
In 1999 he was awarded Fellowship (honoris causa) by the Royal College of Organists, and an Honorary Doctorate and Professorship by the State University of Budapest. Engagements in the season 2007-2008, include performances in London, Moscow, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Italy and Austria, and a jury member for the international organ competitions of St Albans, Basso Friuli, and the Concours Ville de Paris.
In 2007, David was appointed as Artistic Director of the International Organ Festival at St Albans. The International Organ Festival was founded in 1963 by Peter Hurford. Its combination of competitions and music festival is unique. Among winners of the Interpretation Competition are the internationally renowned Gillian (now Dame Gillian) Weir (1964) and Thomas Trotter (1979).
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