We have accepted and are pleased to welcome the following eleven participants from seven countries to the first edition of the Arp Schnitger Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden, August 5-9, 2019 - a multi-day masterclass with Hans Davidsson, a leading expert in the music of the North German Baroque.

This year marks the 300th anniversary of the death of Arp Schnitger (1648–1719), one of the most important organ builders in history. This is commemorated in many parts of the world. Arp Schnitger, who was active in north Germany, built more than 150 organs. He was the first truly internationally active organ builder, combining the highest quality in craft and sound with a larger output of instruments than any earlier organ builder. The unique baroque organ in Örgryte New Church, built in the 1990s as a research project by organ builders from twelve countries and in collaboration between the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology, was conceived in Schnitger’s style, and it will be at the center of the first Arp Schnitger Academy, which will take place 5–9 August. It is an international academy for a limited number of participants, who will study organ playing at the baroque organ in Örgryte New Church under the guidance of Hans Davidsson. In 2019, the focus will be the music of Matthias Weckman (1616–1674) and Georg Böhm (1661–1733).

Some of the masterclasses will be video recorded and broadcast, following the Arp Schnitger Academy, on Orgel-TV for publication on www.organacademy.se, for the benefit of young aspiring organists around the world.

We look forward very much to working with this group August 5-9, 2019 in Göteborg.

Cordially yours,

Hans Davidsson

Artistic Director
The Arp Schnitger Academy
Göteborg International Organ Academy
Göteborg International Organ Festival

Jon Liinason

Strategic Communications

The Arp Schnitger Academy

Göteborg International Organ Academy
Göteborg International Organ Festival

ACCEPTED PARTICIPANTS

Jonathan Bezdegian

EDUCATION

Sept. 2009-March 2018
Doctoral studies in organ and harpsichord at the University of Washington, Seattle. Organ studies with Carole Terry, and harpsichord study with Jillon Dupree. Improvisation studies with Douglas Cleveland. Dissertation: “Louis Vierne and the Evolution of His Modal Consciousness.”
D.M.A. completed.

2007-2009
Graduate studies at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Organ studies with John Grew and Liturgical Improvisation with William Porter. Advanced harpsichord and continuo playing studies with Hank Knox. Masters Degree awarded.

2004-2007
Undergraduate studies in Organ with David Boe at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Studies also in harpsichord and continuo with Webb Wiggins. I also obtained a minor in Music History.

Summer 2005
Additional harpsichord studies in Cambridge, MA with Peter Sykes.

2002-2004
Instruction in Classical and Liturgical organ and piano with Dr. Frank Corbin, former Organist and Director of Chapel Music, Assumption College. Was also an active participant in the Assumption College Chapel and Festive Choirs, and member of the American Guild of Organists. Additional organ studies with Ian Watson, Organist and Director of Music, Cathedral of St. Paul, Worcester MA.

EXPERIENCE
June 2018-Present
Director of Liturgical Music, Christ the King Parish, Worcester, MA. I was recently hired to plan and provide music for 3 weekend liturgies, and to work with and develop the church’s 3 choirs: A Folk Group; Youth Choir; and Festive Choir. I am in charge of maintaining the church’s organ and pianos, all are used regularly for rehearsals, Masses, and special liturgies throughout the year.

September 2017-Present
Director of Litrugical Music, Saint Peter Marion Jr./Sr. High School, Worcester, MA. I was hired to build their Liturgical Music Program. My responsibilities include maintaining the school’s instruments, selecting appropriate music for each Mass on campus, and to build and direct the student choir.

2018-Present
Adjunct Faculty, Instructor of Music Theory, Assumption College, Worcester, MA. Recently, I was hired to teach Music Theory I and Music Theory II to music majors and minors. The courses cover a wide variety of materials from scale development; 4-part writing; analysis; and various forms of chordal inversion and function.

2014-Present
Adjunct Faculty, Instructor of Music Fundamentals (Piano Emphasis), Assumption College, Worcester, MA. For this course I establish a base for preparing students to understand how to read music, and apply this reading to proper piano playing for beginning students. Beginning elements of Music Theory are also integrated, i.e., meter, time and key signatures, intervals, scale formation, and early stages of Dominant-Tonic relationships.

2013-Present

Instructor of Applied Piano, Assumption College, Worcester, MA. For these applied lessons there are two possible paths. For beginning students, I begin the process for the general understanding of how to read music and apply it to playing the piano. Proper technique will be taught at length, i.e., scales, arpeggios, beginning music theory, and practice techniques. For advanced students, I utilize repertoire based on what the student decides to focus on based on their current playing level. This could range from Bach Inventions, Clemente Sonatas, and smaller scale compositions of Mozart and Beethoven. I have also included New Age piano pieces with great success for students choosing to pursue piano playing as a hobby and for family entertainment. For more gifted and classically determined students, pieces could be chosen from the Debussy Preludes, Beethoven Sonatas, and selections from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

Camille Bloche

Born in Normandy, France, Camille Bloche studied at the Conservatory of Caen where she foremost obtained First Prizes both in piano and organ.

She obtained Bachelors in Musicology at the Sorbonne University of Paris and in Organ Interpretation (magna cum laude) at the Conservatory of Caen where she studied with Erwan Le Prado. She also regularly received advice from Saki Aoki and from Daniel Moult in London.

In June 2018, she finished the Organ Master program at the Danish Royal Academy of Music and she is now studying the organ with Hans Davidsson and the clavichord with Ulrika Davidsson at the Academy of Music and Drama in Göteborg.

Finalist for the Grand Prix Jean-Louis Florentz in 2011, she was unanimously awarded first prize at the J.-S. Bach competition in Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours, obtained the third prize of the Dudelange International Competition 2013 “Organ without borders” and an honorific mention at the Miami International Competition 2011.

In 2015, she received the second prize and the ''Giuseppe Englert Memorial Prize'' of the André Marchal International Competition of Biarritz.

Since 2013, Camille has been teaching organ and piano in the music school of Saint-Lô (France).

During her studies in Copenhagen she had an organ scholar position in the Jesuskirke of Copenhagen and is now working at Älvsborg Church in Göteborg.

Camille has attended many master-classes and has also been involved in several International Music Academies (Carentan, Lanvellec, Copenhagen, Göteborg, Leipzig).

Thomas Gaynor

Thomas Gaynor is among the brightest stars in his generation of concert organists. He is the first-place winner of a number of international competitions, including St Albans 2017, Erfurt/Weimar Bach-Liszt 2015, and Sydney 2015. Thomas is a doctoral student in David Higgs’s studio at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he was recently awarded the highly coveted Artist’s Certificate – an honor the institution had not given an organist for nearly three decades. Born in New Zealand, he began his organ studies at Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul, working with Michael Fulcher first as an organ scholar and later as honorary sub-organist. His undergraduate studies were completed at the New Zealand School of Music under Douglas Mews. Currently, he is associate director of music at Christ Episcopal Church in Pittsford, NY. Recital engagements frequently see him travelling across North and South America, Europe and Australasia. His participation in masterclasses with many of today’s most influential artists has given him a rare stylistic command across the spectrum of organ repertoire; these musicians include Michel Bouvard, Cameron Carpenter, Ken Cowan, Olivier Latry, Jean-Baptiste Robin, Jaques Van Oortmerssen, Stephen Tharp and Harald Vogel.

Kunio Hézard-Yamaoka

2003 DEM d'Orgue (diplôme d'études musicales) Conservatoire d'Orsay

2004 Diplôme de perfectionnnement d'Orgue Conservatoire d'Orsay

2005 Le prix de ville de Limoges

2005 Finaliste de concours titulariat de la Basilique Fouvière de Lyon

2006 Organiste co-titulaire de l'Eglise Saint Louis de Vichy

2008 Organiste titulaire de l'Eglise Saint Laurent Saint Martin d'Orsay

2008 Organiste co-titulaire de l'Eglises Réformées Unies de Versailles

Numerous participation of masterclass with:

Michel Chapuis
Marie-Claire Alain
Louis Robilliard
Olivier Latry
Theo Jellema
Erwin Wiersinga
Pieter Van Dijk
Alessio Corti
Bernard Foccroule

Anna Homenya

Born in Belarus, Mogilev, in 1986, Anna Homenya studied piano and musicology in the College of Music, Minsk, Belarus (2000–2005). She graduated as musicologist from the Rimsky-Korsakov Saint-Petersburg Conservatory, Russia, in 2010. Under the direction of professor A.Klimovitsky she has written her master thesis on Anton Bruckner’s symphonies. Meantime, she was active as a musical critic writing for the Journal of the Mariinsky Theatre and several newspapers.

She continued her studies at the Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory as organist with Tatiana Tchausova and Daniel Zaretsky, and as harpsichordist with Elena Seredinskaya. She graduated with honors in 2013.

Anna participated in the master-classes of S.Tcherepanov, A.Gast, P.Van Dijk, W.Zerer, L.Robilliard, M.Bouvard, C.Boessert, Leo van Doesselar – organ; S.Sempé, C.Stembridge, E.Joyé, C. Rousset, A.Staier – harpsichord.

In 2017 she finished her organ studies with Cristophe Mantoux and harpsichord studies with Noelle Spieth in CRR de Paris, France.

She has an intense concert activity in Belarus, Russia, Germany and France as organist, harpsichordist and continuo player. She gave concerts in such remarkable places as churches of St.Séverin, St.Gervais, St.Augustin, des Billetes, St.Bernard de la Chapelle in Paris, Notre-Dame de Rozay-en-Brie, France, Marienkirche in Stralsund, Germany, Chiesa del Santissimo Corpo di Cristo in Valvasone, Italy, Mariinsky Theatre, Glinka Chapel, Chapel of Tauride in Saint-Petersburg, Russia and others.

She was among the five finalists of the Dudelange organ Competition in 2017. She works as an organist in the german catholic church in Paris (Sankt-Albert) and teaches organ, piano and music theory in «école russe des arts» in Paris. Anna plays continuo in ensemble “Quadrivium”. Their concert season 2018/2019 in Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris was dedicated to baroque italian vocal and instrumental music. Together with harpsichordist Tatsiana Khaleva Anna have founded a harpsichord duo “Le spectacle des mains” and gave the first concert of the music of F.Couperin in Minsk Philharmonic hall in spring 2019. Anna Homenya is invited as assistant teacher at St.Andrews organ week in Scotland in summer 2019.

Juhee Lee

A native of Seoul, South Korea, Juhee Lee began studying the organ 2002 and obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in organ from the Korean National University of Arts (KNUA), where she studied with Prof. Ja-Kyung Oh. After that, she continued studying with Prof. Tong-Soon Kwak at the Yonsei University and completed Master of Music. As an administrative assistant she worked for 2 years at the KNUA.

Furthering her studies at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen in Germany where she received her Alte Musik Diplom degree, she excelled on the organ in department of Early Music with Prof. Hans Davidsson, Prof. Edoardo Maria Bellotti and Prof. Harald Vogel, Clavichord with Dc. Ulrika Davidsson, Harmonium with Winfried Dahlke. Subsequently, she earned her Konzertexamen degree with “Auszeichnung” from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg where she studied organ with Prof. Wolfgang Zerer and Prof. Pieter van Dijk, respectively.

She also has attended master classes with William Porter, Zsigmond Szathmáry, Ludger Lohmann, Stefan Engels, Michel Bouvard, Martin Sander, Louis Robilliard, Olivier Latry, Lionel Rogg, Jacques van Oortmerssen, Christoph Bossert, Ben van Oosten and James David Christie. In addition, she has received many scholarships. Especially 2011, Juhee granted a scholarship from DAAD, a German Academic Exchange Service. Moreover, she received Third Prize in Arp-Schnitger Organ Competition 2012 and Walcker Organ Competition 2016.

Currently, Juhee Lee works as an instructor at the KNUA and Organist at the Ahyun Methodist Church, Seoul.

Marcel Punt

Marcel Punt (formerly known as Henrico Stewen) serves as organist in Kloster's church in Eskilstuna. He studied for Jacques van Oortmerssen, Hans Davidsson and Hans van Nieuwkoop. Punt graduated as an organ soloist at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam in 1997. In 2009, he received a doctorate from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Doctoral dissertation: The Straube Code: Deciphering the Metronome Marks in Max Reger's Organ Music has attracted a lot of attention around the world. In 2011, Punt's album with organ music by Max Reger was awarded the well-reputed ECHO CLASSIC. His thesis and records can be ordered from www.marcelpuntmusic.com.

Brian Radins

Born in 1997 Brian Radins began to play the organ in 2013 and got lessons in Wunstorf, Germany, from Claudia Wortmann. He found his love to the early organ music there. Nowadays Brian Radins studies Church Music on Bachelor grade in Halle (Saale), Germany, since 2016, where he has lessons on the harpsichord, too. He still intensifies his studies unto northern Germany's music and plans to apply for the master grade in Bremen, Germany, in 202

Sergei Teplyi

Born in 1992 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Sergei started playing piano at the age of 6. After moving to Denmark in year 2000 he continued to take lessons at the private piano school "Gradus" (Aarhus, Denmark). In 2012-2015 he studied piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music (Copenhagen) with doc. Bohumila Jedlickova and Jens Elvekjær, and made one year Erasmus exchange programme at HMTM Hannover with prof. Gerrit Zitterbart. After completing the Bachelor's degree in piano, Sergei studied organ at The Church Music School in Roskilde with Aeji Choi.

Since 2016 Sergei is studying Church Music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music (Copenhagen).