Samuel Porter
September 18, 2009 - 7:30 p.m.

A native of Texas, Samuel Porter received the Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees in Organ Performance, Music Theory and Literature from Baylor University and the Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance from the University of Alabama.   Teachers include Miriam Griffis, Clarence Ledbetter, John David Peterson and J. Warren Hutton. Master classes have been with Marilyn Mason, Marie Claire Alain, Gillian Weir, Peter Hurford and David Higgs.

Dr. Porter holds three of the four professional certificates of the American Guild of Organists (Service Playing, Colleague and Associate). A church organist from the age of eleven, Dr. Porter has served churches in Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma, and is currently Organist and Associate Director of Music Ministry at the First United Methodist Church (Cathedral of the Rockies), Boise, ID.

Dr. Porter has extensive teaching and recital experience with concerts played throughout the Continental United States, and has appeared as accompanist, organist, and pianist in concerts in Europe, Canada, Mexico and South America. He has authored articles appearing in THE AMERICAN ORGANIST, and has done lectures on numerous topics for regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, particularly on the works of British composer, William Mathias, the subject of his doctoral dissertation.

His recordings have been heard on National Public Radio and on Pipe Dreams.
 

Since coming to Boise, Dr. Porter has been board member, sub-dean and currently Dean of the Les Bois Chapter of the AGO, and is chair of Boise Music Week’s CHURCH  NIGHT.

He also has received the honor of being nominated for national office as Regional Councilor for the Northwest Chapters of the American Guild of Organists(Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska)  for 2008-2010.

Dr. Porter maintains a private piano and organ studio in Boise and is organ editor for Flanders Publications, an on-line music publishing company. In July of this year, he presented  a lecture-recital for the Region VIII AGO Convention in Portland, Oregon, on the topic, MODERN REPERTOIRE FOR THE YOUNG ORGANIST. Fall recitals are planned in Iowa, Kentucky, Indiana, and Virginia.

Elisa Bickers
January 22, 2010 - 7:30 pm

Elisa Williams Bickers is completing the DMA in church music at the University of Kansas, studying with Michael Bauer.  She has also  studied with Joseph Butler at TCU (BM and MM), and Dale Krider.  Elisa won the first prize and hymn-playing award in the graduate division of the 2006 William Hall Competition in San Antonio, Texas.   She was a semifinalist in the 2007-08 NYACOP, and is a semifinalist in this year’s competition also.  Elisa also will compete in the upcoming International Buxtehude Competition in Lübeck, Germany.

Elisa was recently awarded the Carlin Award for Graduate Teaching at KU.  She is the organist at First United Methodist Church in Lawrence, Kansas, and is the instructor of organ at Washburn University.  She recently joined the Kansas City Bach Aria Soloists group as harpsichordist.

 
Jeremy Tarrant
March 12, 2010 - 7:30 p.m.

In performances that are consistently hailed as elegant, compelling, and powerful, Jeremy David Tarrant is increasingly recognized as one of the leading organists of his generation.  Since 2000, he has served as Organist and Choirmaster of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, where, in addition to playing for liturgies and concerts, he conducts the famed Cathedral Choirs.  Mr. Tarrant joined the Cathedral staff in 1994 as Assistant Organist and prior to that appointment, worked in several parishes in his native Michigan.  In April of 2007, he was seated as Canon Precentor of the Cathedral in thanksgiving and recognition of his role in the liturgical and musical life of the Cathedral community. 

Jeremy David Tarrant is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music where he earned the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance and sacred music studying with Robert Glasgow and James Kibbie.  During his time at Michigan, Mr. Tarrant pursued additional study in Paris.  His early training was with Betty R. Pursley and Corliss Arnold.

The recipient of numerous awards and honors, he was awarded First Prize in the Ottumwa National Organ Competition in 1997 and Second Prize in the Arthur Poister National Competition in 1998.  In 1993 he was a Winner of the Lucille Mehaffie Young Artists’ Auditions that resulted in a televised performance during the Kalamazoo Bach Festival.  Mr. Tarrant has also been a finalist in the American Guild of Organists Regional Competitions.

Mr. Tarrant is in frequent demand as a teacher and clinician, and regularly serves on the faculties of the Royal School of Church Music summer courses as well as the American Guild of Organists summer Pipe Organ Encounters. 

An active concert organist, Jeremy David Tarrant has performed widely in North America in such venues as the Washington National Cathedral; St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue; St. James Cathedral, Toronto; St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York; and Chicago’s famed Fourth Presbyterian Church. He frequently appears with the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and has performed in regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists.  In 2008, Mr. Tarrant made his European solo debut with a recital in the Cathedrale de St. Etienne in Meaux, France.

Massimo Nosetti
April 16, 2010 - 7:30 p.m.

Massimo Nosetti, born in Alessandria (Italy) in 1960, studied organ, composition, choral music and direction, polyphonic composition at the National Conservatories of Turin and Milan. Afterwards, he studied organ with P. Pidoux and J. Langlais. Currently he is Professor of Organ and Composition at the National Conservatory in Cuneo and since 1981 has been titular organist at the Basilica of Santa Rita in Turin. Also from 1979 to 1994 he was Director of Music at the Turin Cathedral.He frequently gives organ recitals in all European countries, the USA, Canada, Mexico, South America, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and has composed and published many works for organ, choir and orchestra. His "Ecce Lignum Crucis", an orchestral work commissioned for the exibition of the Holy Shroud in 1998 and 2000, has been performed and recorded by the RAI- Italian Radio Symphonic Orchestra. He also is interested in the aspects of organ-building and church music as a member of the Diocesan Commission of Sacred Music and as a consultant of the National Commission for Sacred Music. From 1999 to 2004 he was also Vice-President of the Italian Association of St. Cecilia and at present he is Dean of the organ department of this Association. In 2004 he has been appointed honorary cathedral organist by the Archbishop of Turin. Massimo Nosetti has made organ recordings for Radio Vaticana, RAI (Italy), ORF (Austria), RIAS (Germany), Radio Belgium, NHK (Japan) as well as 18 CDs for the labels of RUSTY RECORDS, BNL, SYRIUS, CARRARA with repertoire from the Renaissance to the present days.

Tandy Edward Dix
May 28, 2010 - 7:30 p.m.

Tandy Edward (Ted) Dix received his undergraduate degree in organ performance at Towson University in Towson, Maryland, where he was a second prize winner in the Peggy Friedmann Gordon Music Competition and a student of Dr. Thomas Spacht.  His graduate study was conducted at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was a student of Eugene Roan and a winner in the Graduate Organ Competition.  He was awarded the Master of Music in Music Theory Pedagogy degree in May, 2006, at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.            In March of 2001, Mr. Dix was a finalist in the national Arthur Poister Scholarship Competition in Syracuse, New York.  In March of 2006, he was inducted into membership of the Epsilon Omicron Chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda.

Ted currently resides in Westminster, Maryland, with his wife, Gretchen, where he is the Organist and Director of Traditional Music and Music Ministry Development at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church and teaches courses in Music Appreciation, Aural Musicianship, Music Theory, and private organ study at Carroll Community and McDaniel Colleges.  He is also the accompanist of the Masterworks Chorale of Carroll County.