David Hurd (born 1950) is a composer, concert organist, choral director and educator.
Dr. Hurd was Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Chapel Music at the General Theological Seminary, Chelsea, New York City, for 39 years. He was also the Music Director at the Church of the Holy Apostles, also in Chelsea, until May 2013. [1] He is presently the Director of Music at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin (Manhattan) in Times Square, New York City. [2]
Hurd attended the High School of Music & Art, the Juilliard School, and Oberlin College. He holds honorary doctorates from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and Church Divinity School of the Pacific, given in recognition of his contributions to sacred music. [3] In 1977 he received first prizes in both Organ Performance and in Organ Improvisation from the International Congress of Organists, being the only person to ever win both prizes in the same year.
Hurd has held several church staff positions, including Assistant Organist, Trinity Church, and Director of Music at the Church of the Intercession and All Saints' Church, both in Manhattan. His Intercession Mass setting is used by many congregations across the United States. With over 100 choral and organ works in print, his compositions have appeared in numerous recordings in both the United States and England. Hurd is regularly sought out by congregations and organizations seeking to commission new anthems and organ works. Significant premieres have included "Gloria, gloria", for four-part choir and instrumental accompaniment, commissioned by the Boys Choir of Harlem, and premiered at Avery Fisher Hall; "O the Depth of Love Divine," for four-part choir, brass and organ, commissioned by J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of Atlanta, and premiered at his consecration; and "Arioso & Final" for organ, commissioned by the Queens Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. The most recent major work is "Sonata for Saxophone and Organ", commissioned by the Hall-Powers Duo, and premiered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, at the International Saxophone Congress in 2006. In 2014, Hurd completed a commissioned anthem for St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, Atlanta, based on Psalm 100 in a modern, gender-neutral translation.
Hurd's sacred compositions can be found in many hymnals, including the Episcopal Hymnal, 1982. Hurd is one of the world's most visible and successful classical organists who is African-American.
Anglican church music is music that is written for Christian worship in Anglican religious services, forming part of the liturgy. It mostly consists of pieces written to be sung by a church choir, which may sing a cappella or accompanied by an organ.
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (GTS) is an Episcopal seminary in New York City. Founded in 1817, GTS is the oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church and a leading center of theological education in the Anglican Communion. The seminary was chartered by an act of the Episcopal Church's General Convention and its name was chosen to reflect its founders vision that it be a seminary to serve the whole Church. GTS has tended to reflect historic High Church and Anglo-Catholic positions in its liturgical and sacramental life, while also adopting the moderate-to-liberal consensus on moral and theological issues espoused by the Episcopal Church.
John Henry Maunder was an English composer and organist best known for his cantata "Olivet to Calvary".
James Litton was an American musician, who directed the American Boychoir from 1985 to 2001, and is widely recognized as one of the leading choral conductors of the day.
W. Benjamin Hutto was an American musician who specialized in writing, producing, and directing choral music. He served as Director of Choral Activities and Director of Performing Arts at St. Albans School for Boys and the National Cathedral School for Girls in Washington D.C. He was also Director of Music and Organist at St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square.
Paul Otto Manz, was an American composer for choir and organ. His most famous choral work is the Advent motet "E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come", which has been performed at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, though its broadcast by the neighbouring Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, in its Advent Carol Service precipitated its popularity.
John Allen Ferguson is an American organist, teacher, and composer.
Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Gerre Edward Hancock was an American organist, improviser, and composer. Hancock was Professor of Organ and Sacred Music at the University of Texas at Austin. He died of cardiac arrest in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, January 21, 2012.
Alice Parker is an American composer, arranger, conductor, and teacher. She has authored five operas, eleven song-cycles, thirty-three cantatas, eleven works for chorus and orchestra, forty-seven choral suites, and more than forty hymns, all original compositions. Also to be noted are wealth of arrangements based on pre-existing folk-songs and hymns, many of which were produced in collaboration with Robert Shaw. Parker is best known for these kinds of arrangements of spirituals, mountain hymns, and folk songs, early-American hymns, and international folk-songs, most notably in French, Spanish, Hebrew, and Ladino.
Frederick Lewis Swann was an American church and concert organist, choral conductor, composer, and former president of the American Guild of Organists. His extensive discography includes both solo organ works and choral ensembles he has conducted.
Towson United Methodist Church is a large United Methodist Church in the historic Hampton subdivision of Towson, a suburb in Baltimore County, Maryland. Its past, rooted in 19th-century America and subsequent growth in the two centuries since then, has closely paralleled the nation's political and sociological trends. It was a congregation split asunder in 1861 on the eve of the American Civil War in a border state of divided loyalties, which eventually reunited and built a church in the post–World War II era of the 1950s, a time of reconciliation and rapid growth by mainline Protestant denominations, especially in the more affluent suburbs.
The Choir of Leeds Minster is the choir of Leeds Minster, Leeds, England, which became a Minster in September 2012. The choir was founded by vicar, Richard Fawcett probably as early as 1815, and was certainly in existence by 1818. The church's choir - boys and men - was, from its origins, a charge on the church rate; and, in what was then a largely non-conformist town, a none-too-popular one. By the 1830s, the choir's resourcing had been taken over by a list of voluntary subscribers. On arrival as Vicar of Leeds in 1837, Walter Farquhar Hook said he found "the surplices in rags and the books in tatters". Additional to its extensive commitment in the provision of choral services, the choir is known to a wide public through many recitals, recordings and broadcasts and by its regular choir tours - the first tour was held in July 1968 and the 40th anniversary tour, from 22 to 27 July 2008, included singing in Ely Cathedral, King's College, Cambridge, the National Musicians' Church St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London, All Saints Pastoral Centre London Colney and the Chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Russell Schulz-Widmar is a composer, author, and conductor, and a former Professor of Liturgical Music at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. For much of his career he lived in Austin, Texas and upon retirement he has divided his time between Berlin, Germany and Dallas, Texas. He is married to Hubertus Schulz-Wilke.
Robert Powell is an American composer, organist, and choir director.
Richard Hillert (1923-2010) was a noted Lutheran composer. He was Distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus at Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Ill. He was best known for his work as a composer and teacher of composition. Among his most frequently performed liturgical works for congregation is Worthy Is Christ, with its antiphon, “This is the Feast of Victory” which was written as an alternate Song of Praise for inclusion in Setting One of the Holy Communion in Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982). "This is the Feast" is now widely published in more than 20 recent worship books of many denominations, most recently in Lutheran Service Book (2006) and Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006). Other major liturgical works include a setting of Evening Prayer (1984) and a Eucharistic Festival Liturgy (1983), which was first performed at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. He wrote liturgical pieces and hymns and served as music editor for Worship Supplement (1969) and Lutheran Book of Worship (1978). His compositions and publications include an array of pieces of liturgical music for congregation, choral motets, hymns and hymn anthems, psalm settings and organ works, concertatos, and cantatas, including settings of The Christmas Story According to Saint Luke and The Passion According to Saint John. He edited eleven volumes of the Concordia Hymn Prelude Series.
Peter Christian Lutkin was an American organist, choral conductor, and composer.
Harold Friedell was an American organist. He was well known as a performer and educator, teaching at Juilliard and Union Seminary, a composer of a large number of choral anthems and solo organ pieces, and as a prominent leader in the American Guild of Organists.
Daniel Troen Moe was an American choral conductor, composer, and pedagogue. He was Director of Choral Organizations for the University of Iowa, professor of choral conducting at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and founding Music Director of Key Chorale in Sarasota, Florida. He was a published composer and author. He was once hailed by The New Yorker music critic Andrew Porter as "that Dean of choral conductors."