Life
He earned his MM from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied organ with Russell Saunders and piano with Barbara Lister Sink. A native Iowan, Brillhart has served as director of music and fine arts at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church since January 1983. His responsibilities at Bryn Mawr Church include directing the Senior Choir and Bryn Mawr Chamber Singers; oversight of the Vespers Series; oversight of all children and youth choirs; the West Philadelphia Children's Choir, and the church's arts outreach and visual arts ministries. He is the church's principal organist.
In June 1999, Brillhart was appointed the fourth music director of Singing City, having served as associate director in the 1998–99 season, when he worked closely with then Music Director Joseph Flummerfelt. As music director, Brillhart provides artistic leadership for a rich program of concerts, educational instruction in local schools, and outreach to diverse communities. He directs the choir and oversees all aspects of Singing City's musical initiatives. During his tenure with Singing City the choir has traveled to Cuba, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, presented more than one hundred-fifty concerts, performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and worked with such internationally renowned artists as Helmuth Rilling, Dave Brubeck, Nick Page, Moses Hogan, Andre Thomas, Anton Armstrong, and Weston Noble, and Rossen Milanov. His organ, teaching, and conducting engagements have taken him throughout America, Europe and South America, with engagements in Paris, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Birmingham, Alabama, Waco, Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York City, Iowa City, Des Moines, Walla Walla, and Worcester, Massachusetts. In May 2006, he made his Philadelphia Symphony debut in one of the inaugural concerts of the new Dobson Organ in Kimmel Center.
In May 2005, he was appointed lecturer in organ improvisation at Yale University. His textbook, Breaking Free: finding a personal language for organ improvisation through 20th-century French improvisation techniques, is published by Wayne Leupold Editions. His second textbook, "A World of Possibilities: Master Lessons in Organ Improvisation" was published in July 2018 by Wayne Leupold Editions.
David Hurd is a composer, concert organist, choral director and educator.
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.
Frederick Lewis Swann is 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.
Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church is a church in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; founded in 1873, it is currently a 2,500 member church of the PC(USA). It is located on the Main Line, just west of Philadelphia. Being a large congregation, the church is active seven days a week.
Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., is a large, Gothic Revival-style church built in 1870 and located at Park Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in the city's Bolton Hill neighborhood. Named in memory of a 19th-century Baltimore financier, the ornate church is noted for its exquisite stained glass windows by renowned artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, soaring vaulted ceiling, and the prominent persons associated with its history. Maltbie Babcock, who was the church's pastor 1887–1900, wrote the familiar hymn, This is My Father's World. Storied virtuoso concert performer Virgil Fox was organist at Brown Memorial early in his career (1936–1946).
John C. Walker, more familiarly known as John Walker, is an American concert organist, choirmaster, and CD recording artist. He is also a former president of the American Guild of Organists, elected in May 2014 to a two-year term of the 16,000-member organization. Walker has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe. He is "widely recognized for his flawless technique and execution as well as his controlled and passionate playing," said Duke University in announcing a John Walker recital at Duke Chapel. Since 2006 he has served on the faculty of the Peabody Institute and George Mason University.
Kerry Jason Beaumont is a British organist and choir director.
Raynor Taylor was an English organist, music teacher, composer, and singer who lived and worked in the United States after emigrating in 1792. Active in composing music for the theater, outdoor pleasure garden, and the Anglican Church and Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, he was one of the first notable composers active in America.
Karel Jan (Arjan) Breukhoven is a Dutch musician.
Keith Chapman (1945–1989) was an American concert organist known best for his flair at playing in the symphonic style of organ performance, and particularly for his long and distinguished association (1966–1989) with the Wanamaker's Department Store of Philadelphia as the principal organist of the Wanamaker Organ.
Alexander McCurdy Jr. was an organist and educator who taught a generation of America's most-prominent performers.
Martin Ellis is an American church, concert and theatre organist. He is currently the organist for Rose City Park Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon. He was Principal Organist and Assistant Music Director at North United Methodist Church, and Senior Staff Pianist/Organist, Staff Arranger and Orchestrator for the Indianapolis Children's Choir and Youth Chorale in Indianapolis, Indiana until August, 2014. He works with Gresham High School's Theatre Arts Department as their resident piano accompanist.
Charles Marie Courboin (1884–1973) was a Belgian–American organ virtuoso who enjoyed popularity during the 1920s. During this time he was engaged by department store magnate Rodman Wanamaker to oversee the second enlargement of the Wanamaker Organ. He added the huge string and orchestral sections bringing it to 461 ranks and 28,482 pipes. He also served as Director of Music for St. Patrick Cathedral, New York City from 1943 until his retirement in 1968.
Johann Vexo is a French organist. He is the organist for both the choir organ at Notre Dame de Paris and the great organ of Nancy Cathedral.
Alexander Russell (1880–1953) was an American composer, organist and the first Frick Professor of Music for Princeton University. He is most remembered today as the long time organ impresario for the Wanamaker Department Stores.
Scott Dettra is an American concert organist and church musician. He tours in North America and Europe, and is Director of Music and Organist at the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas. He is also Organist of The Crossing, a professional chamber choir based in Philadelphia. From 2007 to 2012, he was Organist of Washington National Cathedral.
David Charles Spicer was an American organist and church musician. He was Minister of Music and the Arts at the First Church of Christ in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he co-founded the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival USA and directed it from 1997 to 2015.
Herve Dwight Wilkins, was an American organist and composer.
Kile Smith is an American composer of choral, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. The Arc in the Sky with The Crossing received a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance, and the Canticle CD by Cincinnati's Vocal Arts Ensemble helped win the 2020 Classical Producer of the Year Grammy for Blanton Alspaugh. A Black Birch in Winter, which includes Smith's Where Flames a Word, won the 2020 Estonian Recording of the Year for Voces Musicales.
Victor Togni was a Swiss Canadian organist, improviser, composer, and teacher. His compositions received positive reception. He won first prize at the American Guild of Organists' Improvisation Competition on June 26, 1964.
