Spivey Hall: Atlanta's Organists in Concert

• Alan Morrison, organ
• Nicole Marane, organ
• Matthew Michael Brown, organ
• Sue Mitchell-Wallace, organ
• Jack Mitchener, organ
• Joyce Johnson, organ

No city in the world has a more outstanding collection of organists than Atlanta, and no finer organ exists in our region than Spivey Hall's Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ, by Ruffatti of Padua, Italy. Spivey Hall’s resident organist Alan Morrison curates and hosts this event, bringing together some of the best organists in the region to explore the extraordinary capabilities of this magnificent instrument.

Pre-concert talk, hosted by Alan Morrison on stage at 2:15pm. Alan Morrison holds The McGehee Family Organist Residency at Spivey Hall.

About Spivey Hall at Clayton State University

https://spiveyhall.org/

About Alan Morrison, organ

https://alanmorrison.com/

About Nicole Marane, organ

From Australia, Dr. Nicole Marane is the Associate Director of Music and Associate Organist at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also the Director for CONO, the Committee on the New Organist, which oversees the American Guild of Organists “Pipe Organ Encounters”, the AGO’s most successful outreach program. In 2010 Nicole graduated with her Doctorate of Musical Arts (Performance and Literature – Organ) from the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY), where she was a student of renowned organist, Professor David Higgs. She served as the Eastman Organ Department’s General Administrative Assistant and David Higgs Teaching Assistant for three years and was a recipient of a Graduate Teaching Assistant Prize for excellence in teaching. Nicole completed her Master of Music Degree at Eastman in 2003 and held graduate assistantships in both the Harpsichord and Sacred Music programs. In 2004, Nicole earned first prize in two major competitions: the Miami International Organ Competition and the John Rodland Memorial Scholarship Competition for church musicians. In 2008 Nicole competed as a semi-finalist in the National Young Artists Competition of Organ Performance. An accomplished performer, Nicole has performed and presented solo organ recitals throughout the world including at prestigious venues such as St. Paul’s Cathedral (London), St. Giles’ Cathedral (Edinburgh), Grace Cathedral (San Francisco), St. James Cathedral (Toronto), St Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (New York City), Sydney Town Hall and Melbourne Town Hall (Australia).

About Matthew Michael Brown, organ

Matthew Michael Brown, a native of North Carolina, is Director of Music at St. Luke’s, where he leads a vibrant sacred music program affiliated with the Royal School of Church Music in America and is Founder and Artistic Director of the Music at St. Luke’s series.

As a concert artist, he has performed for series and festivals in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Barcelona Cathedral, Spain; Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; Washington National Cathedral; Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York; Princeton University Chapel; Assembly Hall of the Mormon Tabernacle; Trinity Church on Copley Square, Boston; and the Episcopal Cathedrals of Atlanta, Birmingham, Charleston, and Nashville. Several performances have been heard in radio broadcasts of American Public Media’s Pipe Dreams and the nationally syndicated program, With Heart and Voice.

He earned degrees in organ performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Eastman School of Music. He also holds the Sacred Music Diploma from Eastman's Institute for Music Leadership. As a grant recipient from the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts and The Robert Carwithen Foundation, he pursued two years of post-graduate organ studies with Dame Gillian Weir.

About Sue Mitchell-Wallace, organ

Sue Mitchell-Wallace is an award-winning Fellow of the American Guild of Organists and the American Society of Composers and Publishers. Her recordings and compositions for choir, congregation, and handbells are published in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. She has concertized from California to Holland, New York, to Texas. Mitchell-Wallace has played at the U.S. Naval Academy, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and presented two recitals at Westminster Abbey, London. She has been clinician and organist for Montreat Music Conference, the Felowship of Methodist Musicians Conference at Lake Junaluska, the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, several Hymn Society in the United States and Canada national conferences and has led workshops at several AGO conventions. She served six years as national Councillor for Education for the American Guild of Organists and four years as a member of the AGO's Professional Certification Committee. She currently is on the Worship Task Force for the Atlanta Presbytery.

Mitchell-Wallace is the Music Director-Organist at St. Luke's Presbyterian Church in Dunwoody, Ga. Singing our Faith is her recording of an an exciting hymn festival at Calvin College Chapel in Grand Rapids, MI, and is available from Selah. She is also the recitalist on the popular video, The Art and Craft of Playing Hymns.

Mitchell-Wallace was born in Hammond, Indiana, in 1944. She was educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Rollins College, Westminster Choir College, and the University of Miami. She has served on the faculty and was university organist at several institutions: Broward Community College, Florida Atlantic University, and Birmingham Southern College Conservatory.

About Jack Mitchener, organ

Jack Mitchener is the University Organist and Artist Affiliate in Organ at Emory University in Atlanta. In addition, he holds the post as Professor of Organ and Director of the Townsend-McAfee Institute of Church Music at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He also is Organist and Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St. Philip (Episcopal) in Atlanta. He is a former organ professor at the Oberlin College Conservatory, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Salem College, and the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

Dr. Mitchener has concertized throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia, and many of his performances have been heard in television and radio broadcasts such as American Public Media's “Pipe Dreams.” He was the national winner of the Music Teachers National Association organ competition, the Philadelphia AGO Competition, and was a top prize-winner in the Dublin International Organ Competition. He has recorded for the Gothic and Raven labels.

He has performed the complete organ works of J. S. Bach and also has given recitals, lectures, and master classes for national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the Music Teachers National Association, the Historical Keyboard Society in North America, the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, the Association of Anglican Musicians, the Fellowship of United Methodist Musicians, and the Presbyterian Association of Musicians.

He took three degrees (DMA, master’s in organ and master’s in harpsichord) as well as two Performer’s Certificates in organ and harpsichord from The Eastman School of Music. During his studies at the Conservatoire National de Rueil-Malmaison, France, he was unanimously awarded the Médaille d'or (Gold Medal) in harpsichord and Prix d'Excellence, and Prix de Virtuosité in organ. His high school diploma and bachelor's degree are from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He also studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy and was a camper at the Interlochen Arts Camp.

For the American Guild of Organists, Jack Mitchener has served as dean of the Atlanta and Winston-Salem, NC chapters and as a member of the Executive Committee for the Cleveland and Rochester, NY chapters. He also served for six years as a member of the National Committee on Professional Education. He has been an adjudicator for numerous competitions including those on the national level for the AGO as well as the Biarritz International Competition in France. He is a former President of the Board of Trustees of the Moravian Music Foundation and is a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.

About Joyce Johnson, organ

Dr. Joyce Johnson is Professor Emerita of Music and currently College Organist at Spelman College in Atlanta GA, a position she has held since 1955. She has had an active career as a college teacher, music department chair, and as a performing artist giving solo recitals, accompanying a variety of distinguished artists, playing chamber music concerts, and performing piano concertos with various symphony orchestras. In 2020, she was presented with the Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award by the American Guild of Organists. The biennial award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the AGO.

Dr. Johnson has concertized in Bermuda, Haiti, the West Indies, and Brazil, performed in the Festival de Musique Baroque in Souvigny, France and in Lyon as part of a summer institute on French organ music. She has been a recitalist and workshop presenter for AGO chapters, regional conventions, music festivals, national conventions, and a number of colleges and universities. For decades she has been the organist for the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Ecumenical Service at the historic Ebenezer Church in Atlanta.

A child prodigy, Dr. Johnson's first concert was given at age eleven. While pursuing graduate degrees in piano performance at Northwestern University, her primary teachers were Gui Mombaerts and Louis Crowder. She studied organ there and at other institutions with distinguished teachers. She made her debut with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the Atlanta premiere performance of John La Montaine’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Innumerable awards and honors received by Dr. Johnson include being designated Member Laureate of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity.