Advent recitals will feature area organists, students

David Buckley of Colfax will be among area organists who will participate during mid-day Advent recitals in December. The concerts are sponsored by the Pullman-Moscow Chapter of American Guild of Organists. The two programs, Dec. 9 and 16, are open to the public without charge.

Buckley will perform Dec. 16 at the concert slated to begin at 12:15 at Moscow’s First Presbyterian Church

Also playing in the recital will be area organists Judy Croskey, Denise Snider and Susan Billin.

Buckley, who plays at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Colfax, will perform the Chorale Prelude: “Nun Komm Der Heiden Heiland” by J. S. Bach and “In Sulci Jubilo” arranged by Dale Wood.

Croskey will perform “Love Came Down at Christmas” by Joe Utterback, Russian Carol of the Bells by Christopher Uehlein, “Cold December Flies Away” by Dale Wood and Postlude on “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

Snider will perform “‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime,” Une Jeune Pucelle, a French folksong arranged by Larry Harris. Billin will play Noel Suisse by Louis-Claude D’Aquin.

Croskey is music director/organist at Church of the Nativity in Lewiston and provides organ lessons. Buckley is one of her students.

Snider plays the organ at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pullman. Billin is organist at Moscow’s First Presbyterian Church and an organ instructor at the University of Idaho.

The Dec. 9 program, set for 12:15-12:45 p.m. at Pullman Presbyterian Church, will feature performances by Dr. Jill Schneider, Mary Carolye and Tom Schumacher, and student organist Meredith Lee Thompson.

Schneider is organist at Pullman Presbyterian Church, and is a member of the WSU music faculty. Carloye, now retired, was organist for 30 years at Pullman Baptist Church. Schumacher is organist at First Methodist Church in Clarkston.

Buckley and Thompson shared the top honors in the 2009 Terry Jordan Memorial Award for Organ Study Competition.

The competition is a partnership program between Moscow First United Methodist Church and the AGO’s Pullman-Moscow chapter. The award endowment fund was set up in memory of Terry Jordan, organist for 11 years at First United Methodist Church, who died from cancer in June 2000.