Great Organ Music at Yale: James David Christie

Event time: 
Sunday, September 18, 2011 - 4:00pm
Event description: 

Great Organ Music at Yale 2011-12

James David Christie

Music of JS Bach, Buxtehude, Böhm, Praetorius, Sweelinck and more

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 | 8PM

MARQUAND CHAPEL



JAMES DAVID CHRISTIE has been internationally acclaimed as one of the finest organists of his generation.  He has performed around the world with symphony orchestras and period instrument ensembles as well as in solo recitals. He was the 1979 First Prize winner of the Bruges (Belgium) International Organ Competition and was the first American ever to win First Prize in this prestigious competition; he was also the first person in the competition’s eighteen-year history to win both the First Prize and the Prize of the Audience.   James David Christie has served as Organist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1978 and has performed and recorded with the major orchestras of Vienna, London, Stuttgart, Koblentz, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Baltimore, New York, Boston, etc.  He has given over fifty tours of Europe and performs regularly in Canada, Asia, Australia and Iceland.  He is Music Director of Ensemble Abendmusik, a Boston-based period instrument orchestra and chorus specializing in sacred music of the 17th and 18th centuries.  He has performed with many period instrument orchestras including the Academy of Ancient Music, the Bach Ensemble, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, the New York Collegium, etc. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the New England School of Law for his outstanding contributions to the musical life of Boston and the New England Conservatory honored him with their Outstanding Alumni Award.  He has served on international organ competition juries in Paris, St. Omer-Wasquehal, Chartres, Biarritz, St. Albans, Amsterdam, Lübeck, Bordeaux, Dublin, Worcester, Calgary, Montreal, Columbus, Dallas, Leipzig, Weimar-Merseburg, Speyer, Erfurt, Tokyo, Moscow, Kaliningrad, Astana, Lausanne, Boston and Bruges.  His students have been competition prizewinners in North America, Europe, Japan and South Africa.  James David Christie has recorded for Decca, Philips, Nonesuch, JAV, Northeastern, Arabesque, Denon, RCA, Dorian, Naxos, Bridge and GM and has received several awards for his solo recordings, including the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik and the Magazine d’Orgue: Coup de Coeur.

James David Christie holds positions as the Distinguished Artist in Residence at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, Chair and Professor of Organ at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, OH, and serves as College Organist at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA.  He has previously held positions at Boston Conservatory, Harvard University, M.I.T. and Boston University. This past season, he performed many concerts and master classes in the United States, Japan, Estonia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Monaco and served on international competition juries in Erfurt-Merseburg-Weimar (Germany) and the First Canadian International Organ Competition in Montreal. In January, he toured Japan performing Bach’s monumental Art of Fugue.  In the fall of 2010, James David Christie was on sabbatical in Paris, France, where he served as visiting Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatory.  He exchanged positions with Notre Dame Cathedral organist, Olivier Latry, who was in residence at Oberlin for the fall semester.  He was the featured artist and teacher for the 2010 Académie “Dom Bedos” in Bordeaux on the restored Dom Bedos organ of 1748 at the Église de Sainte Croix; he gave master classes at the Chateau de Versailles and at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris and performed recitals in Toulouse, Reims and Paris, including the final 2010 Tuesday Evening Artists Concert at Notre Dame Cathedral.  He was the American patron of the National French 2011 Jehan Alain Centenary Festival in Saint–Germain-en-Laye, France.  In the summer of 2011, he taught and performed at the McGill Summer Organ Academy in Montreal, Canada, the Oberlin Summer Organ Academy for High School Students and he gave concerts in Spain, Germany and France. This coming year, he will serve on international competition juries in Lübeck, Moscow and Amsterdam.