Yale Sacred Music Academy presents: Hymn Festival

Please join us for a community Hymn Festival led by Martin Jean, director of the ISM, Catherine Rodland of St. Olaf College, and Michael Kleinschmidt of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle. Accompanied by brass ensemble, with Yale Sacred Music Academy participants leading a musical tour through the church year.

Free and open to the public. This event is a part of the ISM's 2025 Sacred Music Academy.

Contact: Clifton Massey

Bios:

Martin Jean is director of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, professor in music, and professor (adjunct) of divinity Professor Jean has performed widely throughout the United States and Europe and is known for his broad repertorial interests. He was awarded first place at the international Grand Prix de Chartres in 1986, and in 1992 at the National Young Artists’ Competition in Organ Performance. A student of Robert Glasgow, in the fall of 1999 he spent a sabbatical with Harald Vogel in North Germany. He has performed on four continents and in nearly all fifty states. In 2001 he presented a cycle of the complete organ works of Bach at Yale, and his compact discs of The Seven Last Words of Christ by Charles Tournemire and the complete Six Symphonies of Louis Vierne, both recorded in Woolsey Hall, have been released by Loft Recordings. Recordings of the organ symphonies and Stations of the Cross of Marcel Dupré are forthcoming on the Delos label. Professor Jean is on the board of directors of Lutheran Music Program.

B.A. Concordia College; M.M., A.Mus.D. University of Michigan

Michael Kleinschmidt is the Canon for Cathedral Music of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle, where he seeks to inspire robust singing in the congregation, oversees the ministries of multiple choirs of all ages, and plays the famous Flentrop/Fritts pipe organ. Before assuming this role in March, 2015, he served as Canon Musician of Trinity Cathedral, Portland, Oregon. Prior to moving to Oregon in 2010, he was Director of Music and Organist of Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston. 

As a concert organist, Michael has performed in forty States of America, and in Canada, Europe, and Japan. As a choral conductor, he has led summer choir courses of the Royal School of Church Music in several North American cities.

Michael’s primary mentor in church music was Gerre Hancock, with whom he worked as Assistant Organist of Saint Thomas Church, New York City, in the early 1990s. Michael holds degrees in organ performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Eastman School of Music. His teachers were Haskell Thomson and Russell Saunders. As recipient of a Fulbright Grant, he studied contemporary organ literature and improvisation for a year with Peter Planyavsky in Vienna.

In addition to his professional activities, Michael enjoys exploring the wonders of the Pacific Northwest on foot, and sharing life with his spouse, Marc Aubertin.

Catherine Rodland, whose playing has been described as “transcendent” (The American Organist), is Artist in Residence at St. Olaf College. She graduated cum laude with departmental distinction in organ performance from St. Olaf in 1987.

She received both the MM and DMA from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY where she was a student of Russell Saunders.  At Eastman, Catherine received the prestigious Performer’s Certificate and the Ann Anway Award for excellence in organ performance. She is a prizewinner in several competitions including the 1994 and 1998 American Guild of Organists Young Artists Competition, the 1994 Calgary International Organ Competition, and the 1988 International Organ Competition at the University of Michigan for which she received first prize. She concertizes extensively throughout the United States and Canada.

At St. Olaf Catherine teaches a full studio of organ students as well as music theory and ear training classes.  She performs regularly at St. Olaf, in 2007  dedicating the new Holtkamp organ in Boe Memorial Chapel, and performing as a featured soloist with the St. Olaf Orchestra and the St. Olaf Band.  These performances were released as CDs through St. Olaf Records.  In 2010 Catherine released two CDs:  “Dedication”, and “American Weavings”, the latter recorded in Boe Chapel at St. Olaf College with violist and duo partner Carol Rodland. The Rodland Duo is managed by Concert Artists Cooperative.