The Yale Sacred Music Academy

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.

Prior to coming to Yale, James O’Donnell was the organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey for twenty-three years. He is now professor in the practice of organ and sacred music at the Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

At Westminster Abbey, James led the Abbey’s music department and oversaw all musical aspects of the Abbey’s work, including directing the celebrated Choir of Westminster Abbey. He was also responsible for the music at royal, state and national occasions, including the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on 29th April 2011, and the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother on 9th April 2002. Most recently, he led the music for the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Internationally recognized as a conductor and organ recitalist, James O’Donnell has performed all over the world, including the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout Europe. As soloist and director James O’Donnell has worked with many of Britain’s leading ensembles.

He is music director of St James’ Baroque and appears regularly with the BBC Singers. He is visiting professor of organ and of choral conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and was president of the Royal College of Organists from 2011–13. He is an honorary fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and Doctor of Music honoris causa of the University of Aberdeen.

Before taking up his appointment at Westminster Abbey in January 2000, James O’ Donnell was a junior exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music and then organ scholar of Jesus College, Cambridge.

His first professional appointments were at Westminster Cathedral, where he was for five years assistant and subsequently, for twelve years, master of music. Under his direction the Choir of Westminster Cathedral won the Gramophone “Record of the Year” award for its Hyperion disc of masses by Frank Martin and Pizzetti and a Royal Philharmonic Society award, both unprecedented for a cathedral choir.

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.

Ruben Valenzuela is the Founder and Artistic Director of Bach Collegium San Diego (BCSD). As a conductor and keyboardist he has led BCSD in notable performances of music of the Renaissance, early and high Baroque, early Classical period, as well as music of the twentieth century. Valenzuela’s performances have been described as ‘dramatic’ and ‘vibrant’ and ‘able to unlock the true power of Baroque music’ (SanDiegoStory.com). Under Valenzuela’s leadership, BCSD has achieved international acclaim through virtuosic performances of iconic repertoire, in addition to lesser-known works. Valenzuela and BCSD were the recipients of Early Music America’s 2023 Laurette Goldberg Award for achievement in early music engagement. Additionally, Valenzuela was awarded the 2020 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal by Chorus America. 

With BCSD he has toured to the Festival Internacional del Órgano Barroco in Mexico City, and to the Festival Internacional de Música Renacentista y Barroca Misiones de Chiquito in Bolivia. Recently, he led BCSD and the Pauliner Barockensemble in a noteworthy performance at Bachfest 2024 (Leipzig Germany), with additional performances in Arnstadt and Naumburg. Valenzuela is regularly called upon as a guest director and keyboardist. Notable guest engagements include Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, New York City, Marsh Chapel Choir and Collegium at Boston University, Bach at Emmanuel Church, Boston, Juilliard415 at Lincoln Center, New York City, Washington Bach Consort, Westminster Choir College with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Seraphic Fire. Upcoming engagements include Handel+Haydn Society, Philharmonia Baroque, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, New York City, and the Academia de Música Antigua (UNAM), Mexico City. 

As a musicologist Valenzuela has undertaken research at the Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información Musical, Carlos Chavez (CENEDIM, Mexico City), and at the Archivo del Cabildo of Mexico City Cathedral. In 2016, he presented a paper titled: Mexican Religious Iconography (Angels musicians and the Basso Continuo in Mexico City Cathedral) for the inaugural Historical Performance Institute of the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. 

Valenzuela’s musical interests are wide ranging to include a lifelong interest in Jamaican urban music of the late 1950s and 1960s, and in particular Blue Beat (Jamaican R&B), Ska, Rocksteady, and early Reggay. He is member of the Kingston Beat All-Stars, a Los Angeles based band which performs the music of Jamaica’s musical golden age.

Valenzuela holds a PhD in Musicology from Claremont Graduate University.​​​

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