July 2020

Buzard Pipe Organ Builders, Champaign, Illinois; Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Carmel, Indiana, Opus 45, 2017; Central United Methodist Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas, Opus 46, 2018–2019

Opus 45

“What have you done here!?,” asked Todd Wilson as he leapt off the organ bench to greet me the day before Opus 45’s dedication. Hoping this was a friendly question, I asked to what exactly he was referring. “This organ just about plays itself!” Yes, it was a very friendly question and a complimentary one—even better.

Andrew Schaeffer: Let’s begin by hearing a little bit about your formative years in California.

Thomas Murray: I must begin with the single most important thing, which is that my mother and father were unsparingly supportive of my musical interests. I had piano lessons early and was fortunate to be a member of the Pasadena Boy Choristers when it was still directed by its founder, Dr. John Henry Lyons.

On April 30, 2020, Yale Professor Emeritus Charles Russell Krigbaum died at the age of 91 in Beverly, Massachusetts. To generations of Yale University students he was a much-beloved teacher. His thirty-six years of service on the School of Music faculty spanned the regimes of four deans and five Yale University presidents. His performances, lectures, and masterclasses took him throughout the United States, to Europe, Japan, and the Far East.

The Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians (CRCCM) met at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, California, for its thirty-seventh annual gathering. Rudy de Vos, director of music, designed and directed the gathering with John Renke, organist and director of cathedral operations; Denise Kogler, cathedral event operations manager; and the CRCCM steering committee.

Monday, January 6

Edward J. Sampson, Jr., 77, of North Andover, Massachusetts, died January 2. Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, he attended Northeastern University, where he received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in electrical engineering degrees. He then embarked on a fifty-year career as a systems engineer at Raytheon Company in Bedford and Tewksbury, Massachusetts. In 2008, he was one of the first recipients of the Bishop Cheverus Award of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for his devotion to St. Patrick Parish, Lawrence, and the archdiocese.

Keep your distance.

Stories and conversation

Discovering Spring this summer

In his own words: composer Glenn Spring