Norberto Guinaldo has retired as organist of Garden Grove United Methodist Church, Garden Grove, California, after 58 years of service. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1937, Guinaldo came to the United States in 1959, having studied organ in that city since the age of 16 with the Italian organist Hermes Forti. He holds a master’s degree in theory and composition from the University of California at Riverside. He also studied with Jean Langlais at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, France.
In the United States Guinaldo studied organ with Clarence Mader, who in 1964 was hired as consultant for the new Reuter organ to be installed at the Garden Grove church’s new sanctuary then under construction. Mader recommended to church authorities that they consider hiring Guinaldo. As a composer, he has written in various genres, though especially in organ compositions as can be seen on his website, guinaldopublications.com.
Guinaldo was active as a recitalist and often would premiere his own works, such as his Credo, an hour-long piece in 12 sections, during the 1983 Far West regional convention of the American Guild of Organists. The 1976 Bicentennial project, “The American Organ Sonata in America,” where he featured the revival of 20 sonatas of 19th- and early-20th-century American composers, was presented during five consecutive months ending on July 4. The series was noted in The Diapason as “a most significant project of the Bicentennial Celebration.”
Guinaldo plans to continue publication of his compositions and to keep busy with daily walks, exercises, gardening, reading, and cooking. For more information on Guinaldo, see the two-part series, “Against All Odds: A few inconveniences on the road to becoming an organist,” in the March 2017 issue, pages 20–22, and the April 2017 issue, pages 23–25.
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