Raymond James Brunner, 71, organbuilder and organ historian, died November 17, 2020, in East Petersburg, Pennsylvania. Born June 19, 1949, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he was the author of a comprehensive study of 18th- and 19th-century Pennsylvania German organbuilders and their instruments, That Ingenious Business, published in 1990 by the Pennsylvania German Society. He was a member of the Organ Historical Society and the American Institute of Organbuilders.
Stephen Black died June 25. He was born August 30, 1967, in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended the University of Louisville and received a Master of Musical Arts degree in conducting and organ from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music/Yale School of Music, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1999. At Yale, he directed the Battell Chapel Choir and was the recipient of the Richard French Prize in Choral Conducting. Black went on to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California.
John “Jack” Sievert, 94, of Summerville, South Carolina, died July 24. He was born June 13, 1930, in Lake City, Iowa. After graduation from high school, he attended Drake University, Des Moines, obtaining a Bachelor of Music Education degree. Following this he served a two-year term in the United States Army during the Korean conflict. He then attended Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, earning a Master of Music degree.
