Saturday, June 8, 5:00pm – 6:45pm
Some 32 members were present for a dinner meeting at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John with guest speaker Michael Barone, host of Minnesota Public Radio’s “Pipedreams” for the past 35 years. Billed as arguably the definitive radio program for the advancement of the organ and its music, Mr. Barone recounted the serendipitous events leading up to the launch of the weekly series in 1982. Following the dinner and meeting, the group adjourned to the church to hear a wonderfully varied recital by Dr. Patrick Scott, organist and associate choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip (Episcopal) in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Scott chose a program ranging from Bach to classic French to the contemporary, ending with improvisations on submitted themes. The concert was part of the Reuter Organ Festival at the Cathedral of St. John, and was presented in conjunction with the Cathedral and the Albuquerque Chapter of AGO.
J. Michael Barone
Barone’s interest in organ music began in his teens, at first listening to recordings then playing at his hometown church in Kingston, Pennsylvania. He attended Oberlin College, worked at the student-run WOBC-FM radio station, and graduated from Oberlin Conservatory in 1968. He began his professional radio career as the music director of KSJR-FM located at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota which evolved into Minnesota Public Radio, where he served as classical music director for 25 years.
As host and senior executive producer of Pipedreams, he is recognized nationally for his outstanding contributions to the world of organ music. Pipedreams began in 1982, and it remains the only nationally distributed weekly radio program exploring the art of the pipe organ. Michael’s talent and commitment have been recognized with numerous awards, including the American Guild of Organists President’s Award in 1996, the Distinguished Service Award of the Organ Historical Society in 1997 and the 2001 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. In November 2002 he was selected for induction to the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame.. You can listen to the Pipedreams audio at www.yourclassical.org.
Listen to What Michael Barone said . . .
Dr. Patrick Scott
Patrick A. Scott is Assistant Organist-Choirmaster at the Cathedral of Saint Philip, Atlanta, appointed beginning in September 2014. A native of Picayune, Mississippi, he holds the Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance from Birmingham-Southern College where he studied with Dr. James Cook. As a student of world-renowned organists, Drs. Judith and Gerre Hancock, Patrick earned the Master of Music in Organ Performance and Sacred Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance, both from The University of Texas at Austin. His other major teachers have included Betty Polk, Kathy Vail, and Betty Breland.
Dr. Scott is quickly becoming one of the nation’s prominent young organists having been awarded the first prize as well as the audience prize in the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation held at the 2014 AGO National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. While in Boston, he was also awarded second prize in the Schoenstein Hymn Playing Competition, making him the only organist to be a finalist in multiple competitions at one convention.
An active recitalist and accompanist, Dr. Scott has appeared in concert throughout the United States, as well as in France, Prague, Austria, and Scotland with engagements this summer in England and Ireland. He has been heard on Pipedreams Live! and Houston-based, PipeWorks. In 2009 he was the recipient of a grant from the Bedient Organ Company and the Florence Gould Foundation to study and perform on historic instruments of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries in France. In the summer of 2010, Patrick was accepted into The University of Texas at Austin’s Maymester Study Abroad Program where he traveled to England and studied the English Sacred Choral Music tradition at schools, churches, and cathedrals in London, Cambridge, Oxford, and Winchester.
American Guild of Organists 