College organ recital features Crista Miller Oct. 22, first in year’s series

Concert: Goshen College Organ Recital Series featuring Crista Miller, organ
Time and date: 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 22, 2006
Location: Rieth Recital Hall, Goshen College Music Center
Cost: $8 adults, $5 seniors/students. Tickets available via the Goshen College Welcome Center: (574) 535-7566.

GOSHEN, Ind. – Houston organist Crista Miller will present an organ recital in the Goshen College Music Center’s Rieth Recital Hall on Sunday, Oct. 22 at 4 p.m. The recital is the first concert in the 2006-2007 Organ Recital Series.

Miller’s concert program will include performances of works by J.S. Bach, Buxtehude, Mendelssohn, Böghm, Sweelinck, Tore Bjorn Larson, Charles-Marie Widor and contemporary Lebanese composer Naji Hakim.

Much in demand as solo artist, choral conductor, sacred musician, scholar and teacher, Miller has performed in Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, throughout the United States and live on WXXI radio. As music director and cathedral organist at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, Miller is developing a graded music program and oversees the Music Committee responsible for the new cathedral’s new organs. Under her direction, Sacred Heart’s Schola Cantorum recently performed the Houston premiere of Pergolesi’s “Miserere in C Minor” at the University of St. Thomas where Miller is a faculty member. In addition, she organized and directed an area-wide auditioned choir for Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza’s ceremonial receipt of the Pallium from Pope Benedict in June 2005; other tour venues in Rome included St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Mary Major and the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. She is a member of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’s Liturgical Commission.

Miller earned both a doctorate in organ performance and the sacred music diploma at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., studying under Hans Davidsson. There she received the graduate award for the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI), a project that will ultimately deliver about 20 historic-styled organs to the Rochester area. She also served as assistant organist at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, working under Peter DuBois. In 2004, she was one of 28 organists, and the sole U.S. citizen, chosen to participate in the Odense International Organ Competition and Festival in Denmark. In 2002, she was named one of seven semifinalists in the prestigious American Guild of Organists National Young Artists’ Competition in Organ Playing and played at the National Convention in Philadelphia. In 2003, research on cultural influences in the organ works of Naji Hakim found Miller working with the composer in France and Spain.

Miller earned a master’s degree in music from the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, where she was awarded second prizes in the Fort Wayne (Ind.) National Organ Competition and the San Antonio (Texas) William Hall Competition while studying with Robert Bates. In addition, she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Oklahoma State University, where she studied organ with Gerald Frank. Other teachers include Robert Brewer, Robert Jones and Naji Hakim in Paris.

Tickets for the recital are $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, available at the Goshen College Welcome Center: (574) 535-7566.

Upcoming concerts in the 2006-2007 Organ Recital Series include (All recitals held in Rieth Recital Hall):

• Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007, 4 p.m.: John Fast from Eastern Mennonite University
• Friday, Feb. 9, 2007, 7:30 p.m.: Goshen College Chamber Choir, with Christine Thögersen, organ
• Sunday, May 13, 2007, 4 p.m.: Gail Walton from University of Notre Dame

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

###

Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.