Legacy of Organ

Curtis’s organ department has a proud tradition of attracting the world’s leading organists to its faculty and adding to their ranks with its alumni.

  • I knew of Alan Morrison from very early on in my time as an organist, and I was in awe of his artistry and virtuosity. It is a privilege to learn from him, and being his student feels like being part of a family. He gives musical guidance, but he also emboldens me to experiment and take risks until I truly make a piece my own.

    — Caroline Robinson (Organ ’13), organist & associate choirmaster, Cathedral of St. Philip

Faculty and students alike pursue careers as concert artists with international itineraries, directors at famous churches, and teachers at leading conservatories. Continuing until today, the original vision of the department still rings true: “to foster and develop an increasingly high standard of organ work, one comparable with that set by the most notable artists in other musical fields, befitting the high purpose of the Curtis Institute.”

The department is also notable for its uninterrupted pedagogical lineage since the 1930s. The first two heads of the department served only six years in total, though they had an outsized influence on organ pedagogy and performance. Canadian-born Lynnwood Farnam, who held positions at prominent churches in Boston and New York, suffered an early death three years after his appointment. His successor, Fernando Germani, was an Italian organ virtuoso who spent two years at Curtis before joining the faculties of prestigious academies in Rome and Siena.

Following Germani, the next two department heads remained at Curtis for a combined total of nearly 70 years. Farnam’s student Alexander McCurdy was appointed in 1935 and served in the position for 37 years. Among his notable students was John Weaver, who succeeded him as chair in 1971 and held the position until 2003. The department’s current head is the preeminent American organist Alan Morrison, a student of Weaver who was appointed to the faculty in 2002 and holds the Haas Charitable Trust Chair in Organ Studies.

The Curtis organ department is presently limited to a maximum of five students, guaranteeing each student considerable access to distinguished artist-faculty and maximizing their opportunities to perform not only at Curtis, but across Philadelphia and the Northeast Corridor. Through an anonymous gift made in October 2021, the Curtis organ department became the only comprehensively endowed organ program in the U.S. The gift ensures perpetual funding for a range of special activities that add considerable depth to the studio experience of all future organists at Curtis.

The Curtis Organs

Under Lynnwood Farnam’s watchful eye, the original instrument in Casimir Hall, known today as Field Concert Hall, was installed in 1927. A gift of Cyrus H.K. Curtis, the four-manual Aeolian Op. 1625 represented the most advanced organ building techniques of its day. Letters between Farnam and Mary Louise Curtis Bok held in the Curtis Archives convey their excitement to provide students with such a fine instrument, one also equipped with novel technology to record and play back performances in a manner like that used in creating piano rolls. Through the work of the Aeolian-Skinner and M. P. Möller organ building companies, the instrument was ultimately expanded to five manuals and 116 ranks in time for the 50th anniversary of the school in 1974.

In addition to the flagship instrument in Field Concert Hall, Curtis organists have had consistent access over the decades to the seven-story Wanamaker Grand Court Organ at the department store now known as Macy’s Center City, as well as a variety of studio instruments by Randall Dyer, Oberlinger, and Wahl Organbuilders. A few in-home practice instruments are also on loan to current students.

In 2021, the organ department received an extraordinary anonymous donation. Beyond catalyzing an initiative to eliminate all debt for Curtis’s students, this gift supports organ department activities, including the installation of a new instrument in Field Concert Hall. Curtis has commissioned the Dobson Pipe Organ Builders to craft the instrument, with specifications determined by distinguished alumni Alan Morrison, Nathan Laube, Matthew Glandorf, and Ken Cowan. The instrument will be Dobson’s one hundredth instrument (Op. 100) and will make its debut during Curtis’s centenary. Equipped with such a gem of a teaching instrument, Curtis will be admirably positioned to continue building on the organ department’s impressive legacy of achievement.

Faculty Timeline

  • * Improvisation and career studies
  • Lynnwood Farnam
    Lynwood Farnam
    Organ — 1927-30
  • Fernando Germani
    Organ — 1931-33
  • Alexander McCurdy
    Alexander McCurdy
    Organ — 1935-72
  • John Weaver
    John Weaver
    Organ — 1971-03
  • Matthew Glandorf
    Matthew Glandorf*
    Organ — 1995-Present
  • Alan Morrison playing the organ at the Kimmel Center
    Alan Morrison
    Organ — 2002-Present
  • Jeffrey Brillhart
    Organ — 2024-Present
Alan Morrison teaching an organ class in Field Concert Hall
  • Alan Morrison instructing Thomas Sheehan (‘14) at the Aeolian-Skinner, Op. 1022, in Field Concert Hall.
1928
First Organ Alum

Howard L. Ralston

142
Total Organ Alumni

How many names do you recognize on this list of Curtis organ alumni? View list

5
Organ Studio

There are up to 5 organs students studying at Curtis in any given year.

Noted Organ Alumni

Lynnwood Farnam at the organ

1885–1930
Faculty ’27–’30

Lynnwood Farnam

Among the greatest organists of his day, Farnam created a unique professional life combining church and concert work into one. Beyond realizing lofty musical ideals in performances often praised as “perfection,” he curated afternoon rush-hour concerts for commuters to enjoy amid their daily bustles. Farnam’s portrait still hangs at the doors of Field Concert Hall, a venue that has inspired generations of Curtis organists succeeding him.
Helen Margaret Hewitt

1900–1977
Organ ’31

Helen Margaret Hewitt

Hewitt came to Curtis having already excelled at study under Charles-Marie Widor and Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau. She was the first woman to earn a degree in organ from Curtis. She continued her education at Harvard, where she was the first female Ph.D. in musicology, and went on to pioneer authoritative editions of early Venetian music, blazing a trail in a male- dominated field.
Alexander McCurdy

1905–1983
Organ ’31, Faculty ’35–’72

Alexander McCurdy

McCurdy debuted at New York’s Town Hall and started studying at Curtis in 1927. He toured extensively as a recitalist with his wife, Flora Greenwood (Harp ’32), and was the organist at Philadelphia’s First and Second Presbyterian Churches for 45 years. His students included Richard Darne, George Decker, Cherry Rhodes, and John Weaver, in addition to his many students at Westminster Choir College.
Nancy Poore Tufts

1910–2012
Organ ’37

Nancy Poore Tufts

Tufts, the daughter of an Army physician, grew up in London, China, and the Philippines before settling in Washington, D.C. A beloved organist and choir director, she was also a force behind the revival of handbell ringing. For decades she cultivated the bamboo in her backyard that was the primary food source for pandas at the National Zoo. She left her Curtis education early and drove ambulances during World War II.
Richard Purvis

1913–1994
Organ ’40

Richard Purvis

Purvis joined the Army shortly after graduating and was bandmaster for the 28th Infantry Division. He was taken prisoner by German forces during the Battle of the Bulge and spent the rest of the war in a prison camp. In 1947, he was appointed organist and master of the choristers at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, where he formed a choir school and presided over the 7,466-pipe Aeolian-Skinner he affectionately called “Gussie.”
Donald McDonald and others

Organ ’50

Donald McDonald

McDonald started his undergraduate studies as a pre-medical student at Southern Methodist University. After serving in World War II, he heard McCurdy play and, after an audition on the spot, was invited to Curtis. With help from the GI Bill, McDonald continued his studies, and ultimately held a post at Christ Church United Methodist on Park Avenue in New York City for 30 years.
Cynthia Eney Hoebel

1936–2006
Organ ’59

Cynthia Eney Hoebel

Hoebel is fondly remembered for commanding the console of the Aeolian-Skinner at the Academy of Music on many festive occasions, including the Philadelphia Orchestra’s annual Christmas concerts. She and her husband, a renowned psychologist and neuroscientist, contributed significantly to the organization of music therapy practitioners and the professionalization of the field.
John Weaver

1937–2021
Organ ’59, Faculty ’71–’03

John Weaver

In 1959, Weaver was appointed organist of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, New York. There he met his wife, Marianne, a flautist and chorister. Together they established the Bach Vespers series, making it the first American church to present Bach’s cantatas in their liturgical context. Weaver concurrently held positions at Curtis and Juilliard while maintaining studios at Westminster Choir College and the Manhattan School of Music, making him one of the most prodigious pedagogues of the 20th century.
Joan Lippincott

Organ ’60

Joan Lippincott

Lippincott became McCurdy’s colleague when, at just 31, she was named head of the organ department at Westminster Choir College, at that time the largest organ studies program in the world. She has played hundreds of concerts on historic instruments around the world, and has inaugurated many of the most prominent organs in churches and universities throughout the U.S.
Cherry Rhodes

Organ ’64

Cherry Rhodes

Rhodes was accepted to Curtis at age fourteen and soon made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Two years after graduating, she became the first American organist to win the International Music Competition in Munich. She has taught at USC’s Thornton School of Music since 1975, and with her husband, Ladd Thomas, often performs four-hand, four-feet repertoire.
Garnell Stuart Copeland

1942–1977
Organ ’65

Garnell Stuart Copeland

In 1968, Copeland gave the dedicatory recital for D.C.’s Church of the Epiphany’s new Aeolian-Skinner organ. One of the pieces on the program, “Pageant,” was by his mentor Leo Sowerby. In the waning months of his life, Sowerby came to hear the young prodigy play, and lauded the performance before the whole audience. Copeland died tragically young; a remarkable blossoming career cut far too short.
Robert Gonnella

Organ ’79

Robert Gonnella

Gonnella received a Fulbright Scholar award shortly after graduation to continue his studies in Toulouse with Xavier Darasse. In 1987, he was invited to join the staff of the Théâtre du Capitole, continuing to this day as pianiste chef de chant (head of music), and collaborates with opera singers throughout Europe, including in recitals at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg.
Richard Elliott

Organ ’80

Richard Elliott

During his student years, Elliott served as an assistant organist for Philadelphia’s famed Wanamaker organ. He was an assistant professor of organ at Brigham Young University before being named Tabernacle organist in 1991, a role in which he continues to preside over the 11,623 pipes of the kingly instrument in Salt Lake City’s Temple Square.

Organ ’91, Faculty ’95–present

Matthew Glandorf

A native of Germany, Glandorf received his first organ instruction from Wolfgang Baumgratz at the Bremen Cathedral and entered Curtis at age sixteen. Now a leading figure in Philadelphia’s classical music scene, he is artistic director of the Choral Arts Society and the Bach Festival of Philadelphia. He joined the Curtis faculty in 1995, teaching organ improvisation and career studies courses.
Alan Morrison with Fred Rogers

Organ ’91, Accompanying ’93, Faculty ’02–present

Alan Morrison

Morrison grew up in a musical household. His mother, pianist Jeannine Morrison, enjoyed a lifelong friendship and musical partnership with Joanne Rogers, wife of Mr. Fred Rogers. This led to Morrison being featured in a 1994 Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood episode about special shoes, where he showed off the footwear used to operate an organ’s pedalboard. As the Haas Charitable Trust Chair in Organ Studies, he has taught many of today’s most popular concert artists, teachers, and organists who hold posts at prominent cathedrals and churches.
Ken Cowan

Organ ’97

Ken Cowan

Now professor of organ and head of the organ program at Rice University, Cowan began studying organ at an early age with his father. After Curtis he attended Yale and won a job at Saint Bartholomew’s Church in New York City—a position held by Leopold Stokowski nearly a century earlier. He tours with his wife, violinist Lisa Shihoten, combining forces in exciting virtuoso works.
Ahreum Han

Organ ’07

Ahreum Han

Han was born in Seoul, South Korea. Her family immigrated to Atlanta, Georgia when she was sixteen. She studied at Westminster Choir College with Ken Cowan before entering Curtis. A popular concert artist, she has appeared at venues from Arbon, Switzerland to Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, and appears regularly on the radio show Pipedreams from American Public Media.

1987–2013
Organ ’08

Stephanie Yen-Mun Liem Azar

Accustomed to proving people wrong when told she was too young to accomplish things, Liem Azar was admitted to Curtis at fifteen. She decided to care for others following her own illnesses and applied the empathy she developed as a musician to being a medical student at Columbia. She often joked that if she couldn’t save you as a doctor, she would play your funeral as an organist. Her medical degree was awarded posthumously.
Nathan Laube

Organ ’09

Nathan Laube

A renowned concert organist and educator, Laube is associate professor of organ at the Eastman School of Music and an international consultant in organ studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, U.K. In April 2019, he launched “All the Stops,” a documentary-style radio program on WFMT Chicago highlighting the unique histories of famous organs in Europe and the U.S.
Caroline Robinson

Organ ’13

Caroline Robinson

Robinson serves as associate organist-choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, one of the largest Episcopal congregations in the U.S., where she leads the chorister program. In addition to playing concerts from St. Thomas Fifth Avenue to Notre-Dame du Taur in Toulouse, she is an avid runner who has completed several long-distance races.

Legacy of Curtis

Leading to its centennial year, Curtis began a multi-year project celebrating each of the school’s major areas of study.

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