On the Other Side of Locust Street

In the Spring issue of Overtones, organ student Clara Gerdes writes about her real-world training experience as an organ scholar at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, across the street from Curtis’s Lenfest Hall. Clara and fellow Curtis organ student Bryan Dunnewald play an important role within the ambitious sacred music program at the church: accompanying hymns, improvising service music, playing preludes and postludes, and conducting the choirs. “For most organists, and certainly for me and Bryan, the skills of our trade will involve church playing and choir training,” Clara notes. “In learning how to be good assistants, Bryan and I have started to gain many of the skills we need to be good leaders in our profession.”

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