The mission of the American Guild of Organists is “to foster a thriving group of musicians to share their knowledge and to inspire passion for the organ”. It is a national and international organization with some 16,500 members in over 300 chapters.
The Greensburg Chapter of the American Guild of Organists was founded in 1983 when the sacred music degrees and certificates were added to the Visual and Performing Arts curriculum.
At that time, the Student Groups were in effect, and students were invited to be a part of the Guild for a nominal fee. The monthly magazines were mailed to the organ professor’s office instead of to the student’s homes. Shortly after, due to the cost, the Guild changed its policy, and all members of the student groups were considered regular members. For a while we renamed our chapter, The Westmoreland-Seton Hill Chapter, so as to be open to anyone in Westmoreland County and then the Seton Hill University Chapter for a number of years. We are now the Greensburg Chapter and encourage all organist in the area to join!
Our chapter has done a wide variety of activities: dinners, picnics, recitals, member recitals, organ, choral, and handbell repertory sessions, chant workshops, hymns festivals, tuning and organ repairs, and tours of the M. P. Moller and Schantz organ factories.
On five occasions, the Pittsburgh Chapter came on buses to Greensburg and to Latrobe to join us for meetings--they were British Organ Music- From Samuel Wesley to Herbert Howells, a play on the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, with organ and choral music, two recitals at Latrobe Presbyterian Church, and one on the new Buzard organ at the Saint Vincent Archabbey. Twelve people have passed the Serving Playing and Colleague Exams which are competence exams in service playing, prepared at the American Guild of Organists’ headquarters in New York City. Five people have had articles published in The American Organist. Twenty-six undergraduate students have earned Master’s degrees in organ performance, choral conducting, vocal performance, and composition, and two have received doctoral degrees in organ performance, and two are presently working on doctorates in composition and organ. It should be noted that hundreds of people have benefitted by attending countless numbers of workshops sponsored by our chapter and the sacred music degree and certificate programs of Seton Hill University.
One of the remarkable accomplishments has been the Grant Recitals which have continued from the mid 1990’s to 2020.
These recitals bring funds for organ and sacred music students of Seton Hill University--funds for organ shoes, music, and tuition for Regional and National Conventions of the American Guild of Organists. Over $45,000 has been earned from these recitals by Diane Bish, Fred Swann, Marilyn Keiser, Adrienne Pavur, Timothy Albrecht, Tamara Albrecht, Tom Trenney, John Sittard, Gregory Hand, Carol Teti, John Schwandt, Caroline Robinson, Edgar Highberger, Sylvia Andrae, Jason Keefer, David von Behren/James Riggs duo, and by many people who had done their undergraduate work at Seton Hill University and had completed master’s or doctoral degrees in organ performance at other schools.
The bulk of the recitals, programs, and study/practice time has been on the large Austin pipe organ at Greensburg’s First Presbyterian Church. We thank the church’s ministers and employees for their total support. We also thank the Latrobe Presbyterian Church for providing funds for master classes for our students.
Edgar Highberger, M.Mus.Ed., M.F.A. (Organ Performance)
Associate Professor of Music and University Organist (Retired)
