Tuesday
TUESDAY EVENING'S VIDEO PROGRAM IS ARCHIVED BELOW

Welcome by Michael Velting, AGO OrganFest 2020 Chair
Presentation by Jillian Gardner, Convener of AGO Young Organists
Improvised Variations on a Finnish Folk Melody

Kalle Toivio
Winner, 2018 AGO National Competition in Organ Improvisation
Kalle Toivio
Kalle Toivio is an Finnish-American virtuoso concert organist pianist living in New York City. He is the winner of the First Prize at the prestigious American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation held in conjunction with the 2018 AGO National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The Debut CD-Album of Kalle Toivio will be released in the Fall of 2019 by the Pro Organo label. Toivio has played recitals at the Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, Carnegie Hall, Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, and The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
In the Summer of 2019 Dr. Toivio had an extensive tour in Finland and Sweden which included recitals at the Turku and Helsinki Cathedrals, Mänttä Music Festival, Lahti Organ Festival, and a recital in Mörrum, Sweden. Dr. Toivio is the Organist and Director of Music at the Church of Notre Dame in New York and is on the organ faculty of Manhattan School of Music Precollege. Dr. Toivio is the founder and Sub-Dean of the Finland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He graduated with Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance and Church Music from the Sibelius Academy. Dr. Toivio received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Organ Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. He is married to concert pianist and actress, Viktoriya Papayani.
Performance Notes
- Sample set of Église Saint-Étienne, Caen, France
- Cavaillé-Coll (1882–85), sampled by Sonus Paradisi, played via Hauptwerk (specifications)
Presentation by Mary Stutz, AGO Secretary and Councillor for Communications
Presentation by Matthew Burt, AGO Task Force on Strategic Planning
Three American Folk Hymn Settings, John Weaver (b. 1937)

The Rodland Duo
Carol Rodland, viola
Catherine Rodland, organ
The Rodland Duo
The Rodland sisters, Carol, violist, and Catherine, organist, began making music together as children. Their individual careers as award-winning performers and teachers have taken them all over the world, and they began performing together professionally as the Rodland Duo in 2002.
Recent Rodland Duo performances have included residencies and recitals throughout the United States, both in university settings such as the Eastman School of Music, St. Olaf College, Indiana University, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and on concert series in various churches and other venues which house organs. They were featured recitalists at both the 2016 American Guild of Organists National Convention in Houston, Texas, and at the 2016 American Viola Society Festival in Oberlin, Ohio. They have also performed at the Luna Nova New Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee, and at the 38th International Viola Congress in Cincinnati, Ohio, and have been featured on National Public Radio’s "Pipedreams". Critics have called The Rodland Duo’s performances "stunning" and "beyond praise". American Weavings, their acclaimed album on the Crystal Records Label of mostly world-premiere recordings of works written for them, led Gramophone to declare viola and organ "an awesome combination".
The Rodland Duo is actively engaged in commissioning new works for their unusual combination of instruments as well as in creating their own arrangements of existing compositions. Their repertoire spans the gamut from the Baroque to the contemporary. Because organs vary so widely, they adapt their repertoire to each individual venue. When a venue houses a tracker-type organ, the Rodland Duo includes a variety of Baroque-style repertoire, such as the complete sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord of Johann Sebastian Bach, sonatas for viola and harpsichord of Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, arrangements of Marin Marais French Dances, and Daniel Pinkham’s Sonata Da Chiesa. Some of the works commissioned by the Rodland Duo were written explicitly for a tracker-type organ, including David Liptak’s “Ballast”, composed in 2015. When invited to play on a romantic-style organ with orchestral colors, their programs include their own arrangements of works for viola and orchestra, including Max Bruch’s "Romance", Benjamin Britten’s "Lachrymae", and Alan Shulman’s "Theme and Variations". Their arrangements of chorale preludes by Bach and Brahms are audience favorites. Other original works that have been composed for the Rodland Duo include "Teshuvah" by Christopher Gable, and "Concertpiece" and "Three Chorale Preludes" by John Weaver.
In addition to their active performing careers, both Carol and Catherine are dedicated teachers: Carol is Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Juilliard School in New York City and Catherine is Artist in Residence in Organ and Theory at Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Their numerous individual accolades include top prizes at international competitions, such as the Washington International Competition, the Artists International Auditions, the American Guild of Organists National Competition, and the University of Michigan Organ Competition. Their students have been top prizewinners at various competitions and occupy prominent positions in their fields. The Rodland Duo offers individual master classes in addition to concerts, when invited somewhere for a residency.
Performance Notes
- Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, New York
- Austin (1952/91) (specifications)
Presentation of 2020 Ronald G. Pogorzelski and Lester D. Yankee Award to Henry Martin by Eileen Hunt, AGO Vice-President
Nisi Dominus from Vespers of 1610, SV 206, Claudio Monteverdi (1567‑1643)

The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Trinity Baroque Orchestra
Julian Wachner, director
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street has changed the realm of 21st century vocal music, breaking new ground with an artistry described as “blazing with vigour…a choir from heaven” (The Times, London). The choir leads the liturgical music on Sundays at Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel, while performing in Bach+ One, Compline by Candlelight, and many other performances throughout the year, often with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, NOVUS NY, and the Trinity Youth Chorus.
Touring extensively throughout the United States and abroad, the Choir has made appearances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Berkeley Early Music Festival, BAM Next Wave Festival, and the Prototype Festival, in addition to Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and London’s Barbican Theatre. In 2017, they were featured in the 150 Psalms Project, performing at the Utrecht Festival and Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival.
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street has released several recordings on Naxos, Musica Omnia, VIA Recordings, ARSIS, and Avie Records. Trinity is committed to new music, collaborating with living composers including Ellen Reid, Du Yun, Paola Prestini, Ralf Gawlick, Elena Ruehr, and Julia Wolfe, whose 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning and Grammy-nominated work, Anthracite Fields, was recorded with the choir.

Chelsea Chen in conversation with Brenda Portman
Brenda Portman
Brenda Portman holds degrees from Wheaton College, Northwestern University, and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music where she received a full scholarship as first prize winner of the Strader Organ Competition and served as a teaching assistant for the organ department. She has won numerous awards in organ playing competitions. (Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition, Canadian International Organ Competition, Arthur Poister Competition, Fort Wayne National organ-Playing Competition and semifinalist in AGO National Young Artists Competition). She received the S. Lewis Elmer Award for highest score on both the AAGO and FAGO exams combined. She now serves as Resident Organist at Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and teaches organ at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Her compositions have won several awards: Elegy for organ solo won first place in the Twin Cities AGO Composition Competition; Monument for organ solo won third place in District of Columbia Composition Competition. Choral/hymn awards include second place in two divisions of the University of Notre Dame’s Liturgy Alive! Composition Competition (2019) for a hymn O Mystery of Night's Horizon Setting and a women’s choir piece, Laudate Dominum. Her musical setting of new hymn text, Christ, Who Was Before the World Began, was selected for the 300th anniversary of Bruton Parish Episcopal Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her doctoral research on minimalism and twentieth-century Dutch organ music has resulted in published articles in The Diapason and The American Organist.
Prelude and Tarantelle (World premiere), Brenda Portman (b. 1980)

Amanda Mole
Amanda Mole
Amanda Mole is quickly emerging as one of the leading concert organists of her generation. She is the first-prize winner of numerous competitions, including the Tokyo International (2017), Miami International (2016, first and audience), Poister (2014), and Rodland (2014). She was also the first-place recipient of the Peter B. Knock Award (2014). In 2016 she was chosen as one of The Diapason’s “Top 20 Under 30.” Amanda has performed across the USA, Europe, and Japan. In 2015, she was a featured performer at the New Haven Regional AGO Convention. In 2016 and 2018, she performed at both OHS National Conventions and received consistent excellent reviews in The American Organist, The Diapason, and The Tracker, hailing her as a rising "star" and describing her as playing "with authority and flair." She has a solo recording that was released in March 2019 on the Naxos label and her performances have been broadcast nationally on Pipedreams.
Originally from Holden, Massachusetts, Ms. Mole is completing a DMA degree as a student of David Higgs at Eastman. She earned her MM degree from Yale where she studied organ with Martin Jean, and was the only candidate in her class to receive the Church Music Studies Certificate for additional sacred music and theological studies. Prior to Yale she obtained a BM degree with honors at Eastman studying with William Porter. Earlier studies were with Larry Schipull and Patricia Snyder. Amanda is represented in North America by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.
Performance Notes
- St. Malachy’s, New York City
- Aeolian-Skinner (1935) (specifications)
- Score available from Sacred Music Press