Guest Organist Hosts Seminar on ‘Composing for the Liturgy and for the Organ in Our Time’

Guest organist David Hurd hosts a seminar on “Composing for the Liturgy and for the Organ in Our Time” from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8, in Goodson Chapel – Recital Hall. Hurd is widely recognized as one of the foremost concert organists, sacred music composers and church musicians in the United States. He studied at the Juilliard School, Oberlin College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For 28 years he was professor of sacred music and director of chapel music at the General Theological Seminary in New York City. He has also taught at Duke University, Yale University, The Manhattan School of Music and Westminster Choir College.

In 1977, he received first prizes both in organ playing and improvisation from the International Congress of Organists — the only person ever to win both prizes in the same year. In 2010, he was awarded the Distinguished Composer Award of the American Guild of Organists. Many of his compositions are widely performed, and he is well represented in major church hymnals in the United States and abroad.