Samuel Scheidt: The Art of Variation January 11 at 3PM bachgrounder lecture 35 minutes before concert Anne Laver, organ · Circa 1600 Schroeder Hall, Green Music Center
One of the most important composers of the early German Barqoue, Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) distinguished himself as a master of the variation set, a skill he cultivated from his studies with the Dutchman Jan Pieterszoon Sweeklinck (also known as the ‘Orpheus of Amsterdam’). The peerless organist Anne Laver, featured annual in concert series since 2017, will share a sampling of sacred and secular variations from Tabulatura Nova, Scheidt’s monumental keyboard collection of 1624, and will join with the sings of Circa 1600 to demonstrate the composer’s astonishing skills with the vocal motet and sacred concerto. Come join us to enjoy the sounds and colors of Schroeder Hall’s mighty Brombaugh Opus 9 pipe organ
Anne Laver’s performance activities have taken her across the United States, Europe, Scandinavia, Central America, and Africa. She has been a featured recitalist and clinician at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the Society for Seventeenth Century Music, the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative Festival, the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, and the Göteborg International Organ Academy in Goteborg, Sweden. In 2010, she was awarded second prize in the prestigious American Guild of Organists’ National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP). Anne’s performances have been aired on radio programs including The Organ Loft on the Pacific Northwest’s Classic KING FM, American Public Media’s Pipedreams, WXXI Public Broadcasting’s With Heart and Voice, and Nebraska Public Radio’s Nebraska Concerts series. She released her debut recording, “Reflections of Light” on the Loft label in 2019. Anne is Assistant Professor of Organ and University Organist at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music. In this role, she teaches organ lessons and classes, serves as artistic director for the Malmgren Concert Series, accompanies the Hendricks Chapel Choir, and plays for chapel worship services and special university events. Anne has also taught and led outreach programs at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, most recently serving as Visiting Professor of Organ from 2020-2022. Anne has over twenty years of experience in church music, having led volunteer and professional choir programs in a variety of parishes in upstate New York, Wisconsin, and The Netherlands.
Anne is passionate about advocacy for the organ and the encouragement of young organists. To that end, she has served as director for various youth programs in the Rochester area, including a Pipe Organ Encounter Advanced in 2013, the Eastman Summer Organ Academy in 2014, and a Summer of Opportunity youth employment program for city youth in 2014. She has worked with her Syracuse colleague, composer Natalie Draper, to offer programs for composers who want to write for the organ, and she has given world premiere performances of works by Natalie Draper, Eric Heumann, and Ivan Božičević.
Anne Laver studied organ with Mark Steinbach as an undergraduate student at Brown University and spent a year in The Netherlands studying with Jacques van Oortmerssen at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. While pursuing masters and doctoral degrees at the Eastman School of Music, she studied with Hans Davidsson, William Porter, and David Higgs.
