University of Michigan Organ Department

University of Michigan Organ Department The official Facebook home of the University of Michigan Organ Department Current Faculty
Prof. Nicole Keller, Assistant Professor, University Organist
Prof.

From the University of Michigan Organ Department site,

"The faculty of the Department of Organ, eminent performers and scholars with a broad range of specializations, share a profound commitment to teaching. The department is rich in resources to prepare gifted musicians for professional careers as organists, church musicians, harpsichordists and carillonneurs. This well-rounded career preparat

ion includes development of artistry, technique, scholarly research, and the ability to play music of all periods with integrity and knowledge of specific performance practices. The Department of Organ is internationally known for developing talent - a reputation evidenced by the number of its graduates now enjoying careers as recitalists, university professors, and music directors of large churches." Joseph Gascho, Associate Professor, Harpsichord, Early music; Director of the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments
Prof. Tiffany Ng, Chair, Associate Professor, University Carillonist
Prof. Bálint Karosi, Instructor of Organ and Sacred Music
Prof. Peter Sykes, Instructor of Organ and Harpsichord
Prof. Jeremy David Tarrant, Instructor of Organ and Sacred Music

Congratulations (again!) to Oliver Steissberg, MM ‘26Sacred Music, for his appointment as Director of Music at Trinity L...
05/08/2026

Congratulations (again!) to Oliver Steissberg, MM ‘26Sacred Music, for his appointment as Director of Music at Trinity Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor. He will be responsible for services planning, conducting the Adult Choir, Bell Choir, Modern Worship Ensemble, and developing a Children’s Choir. We will surely benefit from his talent and influence on the Sacred Music scene here in Ann Arbor!

Congratulations to MM student Oliver Stiessberg for successfully completing his degree in sacred music this semester! He...
04/30/2026

Congratulations to MM student Oliver Stiessberg for successfully completing his degree in sacred music this semester! He will graduate from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the commencement ceremony on Friday.
He presented a split-location recital at Hill Auditorium and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, featuring the music of Olivier Messiaen, Herbert Howells, Marcel Dupré, Samuel Scheidt, Felix Mendelssohn, and J.S Bach.

Congratulations to DMA candidates Ye Mee Kim and David Stultz for successfully defending their dissertations this semest...
04/28/2026

Congratulations to DMA candidates Ye Mee Kim and David Stultz for successfully defending their dissertations this semester! They will both be presented with their doctoral hoods from Professor Keller at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance commencement ceremony on Friday.

Ye Mee Kim presented three dissertation recitals, including a collaborative recital featuring works of Hesse, Pinkham, Merkel, Krebs, Saint-Saëns, Gounod, and Franck for organ and voice, oboe, and organ duet; a solo harpsichord recital featuring works of Sweelinck, Scheidemann, Buxtehude, Böhm, Bach, and Krebs; and solo organ recital featuring the works of Senfter, Young Jo Lee, Bolcom, and Vierne. Her scholarly paper is titled “The Use of Psalms in Gustav Merkel’s Selected Organ Sonatas.”

David Stultz presented three dissertation recitals, including a collaborative recital featuring the works of Scheidt, van Noordt, Handel, Marcello, Bach, and improvisations with recorder, cello, voice, and a schola cantorum; a solo harpsichord recital featuring works of CPE Bach, Sutherland, Jacquet de La Guerre, and Scarlatti; and a solo organ recital featuring Bach, Widor, and improvisation. His scholarly paper is titled The German Chorale-Based Partita: A Historical Synthesis, Analysis, and Pedagogical Methodology.”

Congratulations to the Creative Hymn-Playing class for their wonderful playing at this morning’s hymn festival, represen...
04/21/2026

Congratulations to the Creative Hymn-Playing class for their wonderful playing at this morning’s hymn festival, representing the culmination of their work in Professor Robinson’s class this semester. Many different styles of introductions were showcased, including toccata, fanfare, fugal exposition, and ritornello. The students developed reharmonizations and wrote descants, which were played by guest trumpeter and UM alum Oliver Barron. Thanks to First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor for their hospitality this semester; the Schoenstein organ provided a colorful palette for hymn registrations.

On Tuesday, April 21, the Creative Hymn Playing class from the Organ Department at the University of Michigan will offer...
04/17/2026

On Tuesday, April 21, the Creative Hymn Playing class from the Organ Department at the University of Michigan will offer a hymn festival at First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor as the culmination of the course. The festival will begin at 11 AM and last around an hour. Students will demonstrate skills they have learned throughout the semester. The festival will also show off the mighty Schoenstein organ in the sanctuary. Music packets will be distributed to attendees so they can join in singing these festive hymns. We would love to see you there!

We end the third season of DSP with a very special performance by Professor Emeritus James Kibbie! Dr. Kibbie maintains ...
04/13/2026

We end the third season of DSP with a very special performance by Professor Emeritus James Kibbie!

Dr. Kibbie maintains a full schedule of concert, recording, and festival engagements throughout North America and Europe, including appearances at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, Royal Festival Hall in London, Dvořak Hall in Prague, and Lincoln Center in New York.  During his month-long concert tour of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newspaper Pravda hailed him as “a marvelous organist, a brilliant interpreter.” A frequent jury member of international organ competitions, he has himself been awarded the Grand Prix d'Interprétation at the prestigious International Organ Competition of Chartres, France, and is also the only American to have won the International Organ Competition of the Prague Spring Festival in the former Czechoslovakia. James Kibbie is internationally renowned as an authority on the organ music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He has performed the complete cycle of Bach organ works in a series of eighteen recitals and is in constant demand as a Bach recitalist and clinician.  His recordings of the complete Bach works on historic baroque organs in Germany have been welcomed with enthusiastic critical and audience acclaim. “Kibbie plays as though he'd been born to perform Bach,” the music critic James Leonard wrote. Thanks to generous support from Dr. Barbara Furin Sloat in honor of J. Barry Sloat, the University of Michigan is offering Dr. Kibbie's recordings of all 274 Bach works as free internet downloads at https://smtd.umich.edu/bach-organ-works/.
James Kibbie is Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, where his 42-year tenure included service as University Organist and Chair of the Organ Department. His former students hold key positions in college teaching and church music nationally. Among the honors he has received, he is particularly proud of the James Kibbie Scholarship, endowed in perpetuity by the University of Michigan to support students majoring in organ performance and sacred music.

On Monday, the Organ faculty participated in a performance in celebration of the Stearns Collection, a collection of rar...
04/09/2026

On Monday, the Organ faculty participated in a performance in celebration of the Stearns Collection, a collection of rare and preciously preserved instruments that are placed into the hands of students, faculty, and guest artists to continue musical traditions from around the world. Our very own Joseph Gascho is the director of this collection and put together an incredibly diverse program that included Gamelan, a Moog synthesizer, viola da gamba, and a dancing Chinese dragon. It was an amazing celebration of culture, collaboration, and creativity.

Congratulations to Grace Jackson for her new appointment as Assistant Professor of Music at Lebanon Valley College in An...
04/07/2026

Congratulations to Grace Jackson for her new appointment as Assistant Professor of Music at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania, beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year! Grace's responsibilities include teaching organ, class piano, and courses in Organ literature, Sacred Music, and Music and Wellness. She will finish her doctoral work here at Michigan in the Fall of 2026. Well done, Grace!

This Friday, undergraduate student Meghan Wysocki will present a recital on the Baird Carillon on Central Campus! Meghan...
04/06/2026

This Friday, undergraduate student Meghan Wysocki will present a recital on the Baird Carillon on Central Campus! Meghan Wysocki is currently pursuing dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology (Medical) and Music at the University of Michigan, studying carillon under Dr. Tiffany Ng and organ under Dr. Caroline Robinson. Her thesis focuses on how the Mayo Clinic’s Rochester Carillon negotiates an alternate aliveness in the hospital’s bioethical environment. Certified as an Associate Carillonneur by the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, Meghan serves on the editorial board of the national carillon journal and as president of the student-run Carillon Guild at the University of Michigan. She gives weekly recitals at Burton and Lurie Towers, with additional performance experience in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the midwestern United States. A strong advocate for interdisciplinarity, Meghan helped launch the University's arts prescription program and is the recipient of the U-M Jack Meiland Scholarship (2025), U-M Honors Summer Fellowship (2025), and MIPA Michigan Journalist of the Year designation (2022). Meghan studied carillon under Carson Landry from 2022–2024 and is a native of Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

We have a few more Division Street Pipes recitals to finish up this semester! Benjamin Sidoti will present our next reci...
04/06/2026

We have a few more Division Street Pipes recitals to finish up this semester! Benjamin Sidoti will present our next recital, this Thursday at St. Andrew’s!
Benjamin Sidoti is a second year undergraduate student at the University of Michigan studying organ performance with Professor Nicole Keller and pursuing a dual degree in Earth and Environmental Science. Previously, Ben studied piano and organ with Dr. Ilona Kubiaczyk-Adler for five years in his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona. From 2019-2024, Ben was a recipient of the Central Arizona Chapter of the American Guild of Organists’s scholarship to study organ, performing at scholarship student recitals and participating in workshops and masterclasses. In November 2023, Ben placed as a finalist in the National High School Organ Competition at Baylor University. In his free time, Ben enjoys hiking, backpacking, and planking.

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1100 Baits Drive
Ann Arbor, MI
48109

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https://smtd.umich.edu/department/department-of-organ/

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