In this unedited, half-hour long video from 3 March 2019, which was originally live-streamed, Indiana University of Pennsylvania music professor Dr. John Levey interviews Katelyn Emerson, the 2016 First Prize Winner of the American Guild of Organists' National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance, and Dr. Frederick Hohman, the Winner of the 2019 Award in the American Guild of Organists' Pogorzelski-Yankee competition for new organ music composition. The discussion takes place in Cogswell Hall on the campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, in front of the pipe organ once owned by the two men whose names appear as the composition competition sponsors, Mr. Pogorzelski and Mr. Yankee. The occasion highlighted by the interview is the 3 March 2019 premiere of Frederick Hohman’s new 12-minute organ solo work, entitled THE ORGAN ICONS. THE ORGAN ICONS was the work composed by Frederick Hohman in response to his receiving the $10,000 cash award as the 2019 award winner. Following the interview seen here, Katelyn Emerson presented a full recital on the organ at IUP, playing the world premiere of THE ORGAN ICONS as the final work in the first half of the program, just prior to intermission.
While the discussion in the interview centers upon the topics of the new composition and closely related topics, the discourse allows us also to learn a bit about the background of both the recitalist Katelyn Emerson, and composer-organist Frederick Hohman. Some general and abstract ideas about music and composition are discussed, in addition to some of the practical matters that need to be addressed when a composer sets about working with an organist to premiere a new work intended specifically for the pipe organ.
The score to THE ORGAN ICONS is published by Zarex Scores, and it may be purchased exclusively at the Zarex Scores section of the website ProOrgano.com.