My well-travelled ex-US-journalist husband was appalled when he discovered I had never been to the United States. But he can scoff no more: on the 1st July I packed my bags and headed to the West Coast, for the big American Guild of Organists’ National Convention in Seattle. I told him to imagine nearly a thousand organists in one place, and his mind was suitably boggled.
My primary task was to represent the Royal College of Organists, as we continue to build relationships with our AGO colleagues, and it was great to meet up with them in person, after months of being circumscribed by Zoom protocols.
I was also meeting up there with a British colleague, Anne Marsden Thomas. Anne is a wonderful organ teacher, and was presenting a workshop around her new organ tutor book (with co-writer Frederick Stocken), but both of us had another agenda, as members of the Society of Women Organists: we were planing to get together with the AGO’s Task Force for Gender Equity, and also with Eileen Hunt, the incoming AGO President, and the first female AGO president for quite a long time.
Over some formal meetings and not-so-formal glasses of wine as the convention progressed, Anne and I congratulated the AGO on their programming gender-wise; a quick analysis suggesting that slightly more female performers featured than men. (In the UK, we said, a similar event would be 80-90% male in terms of both performers and attendees.)
We were told that this was no coincidence: from around 2005, AGO Conventions have been mandated to have not more than 60% of men represented in all aspects relating to the conference – so that’s not only organists, but also conductors, workshop presenters, commissioned composers, clergy in services, and members of all the organising committees. A mandate also applies to the AGO’s Pipe Organ Encounters, introducing newcomers to the organ, where faculty members and performers taking part must be at least 40% female.
Let me now mention a few of those terrific female performers we heard from during the convention. We had organ concerts by Yun Kim, Katelyn Emerson, Isabelle Demers, Amanda Mole, Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, Damin Spritzer and Julia Brown. Carol Williams added sparkle to Cocktail Hour in the evenings. Caroline Robinson and Renée Anne Louprette performed in the closing concert. Concerts by the AGO’s Rising Stars programme included young organists Cecily DeMarco, Katherine Jolliff, and Sarah Palmer. The week also included worship services bringing church organists to the fore, including Janet Yieh from New York City, and Käthe Wright Kaufman (an ex-organ scholar from Peterborough Cathedral, and currently based in Atlanta).
Arriving home I opened my latest copy of a UK organist magazine, and the contrast was stark: overwhelmingly male in terms of picture content and contributors. We can, and will do better.
Visit the SWO and AGO Task Force websites for lots of resources around women organists, and women composers:
AGO Task Force for Gender Equity
feature image: the 1965 Flentrop at St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle
