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Views from the Choir Loft

James David Christie • International Performer of the Year

Richard J. Clark · June 15, 2018

NE OF THE HIGHEST honors awarded to an organist comes from the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. In the Fall of 2017, James David Christie was named “International Performer of the Year”. So distinguished is the honor, it has only been awarded eight times since 2000.

To celebrate this award, Christie will perform a concert on Monday, June 18th at 6pm at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York, New York on the Taylor and Boody Organ, Opus 27.

• Tickets for the concert only are FREE, but one must still reserve tickets! Concert plus reception/dinner are $75. Reserve tickets here.

HE NEW YORK CITY Chapter of the American Guild of Organists writes of Christie:

“The deeply admired and greatly lauded concert career of organist James David Christie has been marked by performances literally around the globe as a solo organ recitalist and as a performer and concerto soloist with the world’s greatest symphony orchestras and period instrument ensembles. Especially noted for his engaging solo performances of the works of Renaissance and Baroque composers, Dallas Morning News critic Scott Cantrell stated: ‘There’s a reason James David Christie keeps getting invited to play Baroque music on instruments like this. He does it with both intellectual understanding and visceral flair – and where appropriate, playfulness. He makes the music live and breathe and dance.’ ”

S AN EDUCATOR, James Christie has had a deeply profound impact on the lives of countless musicians. While his credits are notable—and far too numerous to list—(e.g., Organist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chair and Professor of Organ at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Distinguished Artist in Residence at the College of the Holy Cross, etc.) his love of teaching and dedication to his students set Christie apart.

Having studied with Christie for nearly a decade, I enjoyed a front-row seat to one of the world’s great teachers and performers. While the list of his students who have been prizewinners in major international competitions is too numerous to list, he has nurtured and cultivated organists on a broad spectrum of abilities who were hard working and dedicated to the instrument.

He imparts to students many things, but among them is the joy of attending to detail and discovery in scholarship. (“A good organist must also be a good scholar,” he would emphasize). A teacher of music and not simply “his way” of playing, he expects one to apply in one area what one learns in another without prompting. As a result, he expects a high level of self-motivation.

He understands that a student’s emotional state is tied to their ability to work hard—and he worked us very hard. (E.g., He once had me pick him up at Logan Airport after a concert in Los Angeles. We drove directly to Mission Church in Roxbury where he proceeded to grill me for three hours on Franck’s Chorales. As was typical, he joyfully danced around the choir loft, upon occasion stomping to emphasize phrasing. At the end of the night he appeared energized. As a student in my twenties, I was exhausted.)

He teaches with constant encouragement, yet is very tough when warranted. (He called me out when I deserved it.) His expectation of excellence is exceedingly high, and he guides one though the process to achieve it.

Oh, and it is an understatement to say he is funny as heck.

NOTHER SIGN OF A GREAT great teacher is one who wishes to have their students exposed to other great teachers, performers, and experiences. He would have us play for some of the greatest in the world: Marie-Claire Alain, Marie-Louis Langlais, Jean-Pierre Leguay, Jean Boyer, and Harold Vogel to name a few.

Finally, an overriding impression of Christie is the deep joy and love that emanate from his music, and his subsequent desire to impart this love. As a result, many of us owe him our lives.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Pipe Organ Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“The training in singing, to sing in a chorus, is not only an exercise of external listening and of the voice; it is also training for interior listening, listening with the heart, an exercise in training for life and for peace.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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