Organist James Higdon, the Dane and Polly Bales Professor of Organ and director of the Division of Organ and Church Music at the University of Kansas, will perform at 8:15 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
The concert is part of the university’s Organ Artist Series and is free and open to the public.
James Higdon
Higdon is devoting the recital entirely to the organ works of French composer Jehan Alain, in observance of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The program will include Alain’s major works “Litanies” and “Trois Danses.”
Higdon holds a bachelor’s degree in organ from St. Olaf College, a master’s in music from Northwestern University, and a doctorate in musical arts from the Eastman School of Music. He has studied with Edmund Ladouceur, Robert Kendall, Karel Paukert, David Craighead and Catharine Crozier. He also studied in France with Marie-Claire Alain.
Recent European concert tours include recitals at Notre Dame Cathedral, La Madeleine and Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris; St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna; Chartres Cathedral; and concerts and master classes in Germany, Prague, Poland and Russia.
American recitals include appearances at four regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists.
The Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas is the home of a 41-stop, 56-rank pipe organ built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario.
