Caroline Robinson
Assistant Professor of Music
Department of Organ
School of Music, Theatre & Dance
University of Michigan
A typical Monday in the Department of Organ at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) offers an exciting array of activities: two carillon recitals, improvisation class, early music ensemble rehearsals, organ studio class and colloquium, and applied lessons for majors and non-majors alike. The rest of the week maintains this energetic pace as students take part in organ literature class, basso continuo coachings, carillon and harpsichord studio classes, ensemble rehearsals, church rehearsals and services, and outside performances.
The U-M Department of Organ is anchored by organ and sacred music (Nicole Keller and Caroline Robinson), carillon (Tiffany Ng), harpsichord and early music (Joseph Gascho), and frequent collaborations with performing arts technology and composition (Julie Zhu, organ affiliate faculty in the Department of Performing Arts Technology). An extensive selection of degree programs allows students to develop a highly personalized course of study. At the undergraduate level, students can pursue a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance and Sacred Music, or a Bachelor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance or in Multidisciplinary Studies: Organ. Graduate programs offer more specialized routes, including five programs at the Masters level: degrees in Carillon, Early Keyboard Instruments, Harpsichord, Organ Performance, and Sacred Music. Doctoral students, supported with funding equal to the full cost of tuition, may pursue a DMA in Organ Performance or in Sacred Music.
Organ Study
In the organ studios, weekly studio classes provide regular opportunities for students to practice performing and receive feedback from peers and faculty. The location of studio class and lessons rotates between the Aeolian-Skinner organ at Hill Auditorium, the Silbermann-inspired Fisk at the E.V. Moore Building, and the large Reuter studio organ. Students are able to study and perform on the instrument best suited to their repertoire, informing registration practice, console technique, and playing to a specific acoustic. Colloquium serves as a time to delve into professional topics including job applications, negotiating contracts, and developing skills in church music such as leading a choir rehearsal and accompanying from the console. Guest speakers and clinicians present throughout the year during colloquium.
At this time, the organ studios have over twenty students between majors and non-majors. Students can choose from a wide array of church jobs in Ann Arbor and the Detroit metropolitan area; currently, any organ major who wishes to have a church position is employed in one. Students gain further performing experience at nearby churches: studio recitals will take place at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Ann Arbor, Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Detroit, and Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church, Dearborn during the 2024–25 academic year. In January 2025, a weekly organ recital series, “Division Street Pipes,” will be launched at St. Andrew’s in the heart of Ann Arbor to cultivate a local audience from neighboring businesses and residences. The series will showcase U-M organ students and faculty on the church’s beautiful new Richards, Fowkes & Co. organ.
The organ curriculum at the University of Michigan is unique in its offering of both survey organ literature courses and courses specific to a particular era of repertoire. In fall 2024, Music of the French Baroque provided the opportunity for students to investigate each form within the genre—from Plein Jeu to Grand Jeu, and everything in between. In addition to reading, listening, and looking at examples, students learned repertoire and received in-class coachings. Discussions of registration, inégal, and ornamentation led to a fuller understanding of the music. The Organ Pedagogy course prepares students to teach future generations by delving into pedagogical resources, practicing teaching firsthand with the guidance of a professor, and formulating individual teaching philosophies. Creativity and scholarship are the leading components of the Improvisation class: students analyze examples from organ and other repertoire to enrich their understanding of form, and individual coachings alongside group classes allow students to explore and grow at their own pace.
Carillon Study
The University of Michigan is home to two contrasting grand carillons: the 53-bell British carillon by John Taylor & Co. (1936) in Burton Memorial Tower, the fourth-heaviest carillon in North America, and the 60-bell Dutch carillon by Royal Eijsbouts (1996) in the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Tower. Additional facilities include three practice carillon keyboards and tower loudspeakers for performances with tape or live electronics.
U-M offers one of the world’s only master’s degrees in carillon, and an option for students in the Sacred Music DMA program to perform one of three dissertation recitals on carillon. The program prepares students for professional carillon careers through the development of artistry and technique across a wide range of styles; hands-on experience in arranging, scholarly research, and community engagement; and intentional cultivation of a repertoire that engages diverse listeners, including music by Indigenous, Black, and gender-minority composers. Within a dynamic studio of 16 to 20 majors and non-majors, students perform and organize public engagement events at both towers with the mentorship of professors Ng and Zhu, who work at the vanguard of diversifying carillon repertoire and championing experimental and electroacoustic music.
With ten carillon recitals offered weekly during the academic year, students gain extensive performing experience and attend recitals by alumni, staff, and faculty performers including Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, who offers coursework in carillon composition. Students learn from visiting masterclass teachers and from making study trips to carillons throughout the Midwest and to the Royal Carillon School in Belgium. Newcomers to the carillon who are pursuing a minor in Dutch Studies can enroll in one or more semesters of lessons with a focus on decolonizing carillon repertoire and history, and students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program work with Prof. Ng on multi-year scholarly research projects, becoming co-authors on landmark publications such as the “International Bibliography of Carillon Music by Women, Transgender, and Nonbinary Composers” (2021) and the multimedia website CarillonWomen.org, the world’s largest source on women in carillon history.
Carillon students gain professional preparation through employment opportunities at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church, and the Kerrytown Chime, and assist with running the annual U-M summer concert series featuring international guest artists. Recent alumni appointments include Carson Landry, full-time University Carillonist at the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY), Anna Shinohara at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church (Houston, TX), and Adrienne Lehnert at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA).
Harpsichord Study
Students in the harpsichord and early keyboard studios develop artistry, technique, scholarly research, and the ability to play music of all periods with integrity and knowledge of specific performance practices. They participate in numerous chamber ensembles on both Baroque and modern instruments and at varied pitch levels, including a Baroque Chamber Orchestra, annual opera productions, a consort of violas da gamba, and regular ensembles focused on collaborative improvisation.
Experts in the field of historic performance practice visit routinely to coach and perform alongside students. Recent guest performers and artists include Kristin von der Göltz, Ellen Hargis, Paul O’Dette, Jean Rondeau, Kenneth Slowik, Masaaki Suzuki, Peter Sykes, The English Concert, and Apollo’s Fire.
Students of the harpsichord will graduate as experienced soloists and continuo players, often having opportunities to play with local ensembles like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Opera. Students also study harpsichord tuning, maintenance, and occasionally even restoration. The university maintains a diverse collection of instruments for the students’ use, including German harpsichords by Keith Hill; Franco-Flemish harpsichords by William Dowd, Peter Fisk, William Hyman, David Sutherland, and Willard Martin; Italian harpsichords by Thomas & Barbara Wolf and Alton Clark; a lautenwerk by Willard Martin; and a continuo organ by Henk Klop.
Associate Professor Gascho also serves as the director of the university’s Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments—an active organization that presents lectures and concerts, loans out dozens of instruments to students every year, and provides opportunities for internships and research connections to curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution. Recent acquisitions, available for student practice and performance, include an original antique Florentine harpsichord, circa 1730; Kirckman and Tchudi harpsichords from the mid-18th century; an 1808 Broadwood fortepiano; an 1866 Erard grand piano; and several modern clavichords.
The Annual University of Michigan Organ Conference
For the past sixty-four years, the Department of Organ has been hosting annual conferences centering on scholarship and innovative performances. Recent conference themes have included a Great Lakes Regional Carillon Gathering (2024), “Time Play: Inventing Future Sounds and Scholarship in the Historical Keyboard Realm” (2023), “Our Own “Clavierübung” Past, Present & Future in American Keyboard Practice” (2022), “Passions and Visions” (2021, live and online), “Visionary Collaborations in Sacred Music, Worship and the Arts” (2020, online), “Building Bach: His Foundations and Futures” (2019), and “Trailblazers: Women’s Impact on Organ, Carillon. Harpsichord and Sacred Music” (2018).
The Department also co-hosted the pathbreaking “Diversity and Belonging: Unsung Keyboard Studies” conference in 2022 with the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, which presented seventeen world premieres and featured more than sixty presenters and performers who covered topics in the areas of diversity, ethnicity, disability, and empowerment in keyboard music.
The Department of Organ at the University of Michigan has a throughline of pedagogical integrity and prioritizing student achievement. Scholarship and research, collaboration, and innovation are central tenets to the Department’s current and future vision. Equipped with knowledge of performance practice and empowered to pursue creative initiatives in the context of the wider community, students graduate with a rich and capacious perspective on how to shape leadership careers in organ, carillon, harpsichord, sacred music, and early music.
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