Angela Kraft Cross, San Francisco Bay Area organist, pianist and composer,
graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in 1980 with bachelor’s
degrees in Physics and Organ Performance. She then earned her Doctor of Medicine
degree at Loma Linda University, where she subsequently completed her residency in
ophthalmology. In 1993, she completed her Master of Music degree in Piano
Performance at the College of Notre Dame with Thomas LaRatta, with whom she
continues to study. Her organ teachers have included Louis Robilliard, Marie-Louise
Langlais, Sandra Soderlund, S. Leslie Grow, William Porter and Garth Peacock. In 2001,
she was awarded the Associateship credential of the American Guild of Organists
(AAGO) after passing rigorous playing and written examinations. She has studied
composition with Pamela Decker in recent years.
Dr. Kraft Cross has performed extensively on both organ and piano, having given
over four hundred concerts across the United States, in Canada, England, Holland,
France, Hungary, Lesotho and Guam, including such venues as Notre Dame Cathedral,
St. Sulpice and the Madeleine in Paris, Washington National Cathedral in Washington,
D.C., St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Thomas Church in New York City, Methuen
Memorial Music Hall and Trinity Church in Boston, E. Power Biggs’ organ at Harvard,
and Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Southwark Cathedral in London. She
has been featured soloist with local Bay Area ensembles; Master Sinfonia Orchestra,
Soli Deo Gloria, Sine Nomine, Masterworks Chorale, Viva la Musica and the San Jose
Symphonic Choir as well as Seattle’s Philharmonia Northwest Chamber Orchestra and
the Skagit Symphony in northern Washington. In May 2014, Masterworks Chorale
premiered her new choral work Solomon’s Love. In July 2011, she was a featured
recitalist at the San Francisco AGO Region IX Convention. She has released seven
CDs; three with Arkay Records: two on organ (French Romantic and North German
Baroque) and one on piano (Classical Piano Sonatas); and three with Compass Audio in
Europe: (200 Years in the Germanic Tradition, the Majesty of Cavaillé-Coll and a 2CD
set of Mendelssohn’s organ works recorded on the 1801 organ of St Margaret’s
Lothbury, London.) Three of her organ albums have received critical acclaim in The
American Organist magazine. Most recently she has released a CD of her organ
compositions entitled Sharing the Journey, recorded at Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels in Los Angeles. She has served as the organist of the Congregational Church of
San Mateo since 1993, and is currently the Artist in Residence. She is also a staff
organist at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
In addition to her musical career, Dr. Kraft Cross retired in 2011 having worked
for 22 years as an ophthalmic surgeon at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Redwood
City, and now practices ophthalmology with the Peninsula Ophthalmology Group. She is
committed to the musical education of young people, and since 1997 has been
instrumental in organizing an annual Organ Camp for young pianists headquartered at
her church. She is the founding director of the San Francisco Peninsula Organ
Academy, a nonprofit organization formed in 2014 to support young concert organists
with scholarships on short intensive overseas study trips. Dr. Kraft Cross also served as
faculty and or performed in Pipe Organ Encounters in San Francisco 2005, San Diego
2012, and Stanford 2013. She is the Regional Coordinator for Education for Region IX
AGO and a member of the executive board for the Junior Bach Festival in Berkeley. She
is also a member of the Concert Artist Cooperative. Come visit her website at:
www.angelakraftcross.com
Recent Comments