On Friday, September 29 at 8 p.m., Dr. Edward A. Moore, the new minister of
music at National City Christian Church, will present his DC debut organ recital,
teaming up with the church's new associate minister of music, Marvin Mills.
NOTES ON NATIONAL CITY FANFARE
National City Fanfare is a new work commissioned from
composer Aaron David Miller. It was written for Dr. Edward A. Moore to
commemorate his appointment as Minister of Music at National City
Christian Church in Washington, DC. Aaron David Miller is presently
Associate Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Fourth
Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Illinois. A graduate of the Eastman
School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, Dr. Miller is in
great demand as a performer, improviser and composer. In 1996, he won
the top prize at the AGO National Improvisation Competition, and in
1998, he earned the Bach and Improvisation prizes at the Calgary
International Organ Festival Competition. In 1999, his Concerto for Two
Organists was premiered and recorded by the Zurich Symphony for Ethereal
Records. Later this year, six of Aaron's chorale preludes will be
published by Augsburg/Fortress.
EDWARD MOORE
Edward Alan Moore, a native of Girard, OH, is currently serving as
Minister of Music at National City Christian Church in Washington, DC.
Previously he was Director of Music for Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church
in Iowa City, Iowa, where he oversaw a music ministry of nine choral and
instrumental ensembles. Before his position in Iowa, he served as
Director of Music Ministries at Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church in
Rochester, New York. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in
Organ Performance in October 1999 from the Eastman School of Music in
Rochester, where he was a student of Michael Farris. Edward was the
1995-1996 Russell Saunders Organ Scholar at the Eastman School, the
first recipient of this award. He has studied organ improvisation at
Eastman with Gerre Hancock and Richard Erickson and was a research
assistant for Professor Wm. A. Little. He worked closely with Dr.
Little on his Doctoral project, in which he researched the organ works
of German Composer Heinrich Reimann (1850-1906). Edward received his
Master of Music degree from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign in 1993 as a student of Michael Farris. While in
Illinois, he was organist and handbell choir director at the First
Presbyterian Church in Urbana. He served as consultant for a new pipe
organ built for the church by the Martin Ott Company of St. Louis,
working with the builder to design the specifications for the
instrument. Edward performed the dedication recital on the new
instrument in 1998. For this recital, he premiered Preces for a New
Instrument, a new organ composition written for and dedicated to him by
then New York composer Aaron David Miller, now Associate Organist at
Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. The church produced a compact
disc recording of the dedication recital.
He received his Bachelor of Music degree in music and religion from
Grove City College in Western Pennsylvania in 1991, where he studied
with the late Robert Cornelison. Edward's choral conducting training
has been with Fred Stoltzfus and Chester Alwes at the University of
Illinois and Douglas Browne at Grove City College. During the fall
semester 1998 Dr. Moore was a visiting faculty member at the University
of Iowa School of Music while Professor Delbert Disselhorst was on
sabbatical.
Concerts presented at academic institutions include recent recital
performances at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the
University of Iowa. He has also performed at the State University of
New York, Buffalo, the Eastman School of Music, the University of
Illinois, Grove City College and Westminster College. Solo concerts
presented for churches have included recitals in Iowa City, Iowa;
Rochester, New York; Greenville, Pennsylvania; Scottsville, New York;
Champaign, Illinois; Urbana, Illinois; Warren, Ohio; and Youngstown,
Ohio.
Dr. Moore is a member of the American Guild of Organists, the American
Choral Directors Association, the Association of Disciple Musicians and
the Choristers Guild.
MARVIN MILLS
Marvin Mills, a native of Philadelphia, PA, is Associate Minister of
Music at National City Christian Church. Previously he was Director of
Music/Organist at All Souls Church, Unitarian, Washington, DC. Early
music studies were with violin and piano. Further studies were done at
Westminster Choir College as a prizewinner in the Alexander McCurdy
Organ Competition.
He is a member of the National Association of Negro Musicians, former
board member of the Unitarian/ Universalist Musician's Network, and past
dean of the District of Columbia Chapter of the American Guild of
Organists.
He has performed throughout the eastern United States in such places as
the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts, Barns of Wolf Trap Farm Park, and historic churches in
Krakow, Poland, and appeared as guest artist with the Washington Male
Choral, the Concert Artists of Baltimore, the Washington Bach Consort,
the Cathedral Choral Society, and the Folger Consort.
Mr. Mills has performed for numerous chapters of the American Guild of
Organists and was the featured recitalist in the Guild's 1992 and 1996
Centennial national conventions. He opened the 1989 Wendell P. Whalum
Concert Series at Morehouse College, performing for the entire student
body. He was presented in recital by the Washington National Cathedral
in observance of Black History Month 1989 and returned to appear on its
1995 Summer Festival Series.
Mr. Mills has recorded for PBS television the Concerto for Organ,
Strings and Timpani by Francis Poulenc and a digital recording titled
Organ Music from All Souls Church. A compact disk of music by Marcel
Dupré is in production. Mr. Mills can be heard as arranger and
accompanist on a disc of spirituals with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves,
Angels Watching Over Me.
Other accomplishments include a 1986 fellowship from the District of
Columbia Commission on the Arts, and selection as featured recitalist at
the Organ Historical Society 1991 and 1992 Conventions, as well as the
American Guild of Organists 1992 National Convention in Atlanta,
Georgia. In the spring of 1992 he performed the complete organ works of
Johann Sebastian Bach in a weekly series of fourteen programs on the 96
rank Rieger organ at All Souls Church.
Mr. Mills made his West coast debut in July 1992 at the Spreckles Organ
Pavilion International Organ Summer Concert Series in Balboa Park, San
Diego, his New York City recital debut in July 1993 at the Riverside
Church and his orchestra debut with the Jacksonville Symphony in June
1995.
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