World Renowned Organist Will Play as Final Performance of the 2007-2008 Chapel Artist Series

WORCESTER, Mass. – Lynne Davis, a leading international concert organist will perform on Sunday, April 13 at 3 p.m. in the Saint Joseph Memorial Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross.  The event is free, handicap accessible, and open to the public.

As part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, the program will feature organ works by J.S. Bach, Georg Boehm, Samuel Scheidt, and Jehan Alain. This concert, as well as the entire 2007-2008 Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, is dedicated to the memory of renowned composer Daniel Pinkham, who died in December of 2006.

Davis graduated with honors from the University of Michigan. Shortly after, she moved to France where she studied with numerous European master organists. For 30 years, Davis remained in France.  She married Pierre Firmin-Didot, founder of the Chartres International Organ Competition. The couple was very involved in the French organ music scene, opening the famous 1992 exhibition and recording of “Les Orgues de Paris.”

Davis’s career began when she won first place at the renowned St. Albans International Organ Competition in England.  From there, she went on to perform at two American Guild of Organist national conventions and participate as a member of international competition juries, concerts, master classes and lectures about French organ history and literature. Her unique living and working experience in France gives her the status of world authority in all French organ repertoire.

Recipient of the “Certificat d’Aptitude de Professeur d’Orgue” delivered by the French government, she was an organ professor at the Conservatory of Music in Clamart, near Paris and worked at the French National Regional Conservatory. In 2006, she was appointed associate professor of organ and holds the Ann & Dennis Ross Endowed Faculty of Distinction chair at Wichita State University School of Music in Kansas. She is also in charge of the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series and directs the Women’s Vocal Ensemble.

Davis performs extensively in both North America and Europe. Her recording, “Musique pour Cathédrales,” won the coveted French 5 Diapasons award. Recently, Davis’ recorded “Lynne Davis en Concert” on the world-renowned Cavaillé-Coll organ at the church of St. Etienne in Caen, France.

Pinkham, one of America’s most active and most-performed composers, taught at New England Conservatory from 1958 until 2000.  In addition to composing, he was an organist, harpsichordist, conductor, pioneer in the early music movement, and longtime music director at Boston’s historic King’s Chapel. With an A.B. and an M.A from Harvard University, his scholarship and work were recognized with a Fulbright Fellowship in 1950 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1962. He received six honorary degrees: New England Conservatory, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Adrian College, Westminster Choir College, Ithaca College, and the Boston Conservatory.