CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Biography

Christopher Young is Assistant Professor of Music and Chairman of the Organ Department at the Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington IN. He teaches applied organ and several courses for the organ department, including the graduate organ literature history cycle and classes in church music.

Dr. Young, a native of New England, was the winner of the 1988 National Young Artist Competition of The American Guild of Organists as well as of the 1988 Arthur Poister Competition (Syracuse University). He was also recognized by Musical America as one of their outstanding Young Artists of 1989. His concert career was begun under the auspices of a special young artist program provided by Karen McFarlane Artists, and continued under the Young Organists Cooperative, of which he was a co-director until 1993. Dr. Young has been a featured artist at national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists and he will next be featured at the Region V convention of the Guild in 2005, which is to be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has also been heard on Minnesota Public Radio's "Pipedreams," a program broadcast on National Public Radio, and has appeared in concert with the Rochester (MN) Chamber Chorale, the Minneapolis Chamber Symphony and with his wife, violinist Brenda Brenner.

In addition to concertizing, Dr. Young presents master classes, workshops and lectures. He has given classes and performances at several church music clinics, including the St. Olaf Conference on Music and Theology, and the national convention of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians.

Dr. Young began organ lessons under the tutelage of Marion Anderson while a freshman at Bates College in Lewiston, ME, where, in 1982 he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with High Honors in Music. A graduate of The Eastman School of Music, he earned the DMA degree and the prestigious Performer's Certificate as a student of Russell Saunders, and the MM degree under David Craighead. He previously served as Visiting Instructor of Organ, Piano and Music Theory at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, MN, and Organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Rochester, MN.

Current as of May 2004.