Marilyn Mason (organist)

Marilyn Mason (born June 29, 1925 in Alva , Oklahoma , † April 4, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale , Florida ) was an American organist and music teacher .

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Mason had her first organ lessons from her mother, the organist Myrtle E. Mason . From 1944 she studied with Palmer Christian at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor . After obtaining her master's degree, she studied music analysis in France with Nadia Boulanger and organ with Maurice Duruflé . She earned a doctorate in church music from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (UTS) .

While still a student, she began teaching organ at the University of Michigan in 1947. From 1962 she headed the organ department, from 1965 she was a professor of organ. When she retired in 2014, she was the longest-serving professor to teach at the university. Inaugurated in 1985 by CB Fisk in the University's Blanche Anderson Moore Hall, the School of Music, Theater & Dance named it the Marilyn Mason Organ in her honor.

Mason has performed as a concert organist around the world and has participated in numerous organ competitions as a juror. The American Guild of Organists named her Organist of the Year in 1989. Mason was also an organist at the First Congregational Church in Ann Arbor . She died in 2019 at the age of 93.

swell

• Michigan Live - UM organist and longest-serving faculty member retires after 67 years: 'The organ has meant my life'
• Christine Ammer: "Unsung: A History of Women in American Music" , BookBaby, 2016, ISBN 9781483577005
• The Michigan Daily, October 18, 2007: "60 years behind the keys"
• Organs at Michigan - The Marilyn Mason Organ - Blanche Anderson Moore Hall

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Marilyn Mason Obituary. In: The Ann Arbor News , pre-registration for the April 7, 2019 issue. Accessed April 6, 2019.