About this Artist
After an appointment as Visiting Professor of Music at the University of Oklahoma for Fall 2014, DR. DAMIN SPRITZER has been appointed full-time Assistant Professor of Organ, beginning in Fall of 2015. She continues to serve the Cathedral Church of Saint Matthew in Dallas as Artist-in-Residence for the Cathedral Arts series, and was recently Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas teaching Organ Literature and Sacred Music.
Praised for “enormous sensitivity and musicianship” by the AAM Journal and hailed as “elegantly assured” by the Dallas Morning News, recent recital appearances include the 2012 Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina; the University of Houston 2012 Conference on Historical Eclecticism: Organ Building and Playing in the 21st Century; recitals in Kentucky, California, Arkansas, New York, Oregon, Georgia, and numerous appearances in Texas, including the Meyerson Symphony Center and the Big XII Trombone Conference in Lubbock. She was a featured artist at the AGO Regional Convention in Austin, TX in July of 2013, giving both a recital and a separate lecture on the life and music of R. L. Becker (1882-1956. In October of 2011 she was a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan 51st Annual Conference on Organ Music, and gave a similar lecture and performance about Becker’s music in Louisville, KY in May of 2012. She has written an extended preface for a forth-coming multi-volume critical edition of Becker’s organ works (Wayne Leupold Editions) and is writing a monograph on Becker as well.
Upcoming and recent performances include Sainte-Croix in Orléans, France; Dallas, Texas with Pipedreams; Texas Camerata; Chicago, Illinois at Loyola University; Ft. Worth, Texas at Broadway Baptist; Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Massachusetts; New York City at St. Malachy’s, “The Actor’s Chapel”; a lecture on Becker at the 2016 National AGO convention in Houston; with Aaron David Miller at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; in Sao Paolo, Brazil at Igreja Nossa Senhora de Fátima and Paróquia Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagemin in January of 2016; Oklahoma City at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral; Trinity Episcopal Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma; at St. Philips Episcopal Church in Ardmore, Oklahoma; and the organ dedication recital at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Plano, Texas.
Her second volume of Becker’s organ music was released in November of 2014 for Raven Recordings, and was recorded in Orléans, France in April of 2013 at the Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d'Orléans. It received four stars from Choir & Organ, and the following praise from Classical Music Sentinel: “…Spritzer jumps right into the action with an assured confidence and refined musicality that quite simply reinforces the high level of craftmanship and beauty inherent to the music of composer René Louis Becker...The opening Toccata in B-flat alone, which could easily intimidate many organists with its agitated left-hand and busy pedal work, moves forward at quite a pace under Spritzer's command, and thus reveals its determined musical lines all leading to a powerful finish…her choice of registration for the softly tender Cantilène, Op. 63 demonstrates an organist who knows how to balance colors on a sonic canvas… Both volumes belong on the shelves of all organ music enthusiasts.”
In April of 2011, she released a world premier commercial international recording of the music of René Louis Becker. Recorded in Pithiviers, France in 2010 at the newly renovated historic Cavaillé-Coll organ of the church of Saint-Salomon-Saint-Gregoire de Pithiviers, the disc has received glowing reviews. The 2011 September/October issue of Choir & Organ magazine gave the disc a full five stars, writing further that “Damin Spritzer serves both instrument and music well, alert to the music’s lyrical mien and harmonic muscle, negotiating the III/49 machine with an easy command of drama and a real feeling for Becker’s melody-led, cleanly-executed music…A second volume is eagerly awaited.” The AAM Journalwrote, “The music comes alive under her touch!...This recording is a delight...” And a review from Classical Music Sentinel praised the recording, saying “…Damin Spritzer drives the music along with plenty of forward momentum which adds a singing quality to the melodic lines and an assured rhythmic movement to the toccatas and marches...the final glorious chord of the Marche Triomphale will make you glad you’re alive.” Both recordings are available from numerous sources, including Raven Recordings (www.RavenCD.com).
Dr. Spritzer has been heard on Michael Barone’s nationally-syndicated “Pipedreams®” radio broadcast on programs including: Historical Eclecticism in Houston, Prayers and Alleluias, Twenty-Somethings, Merriment at the Meyerson, and “Pipedreams: Live!” performances at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas in 2005, and at Saint Michael and All Angels in November of 2014. Tracks from her first CD for Raven have also been broadcast on With Heart and Voice® out of Rochester, New York (program 1309, Psalms of Lament, Psalms of Reflection), on RVM radio in Montreal, Quebec, in the Netherlands on HET ORGELUUR op GROOTNIEUWSRADIO 1008 AM, in interview and broadcast on the Catholic Channel, SiriusXM 129, radio talk and music show, Sounds from the Spires, with Dr. Jennifer Pascual, Director of Music at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York, and on WRR 101.1 in Dallas, Texas.
Her Doctor of Musical Arts degree was received from the University of North Texas, and she received her MM in Organ Performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and her BM in Organ Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Leupold Foundation, which is dedicated to the preservation of pipe organ music and culture, and has also been Active in the Dallas Chapter of the AGO in various roles and participates in Oklahoma chapters of the AGO.