The King of Instruments

Alcee Chriss III, organist

Alcee Chriss III is widely regarded as one of the leading young organists of our time. A featured star in the PBS documentary Pipe Dreams (2019), Dr. Chriss is an organist and keyboardist from Fort Worth, TX.  He was the first-prize and Bach prize winner at the 2017 Canadian International Organ Competition and winner of  the Firmin Swinnen Silver Medal at the 2016 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition. He has been celebrated for his “grace, skill and abundant proficiency” by the Journal Assist News, Albuquerque. And of his most recent solo recording at Montreal Symphony Hall, Art et Rhapsodie (2019), the American Record Guide wrote that “he plays with clarity, imagination, musicality, virtuosity, and yes, personality.”

The Program

Dietrich Buxtehude: Toccata in D minor, BuxWV 155 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532
Jean-Adam Guilain Pièces d'Orgue pour le Magnifica: Suite du premier Ton
Jean-Philippe Rameau Entrée de Polymnie, from Les Boréades  
Johann Sebastian Bach O Mensch, bewein' dein Sunde gross, BWV 622
Max Reger Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H, op. 46

St. Peter's Episcopal Church
115 West Seventh Street
Charlotte, NC

Dr. Chriss has performed throughout North America and Europe. Recent and upcoming performances include the International Orgelsommer (Stuttgart, Germany), Stockholm City Hall (Sweden), and as soloist with the Montreal Symphony in a performance of Copland’s Symphony for Organ and Orchestra. Other engagements include the Princeton University Chapel, Spreckels Organ Pavilion and International Organ Summer Karlsruhe, Germany.

In July 2019, Dr. Chriss was appointed as University Organist and Artist-in-Residence at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, where he teaches courses in organ and keyboard skills. In October 2019, he was awarded his Doctorate of Music degree from McGill University, where he studied with Hans-Ola Ericsson. He previously studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he received his master’s degree in historical keyboard and a bachelor’s degree in Organ Performance, studying with Olivier Latry, Marie- Louise Langlais, and James David Christie.

Dr. Chriss is active as a church musician, guest lecturer, and remains engaged with his lifelong love of gospel and jazz music. He serves as the Minister of Music at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ridgefield, CT. He also serves on the editorial board of Vox Humana magazine.

He will be playing the Van Ness Hamrick Organ, C. B. Fisk Opus 136 at. St. Peter's Episcopal Church. The organ was designed and built by C. B. Fisk, Inc., of Gloucester, Massachusetts and is a three-manual instrument comprised of forty-one ranks housed in a red oak and mahogany case.

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