PULLMAN, Wash. – Visiting organist Nancy Joyce Cooper will play selected works in a public recital at 8 p.m., Feb. 18, in Bryan Hall Auditorium at Washington State University.
Cooper, a professor of music at the University of Montana, will be performing works by J. S. Bach, French Romantic organist Louis Vierne and 20th century Nigerian, French and American composers. As an active recitalist, researcher and teacher, Cooper has researched the music collection of Thomas Jefferson, and the search has taken her across the United States and to Europe. Her study of the Jeffersonian-era music led her to a position as consultant for the Ken Burns PBS documentary film “Jefferson,” which aired in 1997.
Cooper was awarded both the Performer’s Certificate and the prestigious Artist’s Diploma while she was earning her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at Eastman School of Music in New York. She has performed throughout the United States, Canada, England and Germany and was a featured performer of the American Guild of Organists regional convention in Spokane in 1999.
Cooper also was a harpsichordist for the String Orchestra of the Rockies, organist for the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and served as the dean of the Missoula Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and district convener for the state of Montana.
The recital is co-sponsored by the Pullman-Moscow Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and the WSU School of Music and Theatre Arts. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public but donations will be accepted.
