We sat down with Lynne Davis, who is the Robert L. Town Distinguished Professor of Organ in the School of Music. Davis hosts Wednesdays in Wiedemann and is the producer and artistic director of the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series.
Below is the Q&A between The Sunflower and Davis. Listen to the full episode here.
The Sunflower: So tell us a little bit more about yourself; how long you’ve been at Wichita State; and how you got interested in music, specifically the organ.
Lynne Davis: Well, I’ve been at Wichita State since 2006, so that makes it 17 and a half years, really. It seems like a long time, but before that, I was in France for 35 years. I lived there for a long time. I married a Frenchman. We have a daughter together.
And before that, I was born and raised in Michigan. I went directly from Michigan to France to study with some very, very fine masters of the organ. And I was only going for one year, but I ended up staying more than that, of course —thirty-five—because my teacher was sick, and then I met my husband-to-be.
And I got interested in the organ from a very early age. Our church was very active in music. We had five choirs. My parents met in the church choir, and I had my first organ lesson in the chapel of the very church where they met and where they were married. So it’s quite a meaningful place.
SF: That’s a beautiful story. That’s so touching. So before this interview, I actually read previously that you did teach in Europe, which you mentioned. What was that like?
LD: Well, you know, I’m a dual citizen with France and America. And when I’m over in France, I’m French—totally French —and I’ve adopted their system of conservatory music … If they want to study music, (everybody goes) to some sort of conservatory —and from a young age. And so, it was really wonderful.
I taught basically in Caen, that’s C-A-E-N. It’s in lower Normandy very near the D-Day beaches … So, I spent time in the National Regional Conservatory there, just before I came over here.
I had to become a French citizen, although I was married to a Frenchman. And then, I had to get the certificate of aptitude to be a professor of organ. And that was an exam, almost like a competition because there were over a hundred applicants. There had to be two juries, and only 17 of us got through. And I was the only woman and the only American that year. So to be able to teach in the national French conservatory system, I had to be a French citizen.
SF: Talking about the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series, what is the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series, and how long have you been the director of it?
LD: Well, I’ve been the director of it ever since I’ve been here, since 2006, which I inherited from my professor, Robert L. Town, whose endowed professorship title I hold. But the series is much older than that, and it was founded by a lady named Rie Bloomfield.
And you may know the Bloomfield name because there’s a Sam and Rie Bloomfield Foundation, and they founded different chairs in engineering and business, even the Carillon downtown in the Wichita Sedgwick County Historical Museum. (Rie Bloomfield) loved the organ and decided that, after the organ was built and the hall at the same time in 1986, that she would endow a perpetual organ series.
So I invite three guest organists —distinguished guest organists —a year. We just had our last one for this year. And then next year, there’ll be four because I’ll include myself in a complete recital. So there’ll be four.
SF: I’ve heard of the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series. I just never knew what it was until I did a little bit more research on it. Now, of course, we’re talking about it.
LD: Well, yeah, and it makes use of one of the jewels in the crown of WSU, the organ in Wiedemann Hall. It’s right in the center of campus. And it’s a beautiful, beautiful building, first of all, from the outside.
And then, when you go in, the lobby was given with three big chandeliers by Rie Bloomfield herself. The organ was given by another lady, Gladys Wiedemann.
And you go in at the top of the hall of the seats, and you go in, and you see this beautiful organ case down on the stage. It’s a work of art. It’s a machine because there’s a lot you can see but a lot you don’t see. And it’s, it’s a musical instrument. So I don’t know anybody who hasn’t gone (Davis gasps) when they first see the Marcussen (organ).
SF: That’s awesome. Is Gladys Wiedemann who Wiedemann Hall is named after?
LD: Yes.
SF: Oh, okay.
LD: But she loved the organ, and my predecessor had a very good relationship with her and was able to secure her support for this organ. And one little detail: Marcussen is the name of the Danish organ company—organ building company—who built the organ.
And it cost, in 1986, $500,000, which seems a lot, but today if you had to rebuild that organ—I’m not talking about the hall—it would cost over $3 million. So it’s a valuable piece of property with a lot of different aspects about it.
In fact, I teach about that and the creativity involved in making such a building, such an instrument, in my first-year seminar, which I just started this spring, called the Marcussen, Wiedemann, and You—the student.
SF: That’s cool. That’s a fun little piece of history. So moving on to Wednesdays in Wiedemann, what is that series specifically, and how long have you been presenting it?
LD: That’s been since 2008. (It) started out as a way to bring the organ more regularly in front of a public audience, to give a vehicle for my students to perform if they were advanced enough, and then for me.
And they’re half-hour concerts. They’re basically almost lecture recitals because I talk about the music. They’re videotaped for the organ channel via WSUTV, and there’s a Christmas concert and a Pops concert. In fact, the Pops concert is coming up May 1. It’s here, just in a little while. So it’s a half-hour concert.
Now, (there) have been three concerts per semester. They started out being four a semester. That’s a lot to do. And next year we’re going to have just the Christmas, and the Pops concert, and four distinguished guest artists for the Bloomfield (concert series), instead of three.
They’re live-streamed. All the organ events are live-streamed, too.
SF: So what is the Pops concert?
LD: Well, you know, the organ is a very versatile instrument. (It) is often associated with the church, but it has 600 years of repertoire of use, and mainly it was in, it was really beautifully developed in, the Baroque age because there are fabulous organ cases in churches, mainly in Europe because that’s where it started, but it’s come over here too.
So the pipe organ is extremely interesting, and the organ is a multifaceted instrument. It’s a solo instrument. You could play it by yourself, and you could accompany other instruments, voice, (or) any other instrument, including piano.
And it’s that extra role that I like to highlight in the Pops concert. This particular one on May 1 is going to be the winds of Wiedemann. Now, what could that be?
Well, the organ is already a wind instrument, and I’m having three young gentlemen play tuba, wind instrument, trumpet, wind instrument, and saxophone—another wind instrument … Being pops it’s, it’s going out of the general classic repertoire that the organ has Some pops tunes, maybe some favorite trumpet and organ pieces, that sort of thing.
One time, I had my own band. We did jazz and things like that. It was fun.
SF: So what was that band called? Do you remember?
LD: I called it—what did I call it—The Wednesdays in Wiedemann Band or something like that. I can’t remember.
SF: Is there anything else you would like to discuss that I did not touch on during the interview?
LD: Well, it’s the organ program itself. I’ve had, over the years, many students. Students who have taken organ as a secondary instrument. Of course, majors who have graduated in (the) organ as their primary instrument and those who have just come to make themselves better if they already play the organ.
Even if they just play for a church and want to be able to play hymns better, you can come and we work through all that. It’s all about making oneself better.
Now, I have former students who are in churches around the city, and around the state, and actually in the nation. So, it’s useful for potential students to know that the organ is so versatile, and there is a demand for organists, pianists, keyboardists, and that all works together.
I get requests all the time for organists. ‘Do you know a student, an organist who could come and play for our church or even play the piano?’
So it’s always a very sure method of employment if you want to call it that. And people like engineers, business people, they are very good organ students too, so. Come and contact me whenever you want.
The next Wednesdays in Weidemann concert is on Wednesday, May 1 at 5:15 p.m. in Weidemann Hall. It is a half-hour concert and is free and open to the public.
For more information about the organ program at Wichita State, contact Davis at [email protected] or visit her website here.
