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Thomas Fielding Prize–winning organist and composer Thomas Fielding is a doctoral degree student at the Indiana University School of Music where he has studied composition with David Dzubay, Don Freund, and Sven– David Sandström. Among his many recent awards include one of two equal prizes in the Fanfare for Our Fiftieth competition sponsored by the DuPage Symphony Orchestra, Chicago, IL, and one of two equal prizes in the Welcome Christmas! 2003 carol composition competition offered by Phillip Brunelle’s VocalEssence ensemble and the American Composers’ Forum. He also won first prize in the solo songs division of the Emil and Ruth Beyer composition awards sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs. |
| Additionally, Mr. Fielding has won first prizes from organ performance competitions in New York and California , full-tuition scholarships from Indiana University , and has performed in England , Wales , the Netherlands , and France . He publishes with E. C. Schirmer Music and his music had been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition. He is currently the organist/assistant choir director for St. Mark’s Church in Bloomington , IN. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, reading, and being outdoors. For more information, access www.thomasfielding.com. | |
Answering the question of "why compose at all?" is something of a complicated issue for one whose primary experience and qualifications are in organ performance. While there is obviously a long and illustrious list of first-rate composers who were also first-rate organists - Buxtehude, Bach, Mozart, Bruckner, Brahms, Messiaen - our age clings a little more to the tenets of specialization, often to the point of formally discouraging one from working and succeeding "outside" of one's "own field." ECS has not succumbed to this sort of thinking by making solid, not arbitrary, decisions based primarily upon the content of the works they receive for review, and have thus won a special place in my estimation. So, I am an organist who composes. Composing takes much energy and creativity and, potentially, time away from practicing. For the composer of modest ambition, it is not one's primary source of income. Given these apparent "limitations," my continued source of inspiration has been an immersion in the realities of the human condition, imperfect as it is, but not truly lost. My Christmas carol Behold the Dark and Bitter Night for SATB chorus and harp is a particularly poignant essay on this subject. Premiered by Philip Brunelle's St. Paul-based ensemble VocalEssence during their 2003 Welcome! Christmas concerts and subsequently broadcast on National Public Radio, the piece has since received many performances by every sort of choir from coast to coast in a response that has been as overwhelming as it has been truly moving. The materials are simple enough, locked as they are in a stylistic struggle between the smooth sweetness of the chorus, the inchoate gestures of the harp, and the harsh but ultimately redeemed subject of the text. That so many people of different backgrounds and experience have taken the risk to program this work of a virtually unknown composer has been a moving testament to the power of genuine art to unite humanity. It is a humbling privilege and inspiring thing to participate in such events. © 2008 ECS Publishing. All rights reserved. |
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