August 30, 2019

Acclaimed organist Carole Terry to present concert at SIU

by Christi Mathis

carole-terry-sm.jpgCARBONDALE, Ill. — Internationally recognized concert organist Carole Terry will perform at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in September for the 27th concert in the Marianne Webb and David N. Bateman Distinguished Organ Recital Series.

The SIU School of Music performance is at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 13 at Shryock Auditorium, home of the Marianne Webb Pipe Organ. The concert is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Terry has performed around the globe

Terry is a professor of organ and harpsichord at the University of Washington School of Music and Artist in Residence of Epiphany Parish in Seattle. She has performed at numerous cities and universities across the United States, Europe and the Far East.

A renowned performer and master teacher, she’s especially known for her performances and recordings of German romantic music. Her Carbondale concert will feature selections by Johannes Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn, Johan Sebastian Bach, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Dietrich Buxtehude.

Terry has performed at The Bamboo Organ Festival in Manila, the Attersee Barock Academie in Austria, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Lübeck, Germany, and numerous other festivals, competitions and seminars. She was the first American organist to perform on the new Glatter-Gӧtz organ in the Perm, Russia concert hall and has also participated in various conferences and seminars internationally.

In addition, she has taught in Great Britain, Canada and other locations.

She has performed numerous solo recitals as well, and as resident organist and curator for the Seattle Symphony from 2000-2003, she helped inaugurate the new Watjen Concert Organ, built by C.B. Fisk, in Benaroya Hall.

She has recorded extensively as well, on the organ and the harpsichord.

Faculty couple created concert endowment

Marianne Webb and David N. Bateman established the endowment which now bears their names in 1990 to perpetually fund the Distinguished Organ Recital Series.

Marianne Webb earned her master of music degree at the University of Michigan and continued her studies in the organ while also becoming a university instructor in organ and piano and university organist.

She studied in Paris as a Fulbright Scholar and arrived at SIU in 1965 as a music faculty member. Teaching organ and piano and serving as the university organist, she helped build a thriving department.

Under her direction, the School of Music initiated an annual organ festival, the first if its kind in the country, the following year. It grew to a two-day event and continued for several years.

Webb also led an effort to renovate Shryock Auditorium, including installing a new Reuter pipe organ that she designed. It was named in her honor in 2001. Webb continued to teach at SIU, earning promotions to achieve the rank of professor by 1977.

During her illustrious career, Webb taught, performed, and led conferences, classes, workshops and seminars throughout the world. She earned numerous awards as well.

Though she retired in 2001, she continued to serve as visiting professor and distinguished university organist for 11 years after, passing away in 2013.

Bateman is a management professor emeritus for SIU’s College of Business.