Graeme Shields, President

Graeme Shields (b.1992) is a Canadian-born composer and organist whose influences range from the Lutheran music tradition to the experimental confidence of the avant-garde. His compositions, often exercises in dry humour and eccentricity, aim to articulate the mysteries of the past, the spirit, and the unknown. His music often features repetition, audible process, stark juxtaposition, theatrical elements, and a bricolage approach to harmonic language. Through these features and influences, he has generated a body of work that breathes new life into ancient elements like old-world folk tunes and extinct pagan rituals.

Graeme has had works performed across the United States, Canada, and Russia at events such as Florida State University’s New Music Festival, Greenlight New Music Festival, and the Silver Sounds International Chamber Music Competition. His work has been recognized by the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival and the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra. He has also secured artist residencies at Warbler’s Roost in South River, ON (2017) and Azule in Hot Springs, NC (2016).

As an organist, Graeme is a founding member of Vital Organ Project (VOP). Shields has held numerous organist and accompanist positions across the American Midwest, including Organ Scholar at Calvary Episcopal in Cincinnati where he had the privilege to work with Howard Helvey, and the sole accompanist for Turkish American Musical Theatre Alliance, for which he traveled to Istanbul in 2013. These positions have fostered his love for collaborative work and led to his organization of multiple recitals, concert series, and commissions of new music. He currently works as the Director of Worship and Music at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Hinsdale, IL.

Graeme holds degrees from Western Michigan University and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Primary teachers have included Christopher Biggs, Lisa Coons, Justin Rubin, and Karl Schrock.

https://www.graemeshields.com/

Jack LAngdon, Vice President

Jack Langdon (b.1994, Keyeser, Wisconsin) is a musician, video artist, and writer.

Jack creates work that disintegrates commonplace sounds, images, and narratives—reassembling them in strange constructions. His music is gentle and expansive, drawing inspiration from the landscape and folk modernisms of the American Midwest.

Jack is an organist, whose approach to performance investigates the idiomatic qualities of individual organs—utilizing static textures, extended techniques, and electroacoustic augmentations. Jack is a proponent of contemporary organ music and regularly creates new work in collaboration with other performers and composers.

Jack has composed works for Yarn/Wire, Ensemble Dal Niente, Southland Ensemble, members of Talea Ensemble, Trio SÆITENWIND, Minnesota Sinfonia and has collaborated with musicians Will Yager, Sara Constant, Yoshi Weinberg, Jack Yarbrough, Weston Olencki, Graeme Shields, and Jonathan Hannau.

Jack works as a videographer, documenting religious and cultural events in New Hampshire and Vermont as well as project-based documentation of work by artists and musicians.

Jack writes on the political economy of music, sociology of performance, speculative aesthetics, and the poetics of musical machines. Jack is a Music & Economics Area Editor for Shred Magazine.\

Jack is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Tyler Pimm, Treasurer

Tyler Jameson Pimm (b.1991) is a composer, organist, and pianist based in Tucson, AZ. He has had works performed at the Northern Illinois University New Music Festival (2016), Oregon Bach Festival (2016), and the Charlotte New Music Festival (2014). In 2014, Tyler was awarded a grant through the University of Minnesota's Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program to compose new works for the saxophone inspired by Native American idioms. These works were premiered by the saxophone studio at New Mexico State University later that year. Tyler has worked as a church musician the last several years, currently serving as the Director of Music Ministries at St. Peter Parish in Ashton, WI and St. Martin of Tours Parish in Martinstville, WI. He was recently granted a Master of Music in composition from the Northern Illinois University where he served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the theory and aural skills area. Tyler also holds a Bachelor of Music in composition from the University of Minnesota Duluth. He studied organ with James Russell Brown and Justin Rubin and composition with David Maki, Brian Penkrot, Robert Fleisher, and Justin Rubin. Tyler is a founding member of the composer-organist duo Vital Organ Project.

Autumn, Secretary

Autumn (b.1999) is a church organist and composer from Kalamazoo, Michigan. She currently serves First Baptist Church of Kalamazoo as organist, and acts as secretary of Vital Organ Project. Autumn has studied organ privately for four years and has enjoyed a career in music as a performer, accompanist, ensemble member, and composer. Before she began playing the organ, Autumn studied piano and other instruments, and she has always ardently appreciated listening to and playing all kinds of music since a young age.

As an organist, Autumn’s interests are vast, but her primary passion is the French style of organ music. She also loves to unearth “hidden gems” of contemporary organ repertoire; the obscure and rarely-played of 20th century and beyond are a tremendous fascination of hers. Through VOP, she hopes to bring more of those unknown organ works to the public, as well as contributing compositions of her own.