GRANITE CITY HIGH SCHOOL
CLASS OF 1971

Ronald Ebrecht, Wesleyan University Organist, has appeared to critical acclaim for three decades over a territory that spans four continents. He has given master classes and lectures in world-famous conservatories such as Vienna, Sydney, Beijing and across the U.S. He is particularly known for his interpretations of the first editions of Duruflé, and for that composer’s first biography, Maurice Duruflé, 1902-1986, the Last Impressionist, Scarecrow Press, 2002.

His inventive and virtuosic performances in major US centers, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Spoleto USA, and prestigious international venues and festivals, such as Forbidden City Concert Hall, Beijing and Basilica de Guadalupe, Mexico, have garnered rave reviews, such as the following sampling:

Saint James, King Street: “Technical bravado and liturgical understanding”[of Duruflé]…A performance to register favorably in any organ-fancier’s heart.”
Sydney Morning Herald

National Shrine, Washington, D.C.: “…wonderful readings of Duruflé…particularly lively.”
The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians

Spoleto Festival, USA: “…organist of the first rank.”
Charleston Evening Post

Notre-Dame, Paris: “4,000 people made a great storm of clapping.”
Dallas Morning News

Cathedral, Chartres: “a powerful and nuanced presence…seductive variety.”
L ‘Echo Républicain

St-Ouen, Rouen: “…interprets with great clarity, conviction and freshness.”
Paris-Normandie

St-Sernin, Toulouse: “He creates a pleasure, which is great joy to receive and participate in the expansive liveliness of Ronald Ebrecht. A pleasure which is generous with light and infinitely animated movement.”
La Croix

In 2002, Mr. Ebrecht made a performance tour to celebrate the centennial of Duruflé’s birth, presenting premieres of his performing edition of the first versions of the Duruflé Integral in New York City, Vienna, and across southern Germany. 2002 also saw production at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors of a work by his Wesleyan colleague, composer Neely Bruce: Convergence, a large multi-media event that Mr. Ebrecht conceived for the millennium, which received a full-page review in the New York Times commending his clever justaposition of instruments with organ.

Ronald Ebrecht was born in Granite City in 1953. Flourishing early in music at first as a singer, he sang in many Wilson Park summer programs from a very young age as well as in choirs of First Presbyterian Church, under the tutelage of Virginia Moore. He began piano lessons with Don Bloomquist, then with Jack Huckaby, and then with Hulda Griffiths who suggested at age 12, that he continue at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, with Renato Premezzi. There he met Helen Fjerstad, and since he was always most interested in the pipe organ, began organ lessons. During these years, he served as organist at many local churches, especially at Saint Paul’s Episcopal in Alton and continued to be active as accompanist and singer in several Granite City Senior High School vocal ensembles under Ray Voorhees.

After graduating from Granite City Senior High School, Mr. Ebrecht studied at Southern Methodist University, Yale University, and the Schola Cantorum and Sorbonne in Paris, where he began to concentrate on French organ works of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His teachers included Ralph Kirkpatrick, Gerre Hancock, Jean Guillou, and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, who coached his acclaimed international debut at Notre-Dame de Paris in 1976. His performances have been recorded and broadcast by Radio Suisse, Radio France, National Public Television, Connecticut Public Radio, and many others, and also issued by Mode and AFKA.

During his eighteen-year tenure at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut, Mr. Ebrecht has established the renowned festival, Young Virtuosi, that presents emerging artists, as a counterpoint to the international organ recital series that he also curates there. In October of 2003, the University inaugurated a major new concert instrument of his design.

In addition to his work at Wesleyan, Mr. Ebrecht is frequently invited to perform as guest artist and teacher at other institutions, including: Amherst, Baylor, Brown, Central China Conservatory, Beijing, College of Charleston, Connecticut College, Louisiana State, Organistas de Mexico, Oxford, Southern Connecticut State University, Trinity College, University of Connecticut, University of Glasgow, University of North Texas, University of Northern Iowa, University of Redlands, University of Sydney, Vienna Conservatory of Music, and Yale University. Among his many honors, Yale has made him an honorary Associate Fellow.

He is Director of Music at the venerable First Congregational Church, Waterbury, founded in 1691, where his keyboard introductory programs for Waterbury’s schools have reached more than 28,000 young people. Mr. Ebrecht is Dean of the Waterbury Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and regular serves the guild by performing, hosting events, and judging contests, including the 2004 organ composition contest for the national convention.