MUSIC

The Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart presents An Opus XIX Pipe Organ Recital with Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart's own Dr. Crista Miller, Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 7:00 PM.

Recently hailed by New York City's Lucid Culture Magazine as "a genuine star on the organ circuit," Crista MILLER is the Associate Director of Music and Cathedral Organist at Houston's Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. There she chaired the Organ Committee responsible for procuring Martin Pasi's Opus XIX pipe organ and initiated two years of inaugural programming.

Dr. Miller has performed in France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, and Canada, including the Svendbørg International Organ Festival; the Festival de Órgano de Asturias Cajastur; two conventions of the American Guild of Organists; and the inaugural Wolff Organ Conference at the University of North Texas.

An award-winning organist in national (Fort Wayne, San Antonio, the American Guild of Organists National Young Artists' Competition in Organ Playing) and international (Odense) competitions, she has also been featured in solo performance at the Washington National Cathedral, St. Thomas Church New York City, and Goshen College. Her service playing as Assistant Organist at Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY, has been broadcast live on WXXI Public Radio.

Dr. Miller directed the Co-Cathedral's Schola Cantorum's liturgical music for Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza's ceremonial receipt of the Pallium from Pope Benedict in Rome in 2005. Until recently, she concurrently served as choir director/organist at the Chapel of St. Basil at the University of St. Thomas and as a member of the Applied Music faculty at Houston Baptist University. She earned the Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) in organ performance and literature and the Sacred Music Diploma at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, studying under Hans Davidsson. There she received the graduate award for the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI), a global organ-building project that will ultimately deliver about twenty new organs to the Rochester area.

Past research on cultural influences in the organ works of Naji Hakim has also found Dr. Miller working with the composer in southern France and Paris. In addition, she earned the Master of Music degree from the University of Houston's Moores School of Music, studying with Robert Bates, Robert Brewer, and Robert Jones. Previously, she earned the Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University, where she studied organ with Gerald Frank.