Binford Organ Recital Series presents

Stephen Buzard
Director of Music & Principal Musician
St. James Cathedral, Chicago


Sunday, May 22, 2022
3:00 p.m.

performing on the Létourneau Pipe Organ in FPC's Sanctuary


His Tuscaloosa program featured works by French composers Marcel Dupré, César Franck, and Maurice Duruflé, as well as well-known hymn tunes, and Leo Sowerby’s “Pageant”, a complex showpiece designed to show off an organist’s pedal technique. Cameras and a screen were set up at the church for audience members to experience Mr. Buzard’s program visually as well as aurally.


This program marks the first since the event was renamed “The Jeff Binford Organ Recital Series”, honoring the retired organist at First Presbyterian Church who founded the recital series in 2016.


CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL CONCERT


FOLLOW ALONG WITH the Organ Concert Program

More about Stephen Buzard

Stephen Buzard is the Director of Music at St. James Cathedral in Chicago.  He is the principal musician at St. James, playing the organ for services and directing the Cathedral Choir.  Mr. Buzard came to St. James from Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City where he served as Assistant Organist until the untimely passing of their Director of Music John Scott in August 2015.  Following this tragedy, Mr. Buzard became Acting Organist and Director of Music, directing the prestigious choir of men and boys in their rigorous routine of daily services.  Mr. Buzard holds a Master of Music degree from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music where he studied organ with Thomas Murray and improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart.  While at Yale, Mr. Buzard served as organ scholar at Trinity on the Green, New Haven, Connecticut; as principal organist of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University; and as organist for Marquand Chapel, Yale Divinity School.


Mr. Buzard earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Westminster Choir College in 2010 where he studied organ with virtuoso Ken Cowan.  While an undergraduate, Mr. Buzard was concurrently organ scholar at Trinity Episcopal Church, Princeton, New Jersey and Director of Music for the Episcopal Church at Princeton University.  Before starting at Yale Mr. Buzard spent a year in England as Senior Organ Scholar of Wells Cathedral where he accompanied and conducted in daily services and assisted in the training of the boy and girl choristers.


Mr. Buzard was raised in a household full of organ music.  His father is the president and founder of Buzard Pipe Organbuilders, and his mother is the organist-choirmaster at the Chapel of St. John the Divine in Champaign, Illinois.  Mr. Buzard was the winner of the 2010 Arthur Poister Competition and the 2009 Joan Lippincott Competition for Excellence in Organ Performance.  Mr. Buzard is an Associate of the American Guild of Organists, winning the Elmer and Associate Prizes for highest score on an AGO exam nationally.  This year he was named one of the “top 20 organists under 30” by The Diapason magazine.


Mr. Buzard is under exclusive management of Karen MacFarlane Artists. For more information, please visit www.stephenbuzard.com.