George Stauffer

Events

  • Bach in Leipzig: The Latest on His Organs and Organ Works
    808 Howell St
    July 7, 2022 @ 10:00 am
    This lively workshop will look at Bach’s activities as an organist in Leipzig in light of recent findings. It will re-examine the organs available to him, including Scheibe’s instruments in the University Church (which Bach surely used for recitals) and the St. John’s Church (which Bach inspected in 1742). And it will reconsider the Schübler Chorales, the Leipzig Chorale Portfolio (the “Great Nineteen Chorales”?), and the special place of the Fantasy & Fugue in C Minor, BWV 537, which may represent Bach’s final thoughts on a “symphonic” prelude and fugue. Although Bach no longer held an organist position in Leipzig, his interest in organ construction, playing, and composition eclipsed even his remarkable achievements in Weimar, leading to works that embraced the new developments in Central German organ building and prepared the ground for the German Romantic style that was soon to come. Attend this workshop and see how this happened.

About

George B. Stauffer is Distinguished Professor of Music History and Dean Emeritus of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. 

Educated at Dartmouth College and Columbia University, he has published eight books on Baroque music and the life and works of J.S. Bach, in particular, including The World of Baroque Music and Bach: Mass in B Minor. He has also contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Organ Yearbook, Bach-Jahrbuch, and many other American, European, and Asian publications. In addition, he has written for The New York Times, New York Review of Books, and The Weekly Standard. He is a former president of the American Bach Society.

As a speaker, Stauffer has lectured at Harvard University, The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, and many other institutions, and he has presented pre-concert talks at Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and many other concert venues.

As an organist, Stauffer studied with Robert Elmore, John Weaver, and Vernon DeTar and served as University Organist and Chapel Music Director at Columbia University for 22 years. He is author (with George Ritchie) of Organ Technique: Modern and Early, editor (with Ernest May) of J.S. Bach as Organist, and general editor of the Leupold Edition of the Complete Organ Works of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is presently at work on a survey of the Bach organ works, to be published by Oxford University Press. 

Additional information is available at: https://www.masongross.rutgers.edu/bio/George-Stauffer