 |
Concert and recording artist Christa Rakich is chair of the Organ Department at New England Conservatory in Boston. She is also Artist-in-Residence at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brookline, MA, and directs the Music Program at St. Mark the Evangelist Church in West Hartford, CT. As a Fulbright Scholar, Christa Rakich studied for two years with Anton Heiller at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Organ and German from Oberlin College (Phi Beta Kappa). After receipt of her Master’s degree with honors from New England Conservatory, she was asked to join the faculty there, where she taught for several years. Before returning to teach at NEC, she served on the faculties of Westminster Choir College and the University of Connecticut, as Assistant University Organist at Harvard, and as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania. Active in the American Guild of Organists, she has served as Dean of the Northeast Connecticut Chapter and as a judge for competitions at both regional and national levels. She has been a member of the National Committee for Organ Improvisation, and appears regularly as a performer and presenter at AGO conventions. A prizewinner at international organ competitions (notably Bruges 1976), Rakich has received particular acclaim for her interpretations of the music of J.S. Bach. With keyboardist Peter Sykes, she will perform a complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard works in a series of 34 concerts from 2003 to 2005 aptly named Tuesdays With Sebastian. Christa Rakich is a founding member of Ensemble Duemila, and performs regularly with The Fanfare Consort. As a soloist, she performs under the aegis of Independent Concert Artists. Rakich’s performing career has taken her throughout the United States and Europe. Of her featured concert at the Year 2000 National AGO Convention in Seattle, critics said, “Rakich’s wonderfully natural ebb and flow went right to the music’s heart. The urbane charm and wit certainly came across, as did just the right bit of wildness...” [The American Organist, October 2000]. “Christa Rakich’s performance and playing ability were exquisitely matched to the justly famous Flentrop at St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle. She seemed to innately sense the length of phrase for the magnificent acoustic of this formidable box of a room...” [The Diapason, November 2000]. Released recording include J.S. Bach’s Clavierübung III on the Titanic label, Deferred Voices: Organ Music by Women Composers, and Transcriptions from St. Justin’s, both for AFKA Records, and Christa Rakich in Recital at St. Mark’s Cathedral on the ReZound label. Christa Rakich can also be heard on the 4-CD set Historic Organs of Connecticut, released in 1997 for the Organ Historical Society.
|
