The Eastman School of Music is pleased to announce two new faculty appointments to the Department of Organ and Historical Keyboards: Edoardo Bellotti, Associate Professor of Organ, Harpsichord, and Improvisation; and Nathan Laube, Assistant Professor of Organ (part-time).
David Higgs, Professor of Organ and Chair of the Department of Organ and Historical Keyboards, said, “We are thrilled to have such accomplished virtuosos as Edoardo Bellotti and Nathan Laube join the entire family of the Organ and Historical Keyboards Department: Peter DuBois, Director of the Sacred Music Diploma Program; Nicole Camilleri and Dianne Maynard Christiansen, Instructors of Sacred Music; Stephen Kennedy, Instructor of Sacred Music and Collegiate Instructor in Organ for Eastman Community Music School; Annie Laver, Instructor of Keyboard Technique and Organ Literature; Michael Unger, Instructor of Harpsichord and Organ Literature; and Kristian Bezuidenhout, Instructor of Historical Keyboards.
“Affiliate faculty are Professor Emerita of Musicology Kerala Snyder; Professor Emeritus of Musicology Jürgen Thym, and Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the Sibley Music Library Dan Zager. Together these expert performers, pedagogues, and scholars work toward the goal of offering to organ students a comprehensive education, helping to create musicians who are equipped to engage with the larger world in multi-faceted careers and to become leaders of the profession in the global culture of the 21st century,” said Higgs.
Bellotti is Professor of Organ at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, Germany. A virtuoso organist and renowned improviser, Bellotti performs at leading festivals and concert venues throughout the world. Bellotti is considered a leading expert in the performance of Renaissance and Baroque keyboard music. He is Artistic Director of the Smarano International Organ and Clavichord Academy in Trento and artistic consultant for the Due Organi in Concerto Festival in Milan.
He is currently collaborating in a project of new organ music and visual art in Milan, in conjunction with the art installation of the American minimalist Dan Flavin. He has performed the complete works of César Franck, and has worked with both modern and period orchestras in Italy and abroad, performing a wide spectrum of repertoire, including the Italian premiere of Satyagraha by Philip Glass.
Bellotti combines his international performing career with musicological research and teaching, publishing articles as well as new critical editions of music of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has been professor of organ at several important music schools in his native Italy and in Germany as well. He has also served as artistic consultant for the restoration of historical organs in Italy, Germany, and the United States. He has made several critically acclaimed recordings on historical instruments, including Promenade (Loft Recordings), a recording combining organ repertoire with original improvisations on the Eastman School of Music’s Italian Baroque organ at the Memorial Art Gallery. In 2005, Prof. Bellotti played one of the inaugural recitals on this instrument.
A star among young classical musicians, concert organist Laube has earned a place among the organ world’s elite performers. His recent and upcoming performances include major venues in the United States and Europe: Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Washington National Cathedral, The Mother Church (Boston), Verizon Hall (Philadelphia), Overture Hall (Madison WI), Trinity Cathedral (Portland OR), First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, The Ballroom at Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square PA), Jacoby Symphony Hall (Jacksonville, FL), Spivey Hall (Morrow, GA), Stiftskirche (Stuttgart, Germany), Notre-Dame-du-Taur (Toulouse, France), Cathédrale Saint-Alain (Lavaur, France), and the collegiate chapels of Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA), Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), and the University of Chicago.
In Europe, Laube has performed five tours of the United Kingdom, which included concerts at York Minster, Canterbury Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, and Truro Cathedral, among others. In May 2012 he performed in the opening concert of the 2012 Dresden Music Festival at the Frauenkirche.
Laube has been a featured performer at the 2009, 2011, and 2012 national conventions of the Organ Historical Society. For the American Guild of Organists, he was featured at their 2010 national convention in Washington, DC, and more recently in 2012 at the Guild’s national convention in Nashville, where he performed with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, he will be a featured performer at three regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. Nathan currently serves as Artist in Residence at the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, France.
# # #