Mel Butler - Mel Butler in Recital (2018)

This recording is the fourth of a series celebrating 50 years of the Flentrop organ at Saint Marks Cathedral in Seattle. Mel Butler is Canon Musician Emeritus of Saint Marks and has taught organ improvisation and church music at the University of Washington. Prior to arriving in Seattle in 1991, he was for many years Organist/Choirmaster of the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York. During that time he was also Associate Professor of Church Music at the Eastman School of Music, a violist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director and Conductor of the Rochester Bach Festival Chorus. Mel Butler is a most unusually gifted natural musician who improvises well and plays much of the organ literature out of his head. (Charles Fisk, Organ Builder)