Raymond Weidner - Organ Music by Raymond Weidner (2025)

Raymond Weidner was born on November 7, 1947, in Philadelphia, Pennysylvania, and began piano studies at the age of 6. At 13, he began organ studies with David Ulrich in Philadelphia, later studying with Reginald Lunt in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he won an area organ competition sponsored by the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Before attending college he performed on the famous Wanamaker organ in the Philadelphia department store. He attended Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, studying under George Markey and Donald McDonald. Further studies included a M. Mus. degree in organ performance at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and a doctorate from Michigan State University under the tutelage of Corliss Arnold. His doctoral thesis focused on the improvisational techniques of French organist and composer, Charles Tournemire.

Since the age of 16, he has been active as a choir director and organist throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Virginia. While in both Michigan and Oklahoma, he developed community choruses that have garnered prominent reputations. In Oklahoma, he wrote and produced a weekly radio program dedicated to choral music and aired over KCMA-FM. While in Mississippi, he became artistic director of the Metropolitan Chamber Music Society. He has also been a contributing writer to the Choral Journal as well as staff cartoonist for Creator Magazine.

His compositional activities began in 1993 with the publication of three organ works solicited under the auspices of Westminster Choir College and published through Carl Fischer, Inc. Beginning in 2003, Paraclete Press has continued to publish his organ and choral works on a regular basis. Additional works are found in the catalogs of MorningStar Music, St. James Music Press, Wayne Leupold Editions, and Zimbel Press. His choral works have been performed by prominent choral groups throughout the United States and United Kingdom, with premiers at Canterbury and Salisbury Cathedrals and at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, UK, by the Canterbury Singers USA, Carnegie Hall, and the Spoleto Festival. His Psalm 130 for baritone solo, chorus, and orchestra was featured on NPR’s Theme and Variation program and hailed, “a work of epic grandeur,” A review of his French Sketches in The American Organist stated, “If these pieces were advertised as recently discovered works by Mulet or the aforementioned composers [Dupré, Duruflé, et al] there’d be a run on the music store.” In 2011, he won two regional composition contests sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, resulting in works being published by Morning­Star Music (Biblical Sketches) and Wayne Leu­pold Editions (Greensboro Collection). Other significant compositions include: Sonata Brillante and Sonata Capriccioso for organ, Missa Brevis (a cappella choir with optional organ), Psalm 130 (for baritone solo, chorus, and orchestra), Song of Eros (orchestra), Psalm 23 (chorus with orchestra), a string quartet, Anna Lea (opera in two acts), Symphony in E, Caprice (for flute, oboe, and clarinet), and numerous hymns, anthems, and chamber music.

With the exception of Divertimento, all of the pieces on this album are published by Paraclete Press of Orleans, Massachusetts 02653.