Past Concerts
August 17, 2002
Jonas Nordwall Bio | Raffle Prizes
Jonas Nordwall
Jonas Nordwall, world-renowned virtuoso organist, is a rare musician, equally skilled in both classical and popular music. He has toured North America presenting concerts in concert halls, churches and performing arts centers. Internationally, he has performed in Europe, China, Japan, and has played five concert tours in Australia. In 1999 he was an adjudicator, clinician and guest artist for the Swiss International Organ Competition in Geneva, Switzerland.
Nordwall has recorded over 20 highly acclaimed recordings for various labels. His recordings are frequently heard on Pipe Dreams, a nationally syndicated public radio program.
A Portland, Oregon native, Nordwall is a 1970 graduate of the University of Portland, where he studied organ, piano and orchestration with Arthur Hitchcock. Hitchcock’s diverse background included motion picture scoring as well as principal pianist for 20th Century Fox Studios. Additional studies were with English/Canadian concert organist Frederick Geoghegan, American virtuoso organist Richard Ellsasser and Richard Purvis, eminent composer-organist of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral.
A professional church musician since high school, Nordwall is the organist for Portland’s First United Methodist Church, a position held since 1971. Presently he is also the Director of Music overseeing one of the finest music ministries in the US. He has played for many national church gatherings, been an accompanist for American Choral Director’s Association events and also a recitalist for several American Guild of Organists Regional Conventions.
As the organist for the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Nordwall has been a featured soloist for several of their concerts and also recorded with the orchestra on the Delos label. Other solo orchestral appearances include the Vancouver, B.C. Symphony Orchestra, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Portland Festival Orchestra and the Vancouver, Washington Symphony Orchestra.
During the late 1960s Nordwall was one of few organists professionally playing theatre pipe organs. He was the last house organist at both the Paramount and Oriental Theatres in Portland. Continuing in the theatre venue, he became the Senior Staff Organist for the Organ Grinder Corporation. He played large, customized Wurlitzer theatre pipe organs in lavish restaurants in both Portland and Denver, Colorado. In addition to his many theatre organ concert appearances, he is a frequent artist for national conventions of the American Theatre Organ Society and received their “Organist of the Year” award in 1987.
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Raffle Prizes
The following prizes were raffled off after the concert:
1st Prize - $130 pair of Oakley Sun Glasses
2nd Prize - $45 gift set from Oliver & CO.
3rd Prize - $15 Bailey Coy Gift Card and Hartley & Marks Journal and Music
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