Prestant
New member
I am Prestant (I have a real name too ) and I'm from Sunny South Africa. I am the organist\band leader for a huge congregation in Mokopane, my home town.
Although not a pipe organ I have a magnificent Allen organ at my disposal at church, and I enjoy every minute of playing on her. (She's female, trust me...) Pipe organs in our area are generally small unit instruments with between 2 and 4 ranks, so I'm glad having the Allen as it have more "real" stops...
I enjoy Baroque (spelling?), French Romantic and modern organ music. But, being a church organist I play a lot of hymn arrangements with very clear cantus firmii during services. Our church is a "family church" focusing heavily on the youth, so I tend to keep the "Heavy Bach stuff" to a minimum as I try (try!) to cater for even the youngest members of the church with organ arrangements they can understand. Educating kids (or rather upgrading their standards) is a mammoth task... I do sometimes arrange music for the organ (hymns from our official Hymnal) with a slight modern, pop music feel so kids can relate to the organ on a level they understand. (I'm heavily criticized for this by the purists, but that's tough luck, I don't care.)
More about me? Well I started with recorder lessons when I was 4 years old, went on to piano at age six, had piano and theory as subjects in school. Then went to University of Pretoria and completed a BMus in Musicology, a Postgrad degree at UNISA also in Musicology, and in between several licenciates in organ and church music. I had the wonderful privilege to complete a one-year organ scholarship in the UK.
I work as a page layout artist specializing in layouts of sheet music and academic (music) texts. I have a small advertising paper (USA guys knows this as a Pennysaver). I do have a mass of virtual instruments that I use when designing a score (I use Sibelius), including Hauptwerk from Milan Digital Audio.
Well that's the long and short of it and enough about me. If you want to know more, just ask.
Although not a pipe organ I have a magnificent Allen organ at my disposal at church, and I enjoy every minute of playing on her. (She's female, trust me...) Pipe organs in our area are generally small unit instruments with between 2 and 4 ranks, so I'm glad having the Allen as it have more "real" stops...
I enjoy Baroque (spelling?), French Romantic and modern organ music. But, being a church organist I play a lot of hymn arrangements with very clear cantus firmii during services. Our church is a "family church" focusing heavily on the youth, so I tend to keep the "Heavy Bach stuff" to a minimum as I try (try!) to cater for even the youngest members of the church with organ arrangements they can understand. Educating kids (or rather upgrading their standards) is a mammoth task... I do sometimes arrange music for the organ (hymns from our official Hymnal) with a slight modern, pop music feel so kids can relate to the organ on a level they understand. (I'm heavily criticized for this by the purists, but that's tough luck, I don't care.)
More about me? Well I started with recorder lessons when I was 4 years old, went on to piano at age six, had piano and theory as subjects in school. Then went to University of Pretoria and completed a BMus in Musicology, a Postgrad degree at UNISA also in Musicology, and in between several licenciates in organ and church music. I had the wonderful privilege to complete a one-year organ scholarship in the UK.
I work as a page layout artist specializing in layouts of sheet music and academic (music) texts. I have a small advertising paper (USA guys knows this as a Pennysaver). I do have a mass of virtual instruments that I use when designing a score (I use Sibelius), including Hauptwerk from Milan Digital Audio.
Well that's the long and short of it and enough about me. If you want to know more, just ask.