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.
) 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.
