Ludus Chronalis: Time, Cadence, and Temporality in Keyboard Music and Sacred Spaces

The Department of Organ at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance will host its annual Organ Conference on Sunday, October 5 – Tuesday, October 7, 2025.

The call for proposals closed June 1, 2025. Presentations in the realms of organ, carillon, harpsichord, sacred music, and early music will investigate the relationship and impact of time in its many manifestations – meter, tempo, rhythm, etc. – on musical composition, structure, performance, and instruments, as well as the influence of musical-temporal constructs on the human condition.

Co-conveners: Joseph Gascho, Nicole Keller, Tiffany Ng, and Caroline Robinson (Department of Organ)

2025 Organ Conference Program

Sunday, Oct. 5 – Central Campus

• 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM, Hill Auditorium Lobby – Registration
• 6:15 PM – 6:45 PM, Burton Memorial Tower – Student Carillon Recital – “Notes from the Clock Tower”
• 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM, Hill Auditorium Main Stage – Opening Concert – Nicole Keller, organ – “Cradle of Time”

Monday, Oct. 6 – North Campus*

*Evening concert will take place near downtown Ann Arbor 

• 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM, E.V. Moore Building, Brehm Pavilion – Registration
• 9:00 AM – 9:30 AM, E.V. Moore Building, McIntosh Recital Hall – Joseph Gascho and SMTD Early Music Ensembles – “Musical Time Machines: Ancient and Modern Techniques and Games”
• 9:45 AM – 10:30 AM, E.V. Moore Building, McIntosh Recital Hall – Plenary session with Dr. Christopher Anderson – “It’s About Time: Temporality, Permanence, and the Experience of Music”
• 10:45 AM – 11:30 AM, E.V. Moore Building, Blanche Anderson Moore Recital Hall – Student Performances
• 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM, Lurie Tower – Julie Zhu, recital – “Clapper Shock: A Carillon + Electronics Concert – Pre-requested boxed lunches will be distributed at the recital
• 1:30 PM – 2:15 PM, E.V. Moore Building, Blanche Anderson Moore Recital Hall – Michael Unger, lecture – “D’Anglebert’s Cadences: Pedagogical Lessons in Sonority, Ornamentation and Timing from Préludes non measurés and Continuo Performance”
• 2:15 PM – 3:00 PM, E.V. Moore Building, Blanche Anderson Moore Recital Hall – David Stultz, improvisation and demonstration – “Improvising Baroque Chorale Partita Variations: Using Time, Rhythm, and Meter to Your Advantage”
• 3:00 PM – 3:15 PM, E.V. Moore Building, Brehm Pavilion – Coffee Break
• 3:20 PM – 4:05, E.V. Moore Building, Blanche Anderson Moore Recital Hall – Mikhail Grazhdanov, lecture – “Revisiting the Duple Meter Gigue from Froberger to Bach: Binary Beat Division and the Canarie Rhythm”
• 4:25 PM – 6:00 PM, E.V. Moore Building, Blanche Anderson Moore Recital Hall – Open console time
• 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM, Lurie Tower – Carillon Master Class with Alex Johnson
• 6:30 PM – 7:00 PM, Lurie Tower – Open tower time
• 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Dinner break
• 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church – Organ and Chamber Ensemble Concert

Tuesday, Oct. 7 – Central Campus

• 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM, Hill Auditorium Lobby – Registration
• 9:15 AM – 10:00 AM, Hill Auditorium Main Stage – Matthew Wachtman, recital – “Advent’ageous Music Through the Ages”
• 10:10 AM – 10:55 AM, Hill Auditorium Main Stage – Marc Hannaford, lecture – “Analyzing Timbre and Temporality in Amina Claudine Myer’s Organ Music”
• 11:10 AM – 11: 55 AM, Hill Auditorium Main Stage – Joseph Gascho, lecture – “Harpsichords to Hammonds: Secular and Sacred Keyboards Across and Between Centuries”
• 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM, Burton Memorial Tower – Open Tower Time with guided tours by Tiffany Ng
• 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM Lunch Break
• 1:30 PM – 2:20 PM, Hill Auditorium Main Stage – Nicole Keller and Chase Castle, lecture/performance – “The Sound and Silence of Early America in Ned Rorem’s Organ Music”
  • Concurrent campus event – 1:20 PM – 2:00 PM, Lurie Tower – Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, carillon – “Global Rhythms”
• 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM, Hill Auditorium Main Stage – Joe Balistreri, lecture – “Essentially Free: How Debates about Gregorian Rhythm Transformed Liturgical Organ Music in Late 19th-century France”
• 3:30 PM – 3:45 PM Break
• 3:45 PM – 4:35 PM, Hill Auditorium Main Stage – Caroline Robinson and Hae Won Jang, lecture – “Sacred Proportions and Echoes of Time in Jean-Louis Florentz’s Laudes (Kidân Za-Nageh), Op. 5”
• 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM Dinner Break
• 7:00 PM – 7:45 PM, Burton Memorial Tower – Alex Johnson, carillon guest recital – “Knock Knock, it’s 1510, Carillon Time”
• 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Hill Auditorium Main Stage – Caroline Robinson, organ – “Aesthetic Phasing and Musical Phrasing through Organ History”