Duo Majoya
Marnie Giesbrecht and Joachim Segger are Duo Majoya. Their duo repertoire includes piano duets, organ duets and duets for organ and piano. Concert programs are eclectic and innovative, including a broad range of original, commissioned and arranged works. They have performed extensively in North America, Europe and South Africa. Regular performers in the Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton, and Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, performances also include Los Angeles, California (American Guild of Organists national convention); Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris; St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna; Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche, Berlin; Marienkirche, Legnica, Poland and Winchester Cathedral, England.
Upcoming concerts include the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Shenzhen Concert Hall, China and the Santa Rita International Organ Festival, Torino, Italy. Duo Majoya has performed from coast to coast in Canada on concert series, at conventions and organ festivals. They have performed and given workshops on organ and piano extensively in the United States and Canada.
Duo Majoya’s latest collaborative CD Duo Majoya: Organ Duets on the Davis Concert Organ will be launched on Monday, August 23, 2010 at a free noon hour concert at the Winspear Centre for Music, sponsored by the Davis Trust.
Other CDs are Skyscape (organ and piano, recorded in Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary, 2002), The Elegance and the Ecstasy (piano duets, 2000), Transcriptions for Two (organ duet, organ and piano, 1997) and Dancing Ice (solo and duo Canadian organ music, 1993). Duo Majoya's CD Skyscape was awarded “5 out of 5 stars” by Rick Phillips on CBC Sound Advice (January 2003).
Commissioned works by Canadian composers include Duet Suite for Organ: From the Musical Memoirs of a Canadian Organist by Jacobus Kloppers; O Sacred Head (organ duet) by Charles Stolte and works for organ and piano by Howard Bashaw, Denis Bédard and Jeffrey McCune. American composer and jazz musician Joe Utterback composed two Jazz Suites for piano and organ for the duo. Duo Majoya’s organ and piano recital at the American Guild of Organists’ Convention in Los Angeles, July 2004, received an immediate standing ovation and was hailed as “Sensational!!” by Guild President and Program Committee Chair, Fred Swann.
Trailblazers of contemporary repertoire for the unusual combination of organ and piano, Duo Majoya has explored and expanded the vast and kaleidoscopic tone colour possibilities through performances of arrangements (transcriptions) and commissioned works. Their success encouraged and directly influenced others throughout North America to form duos (such as the New York Organ and Piano Duo) and to commission more works for organ and piano.
Dr. Marnie Giesbrecht is Professor of Music at the University of Alberta. Dr. Joachim Segger is Professor and Chair of the Music Department at The King’s University College, Edmonton. Giesbrecht and Segger direct the music at First Presbyterian Church in Edmonton, AB, Canada.