Marnie Giesbrecht
Short Biography
Marnie Giesbrecht has performed in major cities and universities throughout Canada, the United States, South Africa and Europe. A versatile keyboard artist, she performs regularly as an organ soloist in recitals and with orchestra, as a choral accompanist and chamber musician.
Educated at the University of Alberta, the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N.Y. and the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria, Dr. Giesbrecht is Professor of Music at the University of Alberta where she teaches Organ Performance and related subjects. She is also Adjunct Professor of Music at The King's University College and Co-Music Director (with Joachim Segger) at First Presbyterian Church in Edmonton. As music directors, Giesbrecht and Segger oversaw the restoration and renovation of the 1909 3-manual Casavant organ, completed in 2007.
She was national president of the Royal Canadian College of Organists from 2000 to 2002 and Co-Chair (with Joachim Segger) of Windspiration: Edmonton Organ Festival and RCCO national convention in 2007.
Marnie Giesbrecht performs and records with Joachim Segger as Duo Majoya. Their programs and CDs present a kaleidoscopic variety of organ duets, piano duets and organ and piano duos.
Full Biography
Dr. Giesbrecht studied and concertized as a pianist throughout her undergraduate (University of Alberta) and graduate degrees (Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria and Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N.Y.). Her piano teachers include Ernesto Lejano, Isobel Rolston, Kurt Neum¸ller and Barry Snyder. She won the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers' Association Young Artists' Award and a Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarship for a year of study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
Dr. Giesbrecht studied organ performance with Jacobus Kloppers and Gerhard Krapf. She graduated with a Doctor of Music degree (University of Alberta) in Pipe Organ Performance in 1988, the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards. She performs frequently as an organ soloist and keyboard ensemble player in Canada, the United States and Europe, and has recorded for broadcasts in Canada, the United States and South Africa.
A faculty member in the Department of Music, University of Alberta since 1988, Marnie Giesbrecht teaches Organ Performance (Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral programs), Organ Literature, Hymnody and Service Playing, and Graduate Keyboard Seminar.
An advocate of contemporary music, Marnie Giesbrecht has given the premiere performances of many solo and chamber works for organ including Jacobus Kloppers' Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani. She recorded works by Edmonton composers for the Edmonton Composers' Concert Society disc, Northern Arch (Arktos, 1993) and performed a program of music primarily by Edmonton composers at the Legnica Organ Conservatorium in Poland in 2007.
A number of works for organ and piano have been commissioned and composed for Duo Majoya, including works by Canadian composers Howard Bashaw (University of Alberta), Denis Bédard, Jeffrey McCune and Joe Utterback.