Organ Recitalist

Brenda Lynne Leach is also a critically-acclaimed organ recitalist who has performed throughout the USA, England, France, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Israel, and Canada. She has performed at distinguished venues including Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris), Westminster Cathedral (London), St. Petersburg Grand Philharmonic Hall, (Russia), Moscow Cathedral (Russia), St. George’s Cathedral (Jerusalem), and Riga Dom (Latvia) to name a few. She has been a featured artist at numerous festivals including the St. Petersburg International Organ Festival, the Sochi International Organ Festival, the Krasnodar International Organ Festival, the Kislovodsk International Summer Music Festival, and the Arkhangelsk Summer Organ Festival, Russia. In the USA, she has performed recitals at notable cathedrals and universities including Washington National Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Harvard University, Columbia University, West Point Military Academy, Methuen Memorial Music Hall, Interlochen, Chautauqua, and at National and Regional AGO conventions. In addition to solo repertoire, she has performed chamber music, as well as many works with orchestra including the Poulenc Concerto in G Minor for Orchestra and Organ and the Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.

Brenda Lynne Leach holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music where she studied organ with David Craighead. She won numerous competitions and prizes in Paris including the Premier Prix de Virtuosite and the Premier Prix d’Excellence avec Felicitations from the Conservatoire de Rueil- Malmaison where she studied with Marie-Claire Alain who described Ms. Leach as an artist who “displays brilliant technique and musicianship!” While living in Paris, she also studied 19th century organ literature with Daniel Roth at St. Sulpice.

Brenda Leach taught on the faculty at Harvard University for 14 years where she was also a conductor and organist. She has served as Interim Organist at the American Church in Paris and as Director of Music/Organist at the historic First Church of Boston. She has published numerous articles and reviews on organ literature in The American Organist and The Diapason.

Her CD, Windswept, which she recorded on the Berghaus organ at St. Stephen’s Pro Episcopal Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was released on the Pro Organo label (www.proorgano.com). It features varied European repertoire ranging from the baroque to the contemporary including Bach’s newly discovered (2008) Chorale Fantasia on Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns halt, BWV 1128, as well as music by Franck, Vierne, Mendelssohn, Boehm, Buxtehude, Sixten, and Gardonyi. She has recorded extensively for radio broadcasts heard on National Public Radio, Pipedreams (a program of American Public Media) and for Positively Baroque.