AGO - Milwaukee - Local Faculty

American Guild of Organists
Milwaukee Chapter

in alphabetical order

Martha Aslaksen

Martha Aslakson began her organ training in high school with Phyllis Stringham. Her formal schooling in music concluded with receiving her Master of Music degree in organ performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990. Her teacher was Dr. John Chappell Stowe. Martha has been employed as the organist and handbell choir director at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church since 1991. She plays a 46 rank Schantz organ. In addition, Martha is a registered nurse. She is currently working on her PhD in nursing at UWM. She is combining nursing and music by studying the effects of music therapy on agitation on agitation in people with dementia. Martha’s goal for the Milwaukee Chapter of the AGO is to provide its members with informative programs designed to help organists provided high quality music for the churches they serve.

A gifted and accomplished organist, Lee Erickson is most widely-known nationally as the director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Holder of the Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair, Mr. Erickson’s passion for choral music shines through every performance by the MSO Chorus. He was appointed associate director of the Chorus in 1978, and assumed the position of director in 1994. He has served on the Choral Panel of the National Endowment of the Arts, is a Past-Dean of the Milwaukee Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and is Music Director at St. Anthony’s church in Milwaukee. In 2008 he was honored by the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music for his musical contribution to eh Milwaukee Community. In 2008 he was named as one of the 2007 Artists of the Year by the City of Milwaukee Arts Board.

Thomas Koester currently serves as Director of Liturgy and Music at St. Mary’s Visitation Catholic Church in Elm Grove, WI where he directs the Youth Choirs and plays the 47 rank Casavant pipe organ. He previously held a similar position at Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Milwaukee for nineteen years. In addition to his parish responsibilities, Mr. Koester is a part time organ faculty member at Carroll University, serves as an executive board member for the Milwaukee Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, sings with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus and occasionally serves as organist with the with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He was featured as soloist in the Poulenc Organ Concerto with the Waukesha Symphony in the 2008-09 season. Tom is the Co-Director of POE-Milwaukee 2010.

Audrey R. Timm-Rhinehart is Organist and Director of Music at St. Kilian Church in Hartford. Ms. Rhinehart received her Bachelor of Music Education with an emphasis in organ degree from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. She studied organ there with Dr. Warren Schmidt and Dr. Vincent Benitez. Further studies have been with Phyllis Stringham and Sr. Mary Jane Wagner. In addition to her duties at St. Kilian’s, Ms. Rhinehart maintains an active private piano studio and accompanies the Hartford Community Chorus.

Mr. Riedel is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, School of Architecture and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He is Organist-Choirmaster at Christ Church, Episcopal, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, and is a guest lecturer at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois.

He has served numerous church music committees and boards, including the American Guild of Organists, The Royal School of Church Music, and The Association of Lutheran Musicians. He is a member of the British Institute of Organ Studies, and the Acoustical Society of America. Mr. Riedel’s publications include a column in the GIA Quarterly Magazine as Architectural and Acoustics reviewer, the booklet “Acoustics in the Worship Space” published by Concordia Publishing House, and as a series of articles in “The Diapason” magazine. He has also edited a special issue of CrossAccent, a journal published by the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, which focused on church architecture, acoustics, and music.

Mr. Riedel has lectured on worship space acoustics, organ design and purchase to the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, National Association of Pastoral Musicians, American Guild of Organists (various chapters and regions), Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, American Institute of Architects, and the 'Lectures in Church Music' at Concordia University.

Drew Rutz has served churches in Illinois, Oklahoma, Washington State, and Wisconsin for 40 years. He holds a Master's in Music from the University of Notre Dame as well as the FAGO and ChM certificates of the Guild.

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