About Our Guest Artist

David Heller
M.M., D.M.A. Eastman School of Music,
University of Rochester
B.M. Lawrence University

Organist David Heller has risen to prominence as an outstanding organist and pedagogue in the United States. The American Organist has described him as “an eloquent performer,” and his recording, Veni Creator Spiritus (Calcante Recordings) was hailed as an “excellent demonstration of outstanding music making on a contemporary American organ.”

His teachers have included Miriam Clapp Duncan and Russell Saunders in organ, Colin Tilney and Lisa Goode Crawford in harpsichord, and Gerre Hancock in improvisation. He has continued his post-doctoral organ study with David Craighead.

An active recitalist, Dr. Heller has performed extensively throughout the United States and internationally in Canada, France, Germany, Guatemala, and Mexico. As author of the acclaimed book, Manual on Hymn Playing (G.I.A. Publications), he is frequently sought as a lecturer and clinician in the areas of church music skills and hymn playing, giving presentations across the country for colleges, chapters of the American Guild of Organists, The Hymn Society, and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. He has two solo compact disc recordings to his credit: Veni Creator Spiritus (Rosales Organ, University United Methodist Church, San Antonio, Texas), and The Art of Gregorian Paraphrase (Casavant Organ, Church of St. Louis, King of France, St. Paul, Minnesota) on the Calcante label. His latest recording is Then and Now: A Twentieth-Century Retrospective for the Pro Organo label.

Since 1986, he has been a member of the faculty at Trinity University, serving as Professor of Music and University Organist. His primary teaching responsibilities in the Department of Music are in Music Theory, Organ (Private Instruction, Organ Literature, Organ Pedagogy), and Harpsichord.