GUEST ARTIST INTERVIEW (Part I of II)
James Thomashower
Executive Director
American Guild of Organists
Mr. Thomashower: I am a native New Yorker, born, raised, and educated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I grew up within walking distance of Lincoln Center and started attending Mostly Mozart concerts when they were first introduced. English was my favorite subject in high school, so it was only natural that I would study English when I was accepted as a freshman at Columbia University in the fall of 1969.
During my years at Columbia I took many music courses and studied piano with various talented teachers, but without much success. I earned my bachelor’s degree in English from Columbia in 1973. After experimenting with many different careers for ten years ranging from academic and scholarly publishing to environmental education, I was interviewed by an executive recruiter who recommended me for a job in the nonprofit world. In 1983, I was named Manager of Research and Communications for the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). I have been working as an association executive in the nonprofit world ever since, and in 2000 earned the CAE credential (Certified Association Executive) from the American Society of Association Executives.
I married my beautiful wife, Penny, in 1979 and we adopted our daughter, Sarah, from China in 1994. She was 10 months old at the time. Our 18 year-old princess will be going to college in the fall. Her Dad just celebrated his 60th birthday this week.
Jeannine Jordan: How did you become the Executive Director of best known group of organists in the world?
Mr. Thomashower: I worked at NASBA for about a dozen years, moving up to Executive Director in 1988. About five years later I relocated my family to Virginia for a few years to take on a new position as Executive Vice President of the National Society of Public Accountants, but I missed New York and sought to return. I answered an ad for Executive Director of the AGO in the fall of 1997 and got the job, which I started in January 1998. I have been at it for 14 years, and it just gets more challenging and more exciting every year.
J: Please describe your position and its responsibilities. What is most intriguing/challenging about your position?
Mr. Thomashower: I am in charge of the day-to-day operations of the world’s most prestigious and largest voluntary membership organization serving organists and choral directors.
The AGO has an operating budget of approximately $2 million, with revenues from a variety of sources beyond dues. Fundraising is critical to maintaining our sustainability, and my attention is increasingly focused on nurturing relationships with our valued donors and grantors.
The AGO has a staff of 9, three of whom telecommute for the most part. We are poised to recruit a Director of Information Technology and Digital Communications. As the Executive Director, I serve ex officio as a member of the National Council and roughly 15 national committees. Every committee has projects, just as every one of our 320 chapters has important issues, concerns, and programs for which they sometimes need advice or support from AGO Headquarters. Our 17,000 voting members, 1,000 subscribers, and chapter friends need our attention too. There is always so much to be done at the AGO that simply ordering priorities and identifying the most appropriate ways to address each of them with the most effective resources available is one of my biggest challenges.
J: Organists are primarily forward-looking people with music required either Sunday after Sunday and season after season or concert after concert. As a visionary for the AGO, what are some of your forward-thinking ideas that can help organists grow beyond being only a forward-looking group?
Mr. Thomashower: I think the best strategy organists can follow to ensure career stability and growth is for them to be less rigid, more flexible, and constantly willing to learn. I am not suggesting at all that they should ever lower their standards, but the world is changing every day, and organists need to look ahead at the directions in which their employers are headed musically and liturgically.
Organists must be constantly attuned to what’s happening in their places of employment, and they must be prepared for change. They may need to learn to adapt to new kinds of services with different types of music than they are accustomed to playing. The organists who will flourish are those who can most effectively adapt to the changing demands that they may face. That may mean learning new music or possibly accepting a new role, perhaps as a back-up musician in a blended service. It may also mean graciously accepting an opportunity to play a digital instrument if a job with a pipe organ is not readily available.
Organists know more about their instrument than anyone else. Regardless of the particular circumstances they may face in a given church, they have a responsibility to be the best advocates for the organ and organ music in our society. That role is thrust upon them by virtue of their extraordinary musical skills, competence, and professionalism. They should embrace it with pride and joy.
GUEST ARTIST INTERVIEW (Part II of II)
Guest Artist Interview with
James Thomashower Part II
Executive Director of the
American Guild of Organists
Organists
A Forward-looking and Forward-thinking Group
Jeannine: Organists are primarily forward-looking people with music required either Sunday after Sunday and season after season or concert after concert. As a visionary for the AGO, what are some of your forward-thinking ideas that can help organists grow beyond being only a forward-looking group?
Mr. Thomashower: I think the best strategy organists can follow to ensure career stability and growth is for them to be less rigid, more flexible, and constantly willing to learn. Organists know more about their instrument than anyone else. Regardless of the particular circumstances they may face in a given church, they have a responsibility to be the best advocates for the organ and organ music in our society. That role is thrust upon them by virtue of their extraordinary musical skills, competence, and professionalism. They should embrace it with pride and joy.
J: How does the AGO relate to organists from huge metropolitan areas, such as your own NYC, to those from isolated rural areas such as LaGrande, Oregon?
Mr. Thomashower: The AGO’s organizational structure includes 320 chapters in communities of every shape and size. Some are urban, some are suburban, and some are rural. The beauty of this structure is that each chapter can uniquely meet the needs of the members of the community it serves. The Guild’s structure also includes nine elected Councillors for Regions, 50 National Council-appointed District Conveners (roughly one per state), and 18 National Council-appointed Regional Coordinators for Professional Development and Education. Each of these individuals can relate to the needs of their constituents.
J: How are forward-looking needs of organists being met at this year's National AGO Convention?
Mr. Thomashower: Everything about the National Convention in Nashville is designed to meet the forward-looking needs of organists. We are presenting 70 workshops that will address current trends in organ performance and sacred music as well as the latest research on myriad topics of interest to organists. We have 80 exhibitors eager to tell participants about their newest products and service offerings. We will hear new music created by outstanding commissioned composers, performances of two new pieces that have won composition competitions; and the playing of young, talented Rising Stars who have won performance competitions at chapter and regional levels. Any forward-looking organist would want to be inspired, and Nashville is the place to be for inspiration this summer.
J: How are forward-thinking ideas being presented at this year's convention?
Mr. Thomashower: Forward-thinking and novel musical ideas will be on display in every venue in which music will be heard including a dozen churches, Ryman Auditorium (which is on the National Register of Historic Places) and at Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the home of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Workshops presenters are encouraged to use state-of-the-art presentation techniques in the Nashville Convention Center, the Renaissance Hotel, and in area churches. We are looking at the possibility of creating videos during some workshop events and streaming over the Internet selected live performances in real time. You may be able to sit in your easy chair at home and catch a piece of the convention over a computer speaker, but the best way to experience the greatest number of forward-thinking ideas is to come to Nashville and meet in person with your forward-thinking colleagues. There is nothing like live conversation with old friends and new colleagues to excite the mind.
James Thomashower
Executive Director
American Guild of Organists
Mr. Thomashower: I am a native New Yorker, born, raised, and educated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I grew up within walking distance of Lincoln Center and started attending Mostly Mozart concerts when they were first introduced. English was my favorite subject in high school, so it was only natural that I would study English when I was accepted as a freshman at Columbia University in the fall of 1969.
During my years at Columbia I took many music courses and studied piano with various talented teachers, but without much success. I earned my bachelor’s degree in English from Columbia in 1973. After experimenting with many different careers for ten years ranging from academic and scholarly publishing to environmental education, I was interviewed by an executive recruiter who recommended me for a job in the nonprofit world. In 1983, I was named Manager of Research and Communications for the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). I have been working as an association executive in the nonprofit world ever since, and in 2000 earned the CAE credential (Certified Association Executive) from the American Society of Association Executives.
I married my beautiful wife, Penny, in 1979 and we adopted our daughter, Sarah, from China in 1994. She was 10 months old at the time. Our 18 year-old princess will be going to college in the fall. Her Dad just celebrated his 60th birthday this week.
Jeannine Jordan: How did you become the Executive Director of best known group of organists in the world?
Mr. Thomashower: I worked at NASBA for about a dozen years, moving up to Executive Director in 1988. About five years later I relocated my family to Virginia for a few years to take on a new position as Executive Vice President of the National Society of Public Accountants, but I missed New York and sought to return. I answered an ad for Executive Director of the AGO in the fall of 1997 and got the job, which I started in January 1998. I have been at it for 14 years, and it just gets more challenging and more exciting every year.
J: Please describe your position and its responsibilities. What is most intriguing/challenging about your position?
Mr. Thomashower: I am in charge of the day-to-day operations of the world’s most prestigious and largest voluntary membership organization serving organists and choral directors.
The AGO has an operating budget of approximately $2 million, with revenues from a variety of sources beyond dues. Fundraising is critical to maintaining our sustainability, and my attention is increasingly focused on nurturing relationships with our valued donors and grantors.
The AGO has a staff of 9, three of whom telecommute for the most part. We are poised to recruit a Director of Information Technology and Digital Communications. As the Executive Director, I serve ex officio as a member of the National Council and roughly 15 national committees. Every committee has projects, just as every one of our 320 chapters has important issues, concerns, and programs for which they sometimes need advice or support from AGO Headquarters. Our 17,000 voting members, 1,000 subscribers, and chapter friends need our attention too. There is always so much to be done at the AGO that simply ordering priorities and identifying the most appropriate ways to address each of them with the most effective resources available is one of my biggest challenges.
J: Organists are primarily forward-looking people with music required either Sunday after Sunday and season after season or concert after concert. As a visionary for the AGO, what are some of your forward-thinking ideas that can help organists grow beyond being only a forward-looking group?
Mr. Thomashower: I think the best strategy organists can follow to ensure career stability and growth is for them to be less rigid, more flexible, and constantly willing to learn. I am not suggesting at all that they should ever lower their standards, but the world is changing every day, and organists need to look ahead at the directions in which their employers are headed musically and liturgically.
Organists must be constantly attuned to what’s happening in their places of employment, and they must be prepared for change. They may need to learn to adapt to new kinds of services with different types of music than they are accustomed to playing. The organists who will flourish are those who can most effectively adapt to the changing demands that they may face. That may mean learning new music or possibly accepting a new role, perhaps as a back-up musician in a blended service. It may also mean graciously accepting an opportunity to play a digital instrument if a job with a pipe organ is not readily available.
Organists know more about their instrument than anyone else. Regardless of the particular circumstances they may face in a given church, they have a responsibility to be the best advocates for the organ and organ music in our society. That role is thrust upon them by virtue of their extraordinary musical skills, competence, and professionalism. They should embrace it with pride and joy.
GUEST ARTIST INTERVIEW (Part II of II)
Guest Artist Interview with
James Thomashower Part II
Executive Director of the
American Guild of Organists
Organists
A Forward-looking and Forward-thinking Group
Jeannine: Organists are primarily forward-looking people with music required either Sunday after Sunday and season after season or concert after concert. As a visionary for the AGO, what are some of your forward-thinking ideas that can help organists grow beyond being only a forward-looking group?
Mr. Thomashower: I think the best strategy organists can follow to ensure career stability and growth is for them to be less rigid, more flexible, and constantly willing to learn. Organists know more about their instrument than anyone else. Regardless of the particular circumstances they may face in a given church, they have a responsibility to be the best advocates for the organ and organ music in our society. That role is thrust upon them by virtue of their extraordinary musical skills, competence, and professionalism. They should embrace it with pride and joy.
J: How does the AGO relate to organists from huge metropolitan areas, such as your own NYC, to those from isolated rural areas such as LaGrande, Oregon?
Mr. Thomashower: The AGO’s organizational structure includes 320 chapters in communities of every shape and size. Some are urban, some are suburban, and some are rural. The beauty of this structure is that each chapter can uniquely meet the needs of the members of the community it serves. The Guild’s structure also includes nine elected Councillors for Regions, 50 National Council-appointed District Conveners (roughly one per state), and 18 National Council-appointed Regional Coordinators for Professional Development and Education. Each of these individuals can relate to the needs of their constituents.
J: How are forward-looking needs of organists being met at this year's National AGO Convention?
Mr. Thomashower: Everything about the National Convention in Nashville is designed to meet the forward-looking needs of organists. We are presenting 70 workshops that will address current trends in organ performance and sacred music as well as the latest research on myriad topics of interest to organists. We have 80 exhibitors eager to tell participants about their newest products and service offerings. We will hear new music created by outstanding commissioned composers, performances of two new pieces that have won composition competitions; and the playing of young, talented Rising Stars who have won performance competitions at chapter and regional levels. Any forward-looking organist would want to be inspired, and Nashville is the place to be for inspiration this summer.
J: How are forward-thinking ideas being presented at this year's convention?
Mr. Thomashower: Forward-thinking and novel musical ideas will be on display in every venue in which music will be heard including a dozen churches, Ryman Auditorium (which is on the National Register of Historic Places) and at Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the home of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Workshops presenters are encouraged to use state-of-the-art presentation techniques in the Nashville Convention Center, the Renaissance Hotel, and in area churches. We are looking at the possibility of creating videos during some workshop events and streaming over the Internet selected live performances in real time. You may be able to sit in your easy chair at home and catch a piece of the convention over a computer speaker, but the best way to experience the greatest number of forward-thinking ideas is to come to Nashville and meet in person with your forward-thinking colleagues. There is nothing like live conversation with old friends and new colleagues to excite the mind.