David C. Pickering

Assistant Professor of Music, Organ
Fine Arts Division Chair

David C. Pickering holds the Dwight and Ruth Vredenburg Endowed Chair in Music, and serves as Chair of the Division of Fine Arts and Assistant Professor of Music at Graceland University in Lamoni, IA. He is an active recitalist, having performed throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, including such prestigious venues as the Community of Christ Auditorium and Temple (Independence, MO), the Mormon Tabernacle and Assembly Hall on Temple Square (Salt Lake City, UT), the Conference Center (Salt Lake City, UT), Methuen Memorial Music Hall (Methuen, MA), St. Thomas Church (New York, NY), Fourth Presbyterian Church (Chicago, IL), The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption (San Francisco, CA), and Washington National Cathedral and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, D.C.). Performances for the 2009-2010 recital season include two appearances in Georgia, two appearances in Iowa, Nevada, and two appearances in New Jersey. Pickering's performances have also been broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio's Pipedreams, a program broadcast on National Public Radio, Iowa Public Radio, as well as organlive.com.

Pickering's latest CD, The Leroy Robertson Organ Legacy, was released by Tantara Records and is the first commercial recording of the 1983 Robert Sipe organ located in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, UT. Pickering's second recording, Like a Fire- David Pickering Plays Music of Daniel E. Gawthrop, was released on the Grace Notes Media and highlights the 1996 Hellmuth Wolff organ of Bales Organ Recital Hall at the University of Kansas. Dr. Pickering's 2005 recording, Organ Music of Alice Jordan, features the 1993 Casavant organ at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Des Moines, IA.

Pickering reviews organ recordings for the organ journal The Diapason and is the editor of Leroy Robertson Organ Works, published by Wayne Leupold Editions. He has authored three articles on American composers, Daniel E. Gawthrop, Alice Jordan and Leroy Robertson, that have appeared in The American Organist and Diapason. The Organ Historical Society Press will publish Pickering's first book, The Community of Christ Auditorium Organ, in the fall of 2009. Wayne Leupold Editions will publish Pickering's second book, a biography of the American organist and pedagogue Arthur Poister, upon its completion at a future date.

Pickering has given world premiere performances of two organ works by Daniel E. Gawthrop: Like a Fire, which was premiered at a hymn festival at the Community of Christ Auditorium, and O Jerusalem--A Symphony for Organ, commissioned by Graceland University to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its Casavant organ.

A member of The American Guild of Organists, Pickering holds the Associateship certificate.

Pickering received the doctor of musical arts degree in organ performance and a master's degree in organ performance and musicology from the University of Kansas as a student of James Higdon. He received his bachelor of music degree in organ performance from Brigham Young University as a student of Parley Belnap and J. J. Keeler. His early organ studies were with Arlene Lindner Small in Arlington, TX. For more information about Dr. Pickering's professional activities, please visit http://www.davidcpickering.com.