Catharine Crozier

Catharine Pearl Crozier (January 18, 1914 in Hobart, Oklahoma – September 19, 2003 in Portland, Oregon) was a leading American concert organist and teacher.

Catharine Crozier was born in Hobart, Oklahoma to the Rev. Walter Stuart Crozier and Alice Condit Crozier.

As a child, she studied violin, piano, and organ, and made her first public appearance on the piano at age six.

She studied at Central High in Pueblo, Colorado from 1927 until 1931.

For college, she attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

Studying with Harold Gleason, she earned a bachelor's degree and a Performer's Certificate in 1936 and a master's degree and Artist's Diploma in 1941.

Crozier joined the Eastman School of Music organ department faculty in 1939, where she served as department chair from 1953 to 1955.

In 1941, Crozier made her concert debut in the Washington National Cathedral at the American Guild of Organists National Convention, after which she concertized across the United States, Canada, and Europe in solo recitals and with ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Musica Aeterna Orchestra of New York.

She and Gleason married in 1942.

In 1955 she played the inaugural recital on Pittsburgh's Sixth United Presbyterian Church's new four-manual Aeolian-Skinner organ.

In 1962, she and two other organists, E. Power Biggs and Virgil Fox, performed the inaugural recital on the new organ at Philharmonic Hall, now called Avery Fisher Hall, at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

She was one of the honored guests celebrating the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's 125th birthday at Lincoln Center in December 1967.

She and her husband then resigned from Eastman, whereupon she then joined the faculty of Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where she taught until 1969, while also serving as organist of Knowles Memorial Chapel on campus.

She enjoyed international prominence as a teacher and adjudicator.

In 1973 she was the featured organist at the International Contemporary Organ Music Festival at the Hartt School of Music.

Crozier also inaugurated the Kuhn Organ in Alice Tully Hall in 1975.

Her awards include the 1979 International Performer of the Year Award (presented by the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists), the Alumni Achievement Award of the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Rochester Citation to Alumni.

She received honorary doctoral degrees from Baldwin-Wallace College, Illinois College, Smith College, the University of Southern Colorado, and her alma mater, the University of Rochester.

Crozier co-edited several editions of the Method of Organ Playing, a method book by her husband and colleague Harold Gleason that was widely used in the United States.

Following Gleason's death, she edited the seventh and eighth editions in 1988 and 1996.

In 1993, Crozier moved to Portland, Oregon, where she served as Artist in Residence at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral until shortly before her death in 2003 at the age of 89.

Crozier championed the works of contemporary composers, including Paul Hindemith, Vincent Persichetti, Ned Rorem, and Leo Sowerby.

She was also known for her specializations in historical French and German repertoire, which she recorded extensively.

Crozier was one of the few female organists to forge a highly visible career in the mid-twentieth century.

In 2001, the American Guild of Organists established a video archive series of great organists, beginning with recordings of Crozier's teaching in The Master Series, Vol. I.