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brink bush
review

BIOGRAPHY

Brink Bush is one of the leading interpreters of German Romantic organ music in the world today. He has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe and made his German debut at the Berliner Dom. He was featured on American Public Media’s "Pipedreams" in a program titled Bach, Bush and Middelschulte. His New York debut was heard at Trinity Church Wall Street during the "Virgil Fox Legacy Twenty-fifth Anniversary Concert Weekend".

REVIEWS

" Brink Bush brought Middelschulte’s blazingly re-imagined transcription of the Goldberg Variations to life. Mr. Bush reveled in all the color of the organ; and never shrank from taking full advantage of what it had to offer. It was an enjoyable and quite interesting half-hour.  "

The Washington Post


" Brink’s performance of the Goldberg Variations in Middelschulte’s technically challenging, and musically inventive arrangement, kept the audience’s attention from start to finish. His polished technique and musical playing provided an ideal vehicle for this much-loved piece, heard in a different context. The colors of the organ added greatly to the already magnificent composition, and Brink handled the pacing of the various movements with great poise. "

Nicholas White
Saint Paul’s School, Concord New Hampshire


" I am hugely moved by your musicianship! Your playing this most mechanical beast we so adore, and being able to leap over it, and force it to ‘sing’… you, Brink, are unique and a marvel. "

Carlo Curley


" That program of Middelschulte's compositions was a real tough one. I was very much impressed with your playing. Your technique is flawless but even more, your sense of phrasing is impeccable and you have a very keen sense for registration. This is not a common virtue with many organists today. You show a mastery of the organ. Wilhelm Middelschulte would have been very proud of you! "

Mario Salvador
One of the last pupils of Wilhelm Middelschulte.


" Mr. Bush was in comfortable control of the prodigious technical demands of this material and he fully utilized the sonic resources of the instrument to access the spirit of these compositions. "

John Walker
Organ Artist Series, Pittsburgh


" We found his playing, all from memory, to be an exciting and thoroughly satisfying experience. His technical equipment seems to be adequate to the most demanding scores, and his sense of musical form and shape equally sensitive. Our faculty was immensely impressed. He is surely a musician/performer of high order. "

Donald McDonald
Professor of Organ, Westminster Choir College

" Brink Bush is an excellent musician and organist and stands with the very greatest players in the world. I recommend him without reservation. "

Anthony Newman


" Brink Bush led a stirring concert of Organ and Brass music for the Berkshire Bach Society on 29-April 2017. Joined by trumpeters Eric Berlin and Richard Watson, Brink set the tone with a program of festive works by English, French, and German composers highlighting three different national styles and delighting the audience with displays of technical prowess. He performed five solo works by J.S. Bach, and led the ensemble in several short works by a variety of Baroque masters. His solo Bach was clear, clean, and captivating; his work with brass splendid; his rapport with the audience intimate and generous. All in all, Brink provided a thoroughly enjoyable musical outing for our Berkshire fans and an opportunity to glory in masterful Baroque repertoire and fine musicianship. He left his audience wishing for more. "

T.A. McDade
Berkshire Bach Society


Comments following a recital entitled "A German Romantic Retropective", Music of Middelschulte, Karg-Elert and Reger played at St. George's School, Middletown, RI for the AGO Regional Convention June 26, 2007:


Stephen T. Martorella
RI AGO Convention Chairman, 2007


" Brink Bush launches this disc with this warhorse, the Perpetuum Mobile, played cleanly and at a Virgilian Tempo "

Barbara Owen
The American Organist


" If you appreciate supreme playing of the highest clarity, musicianly control, judgment of tempo and rhythmic excitement, this [CD] is for you. Brink Bush's impressive credentials are matched by his authority in all this music: stunningly immaculate playing of verve and refinement."

Jeremy Filsell
The Organist Review


" Brink Bush made a superb presentation to our graduate students on the music of Wilhelm Middelschulte. He has immersed himself in this heretofore unexplored area so thoroughly that he has a vast store of information "on top of his head". Anyone who might assume that Middelschulte is only a peripheral figure among late-Romantics will be amazed at what he created. Brink Bush's lecture was, very honestly, a revelation and his finely produced hand-outs a highly valuable reference. "

Thomas Murray
Professor, Yale University


" Middelschulte returned to Chicago brought by German Romantic Organ Specialist and enthusiast Brink Bush. Armed with a power-point presentation accompanied by numerous recordings of Middelschulte's compositions, Mr. Bush brought to life again the music of Middelschulte. The assembled workshop participants were treated to a rare scenic window into the life and music of this ' Master of Counterpoint '.

Certainly Brink Bush is well-qualified to share his knowledge of the life of Middelschulte. It is only hoped that this brief synopsis of the music of Middelschulte by Brink Bush will entice many other organists to tackle this music by the ' Master of Counterpoint '! "

Robert E. Woodworth Jr., AIA
Reviewer for the Chicago American Guild of Organist Convention 2006

PHOTOGRAPHS

Methuen Memorial Music Hall

Trinity Church, Wall St. The Virgil Fox Legacy Concerts

Rehearsal at Cathedral of St. John, Providence RI

With Mark Husey, St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Columbia SC

St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Columbia SC

Washington National Cathedral