Carlton T. Russell
Professor of Music and College Organist, Emeritus
Having retired from the Wheaton music faculty after 41 years of teaching (and an additional year as College Organist) in 2005, I have been blessed with continuing good health and professional activity. While no longer doing classroom teaching – which I greatly enjoyed – I remain active in other areas I find meaningful and fulfilling: organ playing and teaching, choir directing and church music, and a modest amount of committee work that supports those areas. Beyond professional activity, my wife Lorna and I have been privileged to move from one lovely home (The Sem at Wheaton) to another, a winterized cottage rich in summer memories and situated in beautiful surroundings high above the lower Penobscot River in Maine. Being a person of traditional religious faith, I thank God for so long and so exciting a life – one that has flowed appropriately through and beyond my liberal arts education, and has allowed me to pursue the wide variety of interests (linguistic, interpersonal, musical, theological, and poetic) which characterize me as a person.
Degrees
B.A., Amherst College (magna cum laude, major in music), 1960
M.F.A., Princeton University (musicology), 1962
Choirmaster (Ch.M.) certificate, American Guild of Organists, 1962
Ph.D., Princeton University (musicology), 1966
M.A.T.S., Episcopal Divinity School, 1983
Ordained in Episcopal Church: deacon, June 1984; priest, May 1985
Main Interests
Organ playing, teaching and promoting
Occasional organ recitals (See Organ Recitals below.)
Dean, Bangor [Maine] Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, July 2009-
Instructor, Organ Education Program, Greater Bay Area Ministerium [Belfast, Maine], May 2009 –
Member, Board of Directors, St. John’s Organ Society (Bangor, Maine)
Church music
Minister of Music (with Lorna Brookes Russell, Wheaton Class of 1964), St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church, Blue Hill, Maine, http://www.stfrancisbluehill.org/ October 2006 -
Interim Minister of Music, St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Camden, Maine, July 2005 –October 2006
Co-minister of Music (with Lorna Brookes Russell), Trinity Episcopal Church, Wrentham, Massachusetts, January 1972 - June 2005
Other Interests
Choral conducting and composition
Directing choirs (See above church positions.)
Writing music for choirs and congregations (See Publications below.)
Liturgy and preaching
Sometime supply priest, St. Francis Episcopal Church, Blue Hill, Maine, 1985 -
Priest Associate, Trinity Episcopal Church, Wrentham, Mass., 1985 – 2005
Publications
Several published compositions, as well as many articles and reviews (on church music, the organ, criticism, etc.), including:
“Buying an Organ” (a pamphlet co-authored with the late John Ogasapian, and available from the American Guild of Organists for $4.00)
An explanatory preface to a reprint of the original Enoch edition of Franck’s L’Organiste; this harmonium collection was first reprinted by Kalmus, and is now available (with preface) from Alfred Music Publishing for ca. $18.00.
Articles of Particular Importance to Me
Toward a Basis for Criticism of Music. Music: The AGO/RCCO Magazine, November 1970
Church Music as a Christian Vocation. Church Music, Oct 1978
Church Music as Pastoral Care. The American Organist, Dec 1987
Creative Works
Music in print
“Easter Monday” (SATB a cappella; Paraclete Press, 2010) Demo recording »
“O Be Joyful in the Lord” (SATB/org; Pine Hill Press reprint, 2003)
The Wheaton Anthem (1984/89)
Performances
Organ recitals
St. John’s RC Church, Bangor, Maine: Summer Organ Series, 1993- http://www.hookopus288.org/
St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Camden, Maine: Lenten Series, 2007 – 2009
St. Saviour’s Episcopal Parish, Bar Harbor, Maine: Summer Series, 2007, 2009
Numerous recitals on historic pipe organs in Penobscot Region of Main (Bucksport, Searsport, Stockton Springs, Belfast, Bangor), 1966 -present.
Demonstration recital (with Lorna Brookes Russell) on the 1847 E. and G.G. Hook organ in Stockton Springs, Maine (part of a 6-instrument historical organ tour, “A Hook Holiday”), October 6, 2010,www.hookopus288.org/holiday/pdf/HookHolidayArtists-web.pdf Reviewed by Barbara Owen in The Tracker, Vol. 55, No. 2, Spring 2011, pp. 26-27 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7179/is_201104/ai_n57427583/
Faculty recitals in Cole Memorial Chapel of Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., annually for many years, 1964 - 2004; on the Casavant tracker organ from 1969
Fall recitals at Wheaton College, 2009 –
Concerts
Flute and organ concerts with Diana Brookes Brown, flutist, 1999 – (with occasional playing of recordings by Barry Darling on Maine Public Radio)
Organist/harpsichordist with The Somerset Consort (Diana Brookes Brown, flute, Lorna Brookes Russell, viola da gamba, and, on occasion, Richard Sanner, flute), 2008 -
Harpsichordist with The Wheaton Consort (Ed Merck, recorders, Janet Haas, viole da gamba, and Joanne Mouradjian, soprano); performances on and off campus, 1992 – 2004
Selected Publications, Creative Work, or Performances
Recordings
Summer Organ Concerts (St. John’s RC, Bangor, Maine, 1997: one of six organists on the CD)
With Grateful Gladness (Wheaton College CD, 1999; solo organ, recorded by Barry Darling on 3M, 39S Casavant tracker organ)
We Lift Our Voices (Wheaton College CD, 2004; CTR plays on two tracks.)
Tracks from With Grateful Gladness later heard on National Public Radio: "Pipedreams": “She’s Done It”, 23 July 2007 (two pieces by Florence Price); "With Heart and Voice", 26 April 2009 (“Benediction” by Peter Pindar Stearns, parent of Gloria Stearns, Wheaton Class of 1983)

