Alexander McCurdy
| Alexander McCurdy, Jr. | |
|---|---|
McCurdy at Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, 1940s
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Alexander McCurdy, Jr. |
| Born |
August 18, 1905 Eureka, California |
| Died | June 1, 1983 (aged 77) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Genres | classical music |
| Occupation(s) | organist, choirmaster, educator |
| Instruments | organ |
| Years active | 1926–1972 |
Alexander McCurdy, Jr. (August 18, 1905, Eureka, California – June 1, 1983, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an organist and educator who taught a generation of America's most-prominent performers.
After overcoming early struggles with infantile paralysis, McCurdy moved east to study organ with T. Tertius Noble. Dr. Noble was unable to take any more students and so suggested that McCurdy study instead with the great , first in New York (1924–1927) and then in Philadelphia's newly established Curtis Institute of Music. In 1931, McCurdy became one of the Institute's earliest graduates, and received his diploma at the first official commencement ceremony in 1934. He had already made his professional debut at New York's Town Hall in 1926, and thereafter toured as a recitalist, often in duo performances with his wife since 1932, harpist Flora Greenwood. They had two children, Alexander "Sandy" McCurdy III (a prominent minister and psychoanalyst) and Xandra McCurdy Schultz (whose son produced a televised mini-documentary about his organist grandfather).
McCurdy became organist and choirmaster at Philadelphia's Second Presbyterian Church in 1927, where he greatly enlarged the pipe organ. After a 1949 merger, this was the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, from which he retired in 1971.
McCurdy headed the organ department at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute from 1935 to 1972 and also at Princeton's Westminster Choir College (now part of Rider University) from 1940 to 1965, where he received an honorary doctorate at the conclusion of his tenure. He taught hundreds of organ students over the years, with many becoming prominent concert performers, composers and educators. These included Walter Baker,Richard Purvis, David N. Johnson, Gordon Young, David Craighead, Thomas Schippers, James Litton, Barbara Owen,Temple Painter, Robert Carwithen, Hedley Yost,, Joan Hult Lippincott, William S. Wrenn, William Whitehead,George W. Decker, Cherry Rhodes, John Binsfeld,Keith Chapman, David Spicer, John Tuttle, Michael Stairs,Gordon Turk, Karl Watson, and Charles Callahan.
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