Faculty and Staff
Dr. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, Organ/Harpsichord
Department of Music & Dance
Eastern Michigan University
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
(734) 487-1314
pruiterf@emich.edu
Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra is an advocate of improvisation and performance on historically-based instruments. Her book, Bach and the Art of Improvisation (Göteborg, Sweden: GOArt Publications, 2008), presents eighteenth-century improvisation techniques based on compositions and quotes from pupils and treatises around the Bach school, and is seasoned with experience on historical instruments. A strong proponent of improvisation pedagogy, Ruiter-Feenstra serves as Director of the American Guild of Organists’ National Competition in Organ Improvisation, and was invited to lead improvisation mini-residencies at the Cincinnati Conservatory and at Oberlin Conservatory during the 2006–07 season. In 2006, she was appointed Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit.
As Professor and University Organist at Eastern Michigan University, Ruiter-Feenstra teaches organ, harpsichord, and improvisation lessons and courses, directs the Collegium Musicum, and leads an annual Improvisation Symposium and concert series. As an undergraduate, she attended the Dutch immigrant school, Dordt College, where she studied organ, choral conducting, and composition. She received the Doctoral and Master of Fine Arts degrees in Organ Performance and Pedagogy with secondary emphases in Music Theory, Sacred Music, and Conducting from the University of Iowa with Delbert Disselhorst and Delores Bruch. Her dissertation topic was on metrical psalmody. She pursued post-graduate studies in Germany with Harald Vogel and in Boston with William Porter.
In 1996, Ruiter-Feenstra joined the team of Senior Researchers at the Göteborg Organ Art Center, where she collaborated with instrument makers, musicologists, performers, and historical preservationists from Europe, the Far East, and North America. At Göteborg University, she taught a series of summer improvisation courses on the Gerstenberg pedal clavichord built by John Barnes and Joel Speerstra.
Ruiter-Feenstra performs, presents, and teaches at conferences and academies in the U.S. and Europe, including the GOArt International Organ Academy in Göteborg, Sweden; the International Organ, Clavichord, and Improvisation Conference in Smarano, Italy; Académie d'Orgue de Fribourg, American Guild of Organists (AGO) national, regional, and chapter events; Eastman-Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI) conferences, and The Westfield Center for Keyboard Studies symposia. Ruiter-Feenstra’s book, Bach and the Art of Improvisation, will be available from www.organsociety.org. Her CDs, entitled Franz Tunder Organ Works and Bach and Improvisation, are available from Loft Recordings/Gothic, www.loftrecordings.com. Her CD of Froberger works recorded on the 17th-century De Zentis harpsichord will appear in 2008. Ruiter-Feenstra’s recordings and live performances have been broadcast on Pipedreams, The Organ Loft, and Swedish National Radio.
Ruiter-Feenstra is preparing a transcription and edition of the 1699 Grimm Tablature (Vienna) for publication, and has authored articles and chapters appearing in GOArt Research Reports, Tracing the Organ Masters' Secrets, De Clavicordio, The American Organist, Clavichord International, The Organ as a Mirror of Its Time, and several sacred music publications. Her current research pursuits entail developing improvisation pedagogy for children and adults.
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