Richard Purvis, Organist of Grace
James Welch, Organist, is a member of the Santa Clara Music Department faculty.  Previously he taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  He also serves as organist of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palo Alto.  He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from Stanford University, where he studied under Herbert Nanney and served as Assistant University Organist.  Further studies have been with John Walker; Alexander Schreiner; Josef Doppelbauer of the Mozarteum Akademie, Salzburg, Austria; and Jean Langlais, Basilique Ste. Clotilde, Paris, France.  He has concertized internationally, with performances in such prestigious venues as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.  He has also performed and taught in Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Jerusalem.  A specialist in Latin American organ music, he received a Fulbright award to perform and conduct research on historic 19th-century Cavaillé-Coll organs in Brazil; since then he has performed in Mexico and edited three volumes of organ music by contemporary Mexican composers.  He holds the Associate Certificate of the American Guild of Organists, and he has performed at conventions of the Guild and at the International Congress of Organists.  He is the author of a major new biography, Richard Purvis, Organist of Grace.  Other articles have appeared in The American Organist and The Diapason, and he has released numerous CDs, recorded on a variety of organs in the United States and Europe.  Many of his recorded performances have been aired on American Public Media's "Pipedreams" program.  His travels, studies, and performances on historical and modern instruments throughout the world have given him a sure command of many styles of music.  Critics in this country and abroad have praised him for his technical facility, solid musicianship, and creative programming.  He and his wife Deanne are the parents of two sons, Nicholas and Jameson.  www.welchorganist.com