Ronald Cross

Ronald Cross, Prof. of Music, Kurt and Auguste Riemann Chair of Music,

Wagner College.  Director, Wagner College Young Musicians Competition. Currently organist  St.Paul’s/St.Luke’s Lutheran Church; previously organist/choirmaster of  various churches. Received an M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (musicology,  Medieval and Renaissance notation, ethnomusicology, organology, adv. strict and adv tonal counterpoint, adv. composition, commonwealth of art, adv.  orchestration); );  Associateship diploma, American Guild of Organists; former Dean of the S.I. Chapter of

the A.G.O.; Fulbright Fellowship, study at Univ. of Florence musicology),  Conservatorio of Venice (composition), Accademia Chiggiana, Siena (harpsichord), Univ. of Perugia (literature) and Univ. of Vienna (literature); studied conducting with Willard Nivens at the Guilmant Organ School; studied organ with Harold Friedell at St. Bartholomew's Church; grant from the American Council of Learned Societies for work in the history of Medieval,

Renaissance and non-Western music theory (leading to publication).

Transcribed and edited the complete works of the mid-Renaissance

Flemish composer Matthaeus Pipelare:  Opera omnia; various scholarly

articles  (Musica disciplina, Musical Quarterly, Groves Dictionary of Music

and Musicians, etc.); reviewer of Renaissance recordings for many years

for the Musical Quarterly, other articles and numerous book reviews (The American Recorder, Early Music Newsletter, etc.); the video The

Harpsichord Today:  An Interview with Ronald Cross, was  nominated for

three Nova awards;  long time free lance performer on viola da gamba

and recorder. For many years Director of the Wagner Collegium Musicum and Director of the Wagner Summer Seminar in Viola da Gamba and Early Music; previously conductor/teacher at other colleges and free-lance conductor, such as contemporary music at Town Hall; eighteen consecutive grants from the Council on the Arts for harpsichord recitals at Snug Harbor

Cultural Center; numerous  organ and harpsichord recitals throughout

the Northeast and Canada (such as an all-Bach organ recital at St.

Thomas, 5^th Ave., N.Y. and harpsichord at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, yearly recitals at Old John St. Church, near Wall St.), etc.; performer on

many instruments and director of  the Collegium Pro Musica.

Recorded for FSM (Germany), Pantheon and Priceless (solo and with Collegium Pro Musica); glowing reviews of Songs and Dances of the Renaissance in Europe, the Far East and in journals and newspapers

across the U.S.; award from French government and second place in

national contest for graduate study in France; chosen to present a special project and selected by the French government to present a recital

of French harpsichord music for the celebration of the bicentennial by the French Revolution; in 1996 was asked by Lincoln Center to perform the complete harpsichord works by Henry Purcell on the 300th anniversary

of his death; Bio included in American Keyboard Artists; Bakers, Who's

Who in America, Who's Who in the World, other Who's Whos; builder of

several harpsichords;  Founder's Day Award, NYU; Award for Outstanding Service, S. I. Council of Churches, 1999; Board of Trustees, Ignatius 

University. Served on the Committee for the selection of Fulbright grantees

in ethnomusicology, Institute for International Education.

Formerly Secretary-Treasure of the NYC Chapter of the American

Musicological Society; Dean, AGO,SI; took part in the Jubilee 2000

Celebration in N.Y., performing Bach's D Min. Concerto for harpsichord

and orchestra; Wagner Award for Technology, and Award for Most

Inspiring Faculty member; NYU Alumni Award for Achievement; selected

for the ODK special Colloquium in 2002, "Where the Muse Leads"; two-hour

live broadcast on WKCR; live broadcasts on WNYC; live interview on

WQXR; short presentations on NPR, and National Italian Television;

WNYC program devoted to "Recordings of Trevor Pinnock and Ronald

Cross."

Composer of various composition:  Chorale-preludes for Organ (H.W. Grey)

Psalm settings for Chorus and Organ; Settings from the Japanese (Haiku

settings for chamber orchestra and chorus based on aleatoric and canon

cancrizan techniques, premiered at Town Hall); Song Settings of Emily

Dickinson for Soprano and Piano.

     * Freely translated:  

"That my lais not be a loss, 

  Was I made by ways of Cross."

 (Motto used in a 16th-century Italian spinetta 

made by Dr. Cross)

       

       Dr. Cross at the console,  St. Paul's/St. Luke's

      

      The most obedient (and most loving)

of Dr.Cross' students, sitting admiringly and expectantly at the harpsichord.

(Alpha, a stray dog at Wagner, died a few years ago. 

Alpha was preceded by Pijper, a Keeshond, 

who had extraordinary perfect  pitch.) 

 

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus Imperat!