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Grant Edwards

Grant Edwards is organist at First Congregational United Church of Christ in downtown Portland, Oregon, having served there since 1995. He received his B.A. in Organ from Lewis & Clark college in 1994, where he was a student of Dr. Lee Garrett. During the course of his studies he also lived and studied for sixteen months in the cities of Munich and Weimar, Germany. He is also an excellent choral singer, and has been ­featured as a soloist in performances with the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus and other ensembles. No stranger to edgier styles of music, he enjoys composing as well, especially vocal settings of poetry. Few might suspect his ­favorite diversion from church music, however: a tendency to ­indulge in karaoke on a regular basis. The art of organbuilding is another long-standing interest, and the presence of many exceptional ­instruments by Richard L. Bond in the Pacific Northwest influenced him to learn the art himself. He has subsequently been a craftsman at Bond Organ Builders since 1993, and assisted in the construction, installation, and tonal regulation of the instrument recorded here. Grant Edwards has also designed and built organs independently. His Opus One, a 16-rank tracker with 19th-Century American flavor, was installed at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia in October, 2001. He was also the tonal ­designer of the III/51 electro-pneumatic organ at his own church, which reflects an eclectic, modern Romantic ideal. Grant began presenting solo recitals very early in his career, and has concertized throughout the Pacific Northwest as well as Germany. An avid fan of historic instruments, he performed for the National Conventions of the Organ Historical Society in 1997 and 1998.