Lenora McCroskey

Our featured soloist, Lenora McCroskey, is critically acclaimed as an “elegant keyboardist, performing with vibrant energy.” Our audience is well aware of her outstanding ability! Over the last twenty years she has regularly played continuo for the Denton Bach Society concerts, frequently as a member of Fort Worth Early Music, of which she has been co-director.

Her most recent appearance in Denton was in the performance of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, with choruses prepared by Kevin Sutton and our own Henry Gibbons, and conducted by Graham Jenkins, maestro of the Dallas Opera. She has played for the Dallas Bach Society, the Dallas Opera, and the Arlington Choral Society. She has also served as a church musician throughout her life, most recently at the First Christian Church in Denton.

Dr. McCroskey has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe. She has appeared on many concert series, including recitals at Yale; the University of California, Berkeley; Notre Dame; Old West Church in Boston; l’Eglise Notre Dame du Val-de-Grâce in Paris; the Dresden Festival, Germany, with Musica Poetica; and/or workshops at national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the Midwest Historical Keyboard Society, and the Southeast Historical Keyboard Society.

Concertizing out of town as an organist is no small task. "When I prepare for a concert, I get the stop list in advance. I will usually spend 3-4 days in advance with the instrument." Larger instruments also require an extra pair of hands to turn pages and change stops, which she says is "especially important in accompanying." In Europe, she reports, an organist may have two people to help out!

She is Professor of Music at the University of North Texas, where she teaches organ, harpsichord and related courses, and also assists in the Early Music program. Her students have won or placed in numerous competitions on the national and international level.

In addition, she is a frequent lecturer on various aspects of Baroque literature, speaking to regional and national conventions of numerous keyboard associations. She is a Member of the Society of Fellows of the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, having held an appointment there in the Spring of 1991. Active in the Dallas Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, she has served as Dean of the Chapter, and director of various committees.

Prior to her appointment at UNT, she was on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music, the Longy School of Music (Cambridge), and Stetson University; and was the Assistant Organist/ Choirmaster in the Memorial Church, Harvard University. Dr. McCroskey holds degrees from Stetson, Harvard, and the Eastman School of Music. Her organ teachers include Paul Jenkins and Russell Saunders; her harpsichord study was in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt.

Our director, Henry Gibbons, and Lenora McCroskey have been friends and fellow performers since their graduate study at Harvard. Hal will be the first to say that Lenora is as good-hearted as she is talented, a dream to work with in all ways. The Denton Bach Society has treasured our years of collaboration, and we are proud to feature Lenora McCroskey as our soloist this spring.