School of Music - Karl Schrock
Karl Schrock (1994)
Organ
B.A. Manchester
M.M. (3) Michigan
D.M.A. Michigan
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Karl Schrock is University Organist at Western Michigan University, where he teaches organ and related skills. During his affiliation with WMU he has served as principal choral accompanist for the School of Music and also taught theory, aural comprehension, keyboard harmony, accompanying, choral literature, continuo playing, and chamber ensembles.
Schrock earned a doctorate in Organ Performance and three master′s degrees (choral conducting, music theory, and organ performance) at the University of Michigan, where he taught theory, organ performance, and organ literature, and conducted a university choral ensemble. He was awarded a prestigious Rackham Fellowship for his distinguished scholarship. Schrock has also taught music at the Washington School of Ballet and Kalamazoo College.
Schrock has helped develop a new generation of talented university-educated organists as well as teaching a studio of private students of diverse ages and backgrounds. He has coached his students in public performances at well over fifty organs in Michigan alone. His students are frequently invited recitalists, and former students have been appointed to church or teaching positions not only throughout the Midwest, but also in Canada, Europe, and other parts of the United States. He advocates good stewardship of old pipe organs and also construction of fine new ones. During his sixteen years on staff at First Baptist Church in Kalamazoo, he helped design and inaugurate one of the largest and finest mechanical-action instruments in Michigan, the 54-stop Létourneau Opus 55. During his tenure as Music Minister at Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids he inaugurated their new five-manual, 179-stop organ.
Schrock has collaborated with composers committed to writing substantive works for the organ and has performed world and European premieres. Besides solo appearances and accompanying WMU School of Music ensembles, he serves as principal organist of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and principal harpsichordist of the Grand Rapids Symphony, and has performed with nationally famous professional ensembles such as Seraphic Fire, the Paul Hill Chorale, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. Recordings of Schrock′s organ performances have been heard frequently on public broadcasting in Michigan and on the nationally distributed radio program, Pipedreams. Commercial recording credits include the Organ Sonata by Theodore Morrison on the famous Hill Auditorium organ in Ann Arbor and the Monteverdi Vespers with Seraphic Fire.
Schrock has served as Organist/Music Director of churches in various denominations in four States, where he has organized concert series and conducted major choral works including world premieres. He served five terms as Dean of the Southwest Michigan Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and his professional work in Michigan was featured in the April 2003 issue of Encore magazine. He currently serves as Organist at First Presbyterian Church of Kalamazoo.
Email: karl.schrock@wmich.edu