Donald Sutherland

Organ

Donald S. Sutherland is Coordinator of Organ at the Peabody Conservatory, where he was given the Excellence in Teaching Award by the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association in 1997. Sutherland received his Master of Music degree from Syracuse University as a student of Arthur Poister, later becoming his assistant. After completing military service, he returned to Syracuse as a member of the School of Music faculty. In 1988, he was presented with the school’s Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of his distinguished achievements in music. Throughout his career, Sutherland has appeared frequently under the auspices of the American Guild of Organists at both national and regional conventions in the roles of recitalist, workshop leader, adjudicator, and choral conductor. He recently completed his third term as American Guild of Organists National Secretary.

Sutherland has been a judge at the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Playing, sponsored by the AGO; the Arthur Poister Competition held in Syracuse, New York; the St. Alban’s International Organ Festival in England; and many other competitions in the United States and Canada. In January of 2006, he was invited to give a recital and present several days of master classes at the Youngsan Art Hall in Seoul, Korea. Sutherland recently returned from St. Petersburg, Russia, where he performed in two concerts to dedicate the new Bule Organ and gave two master classes at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. A frequent performer of new music, Sutherland has had composers such as Richard Felciano, Gunther Schuller, Rachel Lauren, David Conte, Peter Klatzow, and William Albright dedicate works to him. Sutherland was organist and harpsichordist with the former Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center. He has appeared in solo recitals throughout the U.S. and in Europe, performing at Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris; the Bath International Festival; the Art of the Organ Festival, Vienna; Walsingham Festival; the Alexandra Palace; King’s College, Cambridge; Westminster Abbey, London; at Aldeburgh Parish Church during the Aldeburgh Festival; and as one of two American performers at the first Soviet-American International Organ Festival in Aachen, Germany. In addition to his solo recital appearances, Sutherland has taught at numerous summer organ academies.

In September of 1996, he was honored for twenty-five years of music ministry at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church with the establishment of the Donald Sinclair Sutherland Music Ministries Endowment and a scholarship in his name at the Peabody Conservatory. After resigning from his position at Bradley Hills in 1999, in 2007 Sutherland accepted the title Music Director Emeritus.