David Stech, PhD

Workshop Presenter

Events

Workshop – Discovering and Transcribing the Historic Organ Improvisations of Marcel Dupré
Convention Hotel
7/10/2020 11:00 AM – 11:50 AM

About

David A. Stech served as a member of the Music Department faculty at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, from 1972 until he retired as Professor Emeritus in 2008. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Music from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, his Master of Arts in Music from Ohio State University, and his Ph.D. in Music from Michigan State University where he studied music theory pedagogy with Paul Harder.

From the late 1980’s he applied MIDI technology to the task of teaching advanced music aural perception and music error detection skills to upper division and graduate students. He has presented internationally on this subject. He was a pioneer in applying computer technology to the task of cataloging and analyzing transformations in music melodic patterns. His work in this area began at Michigan State in 1970, where he designed analysis applications that ran on large main-frame computers.

Dr. Stech also served as Chair of the Department of Music at UAF. He was the co-tonal designer of the three-manual, sixty-six stop Gress-Miles organ in UAF’s Charles W. Davis Concert Hall. (It is the largest pipe organ in the State of Alaska.)

He has applied his expertise in music aural comprehension to the study of rare archival tapes of organ improvisations by the renowned French organist Marcel Dupré, many of which were unknown until recently. His study of these recordings has resulted in a series of publications that has introduced to the public selected music score reconstructions of Dupré’s legendary pipe organ improvisations.