Douglas Cleveland is music director of Plymouth Congregational Church in Seattle, WA. He was our guide for the 2007 Augsburg Fortress music seminar. Mr. Cleveland is a master concert organist and played very difficult pipe organ music with ease. We picked up quite a bit of choral and pipe organ music and are currently integrating it into our worship services at Mt. Vernon Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Cleveland was an excellent host for this event and made our reading through the music an enjoyable experience. As an added bonus I got to hear original organ music by Kenneth DeJong, currently music director of the church I was confirmed at as a boy – St. Andrews Lutheran Church, Bellevue, WA.
Douglas Cleveland – Biography
Douglas Cleveland began his tenure as Director of Music at Plymouth Congregational Church, Seattle in September of 2004. At Plymouth he directs three choirs and oversees a fine arts series.
A native of Washington State, Mr. Cleveland began his organ studies with Jane Edge in Olympia and continued his study in high school with Edward A. Hansen at the University of Puget Sound’s Community Music School. In 1986 he entered the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester where he earned the Bachelor of Music degree in 1990. While at Eastman, he served as Director of Music at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. As an undergraduate at Eastman, he won first prize in several organ competitions including The Westminster Choir College Graduate Competition, The Luther Place Memorial National Organ Competition in Washington, D.C., The Scarritt Undergraduate Competition in Nashville, Tennessee and the AGO Region VIII Competition in Seattle. He was also a finalist in the 1990 Grand Prix de Chartre, France and the Calgary International Organ Competition. Mr. Cleveland received the Master of Music degree in 1994 from Indiana University, Bloomington.
While at Indiana University, he served as assistant organist and choirmaster at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Indianapolis, where he frequently directed the famed choir of men and boys and began the volunteer choir program. He also won first prize in the American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition in Dallas and the Ft. Wayne National Organ Competition.
Since winning these prizes, he has performed in 48 of the United States, as well as such venues as Westminster Abbey, Notre-Dame Cathedral, The Cathedral of Berlin, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, The Moscow Conservatory, and the Minato Mirai Concert Hall in Yokohama, Japan. He has performed with several symphony orchestras including the National Symphony at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Mr. Cleveland served as Assistant Professor of Organ and Church Music at Northwestern University from 1999 to 2004. While on the faculty of Northwestern, he received the Searle Fellowship for teaching excellence. He served as a visiting faculty member at St. Olaf College in 1997. Mr. Cleveland has recorded three CD’s which have received critical acclaim in Fanfare, The American Record Guide, The Organists Review, The American Organist, The Diapason, the Association of Anglican Musicians and the Living Church Magazine.
Current as of September 2006
Pipe Organ at Plymouth Congregational Church
Seattle, WA
Douglas Cleveland CD Recording Covers
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