Larry Palmer
Professor of Harpsichord and Organ, University Organist, and Director of Graduate Studies
D.M.A., Eastman School of Music

Larry Palmer has been on the faculty of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University since 1970. He is currently professor and head of organ and harpsichord, director of graduate studies in music, and university organist. Educated at Oberlin College Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music, Dr. Palmer is internationally known as a performer, scholar, and teacher. His biography appears in The New American Grove Dictionary of Music and Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20th-Century Classical Musicians (edited by Nicholas Slonimsky). He is the author of Hugo Distler and his Church Music (1967) and Harpsichord in America – A 20th-Century Revival (1989/1993), both cited as indispensible reference works. He has written more than 100 articles, many of them for The Diapason (Chicago), for which he has been harpsichord contributing editor since 1969. Two solo recordings for The Musical Heritage Society and five compact discs for Encore Performance/Limited Editions Recordings comprise his discography. Known for his stylish performances of baroque music, he is also committed to contemporary works: more than 40 new scores for harpsichord, organ, and choir have been written for him.

In recent seasons Dr. Palmer has appeared as soloist in Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with SMU’s I Palpiti Ensemble, as organist and harpsichordist with the Dallas Symphony, played solo recitals in Baton Rouge, and Coppell, at the University of Oklahoma, in Neuf Brisach (France), and in Alvito (Portugal). He presented the Winesanker Memorial Lecture in Musicology at Texas Christian University and has been seen nationally in the PBS television documentary Landowska: Uncommon Visionary. He has organized fourteen summer harpsichord and organ workshops for SMU, one in France, and thirteen of them at the University's New Mexico campus, Fort Burgwin, near Taos.

lpalmer@mail.smu.edu
p 214.768.3273