Meadows Artist Diploma Student Jonathan M. Gregoire To Perform in Pipedreams Live! Concert at the Meyerson Symphony Center

Jonathan M. Gregoire, a student in the highly selective Artist Diploma program at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, will perform in the Pipedreams Live! organ concert at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center on October 23 at 2:30 p.m. The concert, a collaboration between the Dallas Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and American Public Media (APM), will feature four standout organists from the Dallas Fort-Worth area.

In addition to the virtuosic final movement from Louis Vierne’s Symphony No. 5, Gregoire will perform two preludes and fugues that he premiered last spring by American composer Henry Martin, which are part of a complete cycle of preludes and fugues for organ commissioned by Michael Barone. Barone is the host of APM’s Pipedream radio show, a classical music staple on public radio for more than 30 years. Barone will serve as master of ceremonies for the Oct. 23 concert; the concert will be recorded and air on APM’s Pipedreams at a later date.

Gregoire studies in the SMU Meadows organ studio of Stefan Engels, Leah Young Fullinwider Centennial Chair in Music Performance and professor of organ at Meadows. Gregoire says Engels’ dedication to and care for his students is exceptional. “The insight and attention to detail he brings to the music is reflective of his world-class performer status,” says Gregoire. “My playing has improved immensely in just a year together, and lessons are the high point of each week. It's an incredible honor and privilege to work with him.”

Gregoire also studies piano at Meadows with Professor of Piano Alfred Mouledous, former pianist with the Dallas Symphony, and harpsichord with Adjunct Lecturer James Richman, artistic director of the Dallas Bach Society and New York’s Concert Royal.

Tickets to the Pipedreams Live! event can be found on the Dallas Symphony Orchestra website.

About Jonathan Gregoire

Praised for his “expert account” of Louis Vierne’s Carillon de Westminster by The Dallas Morning News, Dr. Jonathan M. Gregoire serves as the organist and associate director of music at St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas, where he is director of the St. Andrew Academy of Music and curator for the sanctuary’s four-manual Létourneau Organ, Opus 87.

Gregoire has performed in many noted venues throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, the Basilica of St. Mary’s in Minneapolis and Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City. International performance venues include Notre Dame de Bon Voyage in Cannes, France, the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, the Kaliningrad Cathedral in Russia and the Marktkirche in Halle, Germany, among others.

Gregoire’s recordings can be heard on his website and on American Public Media’s Pipedreams.

About the Artist Diploma program at SMU Meadows School of the Arts

The Artist Diploma (AD) is a two-year program for a very small number of extraordinary performers who already hold a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or equivalent conservatory or professional qualifications and who are on the threshold of a professional career in performance. By their performance and credentials, applicants must demonstrate that they are in the final stages of preparation to enter major competitions and/or to begin a professional performance career. Candidates for the AD must possess not only great talent, but also the ability and determination to realize that talent in the contemporary musical world.

Read more about the SMU Meadows Division of Music Artist Diploma program, Leah Young Fullinwider Centennial Chair in Music Performance and Professor of Organ Stefan Engels and Jonathan Gregoire.