Dr. Don Cook

    Don Cook joined the organ faculty of Brigham Young University in 1991. In that capacity he serves as organ area coordinator, as university carillonneur, and oversees the group organ program.

    Formerly he held associate organist/choirmaster positions at Christ Church Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and at First United Methodist Church, Lubbock, Texas. He toured Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia with the Lubbock choir, and accompanied the Parish Choir of Christ Church Cranbrook on a singing tour of England.

    After earning Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ at Brigham Young University, he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Organ Performance from the University of Kansas. His principal organ teachers were J.J. Keeler at BYU and James Moeser at KU. For many years he served as head of the instrumental area for the BYU Workshop on Church Music, and currently directs the annual BYU Organ Workshop, founded in 2002. He appears frequently as a Guest Organist at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

    Dr. Cook studied carillon with Albert Gerken while pursuing doctoral studies in organ at the University of Kansas. He became a full member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in 1984, and has performed actively throughout North America since that time. He has served on the Board of Directors and as chair of the Music Publications Committee for the Guild. Carillon performances include a concert tour of Holland in 1990, and a recital tour of east-coast carillons in the summer of 1992. In 1994 he hosted the annual Congress of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America at Brigham Young University.

    He has developed and published the first multimedia organ tutorial for pianists, Organ Tutor Organ 101 in several versions. The tutorial is used for private and group instruction, BYU Independent Study courses, and by individuals in at least nine countries.

    Elizabeth Forsyth

    A native of San Francisco, Elizabeth Forsyth received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance from BYU. Active in church music for almost 50 years, she has served Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and LDS congregations as both organist and director of music. Currently, she is the organist at First Congregational Church, Berkeley. She has served on the executive boards of both the San Francisco and Philadelphia chapters of the American Guild of Organists and served as one of four program chairs for the AGO National Convention in San Francisco in the summer of 2024.

    As a recitalist, Ms. Forsyth has performed throughout the Bay Area, Utah, Idaho, and Pennsylvania. Recent collaborations with performing groups have included the First Church Festival Chorus, Chora Nova, the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, the Folsom Lake Symphony, and the Stockton Symphony. Elizabeth teaches both piano and organ at her home in Orinda, CA, where she takes special delight in introducing her teenage piano students to the organ. She is the proud mother of four sons, and has ten grandchildren.

    Renee Gastelum

    Renee Chiu Gastelum is an accomplished concert organist, church organist, concert pianist, choir accompanist, jazz pianist, improviser, composer, and educator. She hopes that the music she performs, teaches, and writes will give power to its performers and to its listeners.

    Renee will graduate in April 2025 with a Master’s Degree of Organ Performance from Brigham Young University. She became a Colleague of the American Guild of Organists at the age of 19 and an Associate of the same organization at the age of 22. Renee maintains private piano and organ studios and performs regularly on both instruments throughout Northern Utah.

    Renee served as a volunteer representative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Taipei, Taiwan from 2019-2020. Upon returning to the United States, she taught Mandarin Chinese at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. Renee currently serves as an organist for both her local LDS congregation and for the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Provo. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.

    To learn more about Renee, feel free to visit www.reneechiumusic.com/about.

    Lisa Glade

    Lisa Glade has had a fascination with the organ since childhood, but didn’t have the opportunity to study the instrument formally until she entered college. Private organ lessons “just for fun” led to a change of major and eventually Bachelor’s (1995) and Master’s (1998) degrees in organ performance from Brigham Young University, where she studied with Don Cook. Lisa has spent many years as a ward and stake organist and has taught organ both privately and in workshop settings. She currently lives in Mount Vernon, Washington where she maintains a private organ studio and teaches piano for a local music school.