It is with great excitement that I invite you to explore Keyboard to Keyboard, GIA’s new resource for keyboard players. Whether you are a pianist who is looking for guidance on how to play the organ or an organist who would like to hone your skills, I say WELCOME!

Each blog entry will feature various aspects of organ playing and will include perspectives from church musicians, articles about organ construction and registration, videos on organ techniques, and online and print resources. If you have a question about organ technique or anything related to organ playing, you are encouraged to write to me. I will do my best to answer or find someone who can! (To do that, write to me at [email protected])

In addition, you will find examples of organ music for keyboard only, as well as for minimal pedal, which will feature music in the public domain as well as new settings written for GIA. The organ repertoire currently available at GIA is listed here in its various categories (concert music, service music, music for organ and brass, music for organ plus instrument, etc).

It is my hope to inspire you by sharing my tremendous love for the organ, as well as the education and experience I have from over forty years as an organist and church musician. As the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, I began my formal training at the age of eleven from the wonderful organist at my father’s church who was a then an organ student at Northern Illinois University, Norma Washburn Kentner. Under her guidance, I played my first service at the age of twelve. It was her enthusiasm and love for the organ that transfixed me at an early age, and her support and encouragement has continued to inspire me for decades.

– Marilyn Perkins Biery, DMA, AAGO
   Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan