The organ studio at the University of Oklahoma School of Music is renowned for its commitment to excellence, innovation, and student success. Founded on the 1938-1976 teaching legacy of famed pedagogue Mildred Andrews Boggess, organ students have come from all across the country for decades to participate in this unique studio. Dr. Damin Spritzer, Area Chair and Associate Professor, is an internationally distinguished organist and a passionately committed teacher. OU offers a traditional classical program of study focussed on either Performance or Church Music, including Organ Literature & History, History of Hymnody, and Sacred Music offerings. The 45-rank Fisk organ, Op. 111, installed in 1999, is the crowning jewel of the many instruments available at OU and in the surrounding city. Full scholarships including fees, and Graduate Assistantships plus stipend and health insurance available.
In addition to Bachelor of Music in Organ, students can pursue multi-disciplinary degrees through the Bachelor of Musical Arts Degree or the Bachelor of Arts degree. A music minor is also offered by the University of Oklahoma.
Organists can pursue a Masters of Music in Organ with 2 different concentrations:
2 concentrations are offered for the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ:
The Grayce B. Kerr Gothic Hall houses the Mildred Andrews Boggess Memorial Organ, a $750,000 instrument designed specifically for the School of Music by the C. B. Fisk Company. Kerr Gothic Hall serves as a grand entrance to the School of Music and a lobby for the performance spaces in the Catlett Music Center. The large interior entry space identified as Gothic Hall is architecturally unique due to its high volume of space, play of light through the large east exterior windows, and use of structural elements to capture the essence of the “Old Gothic Hall Cathedrals”. During the day, sunlight filters through the large stained glass windows into the hall and at night the interior lighting filters out through the windows dramatically lighting the east face like a jewel. The upper north end of the space houses a fully functional organ assembly so that vocal and music performance can be accomplished within the space.
Based around the altered but historic theatre organ console from New York City’s former Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the Sharp Hall organ is comprised of 3-manuals and 14 ranks pipes sourced from a number of organs. The 14 ranks are arranged in two chambers. Rather than have stops and ranks in dedicated divisions (Great, Swell, etc.) as one would find in a classical instrument, all ranks are unified at multiple pitch levels. Therefore, one will find a vast number of stop tabs for a limited number of ranks on all the manuals. The stop rails are organized according to pitch level and loudness from left to right. Stop tabs are color coded according to the family of tone; here, diapasons and flutes are white, strings are yellow, reeds are red, and percussions are green. The manuals, from bottom to top, are Accompaniment (stop tabs on upper two left rails), Great (central/right lower rail), and Solo (upper two right rails). Stop tabs for the pedal can be found on the lower left rail. The Accompaniment manual is equipped with "second touch": each key is equipped with a second deeper spring and contact and the key will depress beyond its normal depth to a greater depth that will engage the second contact. Only a few stops and couplers, found on the left side of the main rail) are available to assign to the second touch. While originally developed to play countermelodies for works in popular genres, the feature can be useful in transcriptions and classical works as well, for example reaching a particular interval or need to find a way to bring out a solo line. The organ is tuned slightly below concert pitch.
Email: daminspritzer@ou.edu
Office: Catlett Music Center 227
With performances and recordings hailed as “spirited and vigorous,” “elegantly assured,” and “spellbinding,” and nine critically acclaimed CDs recorded in France, England, and the United States, organist Dr. Damin Spritzer has performed in Iceland, Belgium, England, Germany, France, Brazil, Italy, Norway, Scotland, and throughout the US. With repertoire that encompasses the 1500s to present-day and living composers, she has been honored to contribute to numerous convention performances and lectures for the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, and the Anglican Association of Musicians. She is Area Chair and Associate Professor of Organ at the University of Oklahoma and Artist-in-Residence for Cathedral Arts at the Cathedral Church of Saint Matthew in Dallas, and serves on committees for the Organ Historical Society, the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Anglican Musicians, and Organlive Media Foundation. Her doctorate is from the University of North Texas, her Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music, and her Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Spritzer’s eighth CD, recorded in 2025 at the 1999 Fisk organ, Op. 111, at the University of Oklahoma, is dedicated to the memory of her predecessor there, Mildred Andrews Boggess, and celebrates music of female students of Marcel Dupré, and has received significant praise. Her ninth CD, dedicated entirely to American composers in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States, was recorded on the monumental 1875, 101-rank Hook & Hastings organ of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Her seventh CD, recorded in France, features organ music of Pierre Kunc. CD six was recorded in England, exploring organ music of Harvey Grace. It received a 5-star review from British magazine, The Organ. For Spritzer’s acclaimed fifth CD, “Rhapsodies & Elegies,” she was the first American and first woman to record at Hereford Cathedral on the Fr. Willis organ. The five-star review from Organists Review writes, “Damin Spritzer’s performance is spellbinding – and her wide-ranging program notes are fascinating…on so many levels this CD impresses as a serious undertaking.” Her next recording and research projects focus on American Romantic composers and further explorations of British composers.
Spritzer’s first two discs for Raven Recordings are world premier releases of Alsatian-American composer René Louis Becker’s (1882-1956) music performed in France. The first was recorded in Pithiviers on the Cavaillé-Coll organ of Saint-Salomon-Saint-Gregoire. Choir & Organ magazine gave it five stars, and the second, recorded in Orléans, France at the Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d'Orléans, received four stars from Choir & Organ: “This second installment in Damin Spritzer’s enterprising rehabilitation of the prolific but largely unknown [Becker] comes…three years after the first volume. Happily, it’s been worth the wait.” The third was recorded on the historic Kimball organ of St. John’s Cathedral, receiving a four-star review from Choir & Organ magazine and a glowing review from the American Record Guide. Her fourth recording, “Fantasia,” was a collaborative project with Dr. Donald Pinson, trombone, recorded in Texas at St. Monica Catholic church in Dallas. Future recording projects are planned in France, England, and the United States.
Damin Spritzer is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.
