Fred J. Cooper Organ Book: Five Compositions for Organ Solo. E. C. Schirmer Music Company (a division of ECS Publishing Group), 2017, No. 8544, $22. Available from: morningstarmusic.com. Philadelphia Flourish, by Jeffrey Brillhart; Fanfare on GELOBT SEI GOTT, by Matthew Glandorf; Organum, by Kathleen Scheide; Kokopelli: Trickster God, by David Schelat; and Reflection, by Kile Smith.

In the preface to this collection, David Furniss, who was then dean of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), outlines the evolution of the project in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This instrument is a 2006 installation by Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., the firm’s Opus 76, and reigns as the largest mechanical-action concert hall organ in the United States. To commemorate the anniversary, five Philadelphia-area composers were given a “general guideline for the style of the piece they were to write,” music for diverse occasions and settings. The premier performances of these new compositions took place at the Kimmel Center Organ Day on June 10, 2017, and were presented by organists Parker Kitterman, David Furniss, Clara Gerdes, Edward Landin, and Daryl Robinson…

…Kathleen Scheide’s Organum is an accessible and restrained setting in which the composer “explores parallelism and triple meter, traits of medieval polyphony, in a contemporary, freely composed idiom.” Scheide suggests that a variety of registrations is acceptable as long as celestes and tremulants are avoided. A convincing and hypnotic effect is created by intervals of open fourths and fifths, along with judicious use of dissonances. This piece, along with Smith’s reflection, can be convincingly performed on smaller church instruments and is appropriate for liturgical use…

— THE DIAPASON ■ JUNE 2020 ■ 21

"The performances by Czech flutist Zofie Vokalkova and American organist Kathleen Scheide are impeccable, and the sound is luscious."
-- The American Record Guide

"Kathleen Scheide performs with clarity, precision and sensitivity."
-- The American Organist

"Then Kathleen Scheide gave us something to remember forever... She looks like Alice in Wonderland, but she plays like the prophet Cassandra."

-- San Diego Reader

"It is a recording to lift the spirits, and nobody could possibly feel sad while listening to it.  I thoroughly recommend it."
-- The Diapason

"...expressiveness, lilt, and good taste -- stupendously exciting... There were no mysteries about Kathleen Scheide's talents, and none about the superlative quality of this concert." 

-- San Diego Reader

"...exciting, musical, precise and technically skillful - a fine combination of artist, instrument and composer."
-- Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music

"... 100% pleasing - rhythmic, original, colorful in registration, and at times exciting and quite emotional..." 

--American Record Guide

"Kathleen Scheide is an important artist." 
--Hudson Star-Observer