What the Press says

AGO REGION III Convention 2019

The American Organist

Alan Morrison’s colorful and thrilling playing concluded the day, with one of the finest organ recitals this reviewer has ever heard. Morrison premiered the convention’s commission of Dan Locklair’s Angels: Two Short Tone Poems for Organ (copies of which sold out at the exhibits during the reception after-ward). With unsurpassed technical virtuosity, he traversed Anne Wilson’s Toccata and Demessieux’s devilish etude, Octaves. However the evening’s monument of artistry came in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Imaginative and brilliant registration choices resulted in an aural experience surpassing Ravel’s orchestral transcription of the same work. 

CLEVELAND
Alan Morrison, Head of the Organ Department at the Curtis Institute of  Music in Philadelphia, played an elegant recital on Sunday afternoon,  January 9, at First Baptist Church of Great Cleveland. His technical  facility is astonishing; where most organists might leave their "big  piece" for the end of the concert, Mr. Morrison started with one of the  biggest in the organ repertoire, Marcel Dupré's Prelude and Fugue in B Major, Op. 7, No. 1, and moved on from there. It was a program of showstoppers."
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BIRMINGHAM
"(they) could not have chosen a better organist than Alan  Morrison...As well as an exacting technical player, the professor from  Curtis Institute in Philadelphia was visionary in his choice of colors  and ability to shape music into lucid forms, and provided plenty of  bravura when called for."
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PHILADELPHIA
"In every piece, Morrison kept his instrument under restrained,  precisely calculated control, so that he and the other musicians created  a perfectly balanced blend."
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PHILADELPHIA
Verizon Hall - Fred J. Cooper Organ Marathon
"Alan Morrison's offering proved to be the finest, most consistent playing of the day."
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CLEVELAND
"...a rising young virtuoso of flawless technique and refined  taste... Playing most of his repertoire from memory, he communicated a  sense of pleasure that lifted the music beyond the notes. " 
The Plain Dealer


SALT LAKE CITY
“Concert organist Alan Morrison knew the 4,000-plus pipes of the  Eccles Memorial Organ in the Cathedral of the Madeleine like old  friends. His way of combining colors and timbres made Sunday’s recital  the highlight of the cathedral’s summer organ festival thus far.” 
The Salt Lake Tribune


CHARLOTTE, NC
“If more music lovers heard the king of instruments played the way  he [Morrison] did, more might believe it really deserves the nickname.  Nimble and fearless, [Morrison] easily made Leo Sowerby’s Pageant and  other virtuoso vehicles take flight.” 
The Charlotte Observer


2002 AGO CONVENTION
“Morrison’s performance was riveting, as was his entire recital…” 
The American Organist

“Masterful command of registration and a deep understanding of the  work characterized Morrison’s playing of Duruflé’s Suite, opus 5.” 
The Diapason


“a program of grand masterworks played with the surety of, well, a grand master…” 
The American Organist