DONALD LARSEN, Artist-in-Residence, is an active free-lance percussionist/timpanist who has performed with the American Chamber Ensemble, Celebrations Brass, Long Island Philharmonic, Nassau Symphony, Atlantic Wind Symphony, Concert Pops of LI, Queens Festival Band, Eglevsky and Moscow Ballet Orchestras, Brooklyn Symphony, and the Island Chamber Symphony. He has also performed with the orchestras for numerous local choirs including the Northport, Huntington, North Shore, and Babylon Chorales, the Long Island Choral Society (from 1971 under the direction of Norman Hollett until the present), Waldorf Choral Society, Mineola Choral Society, Rockville Centre Diocesan Choir, St. Agnes Cathedral Choirs, Brookhaven Choral Festival, LI Choral Festival, and the Choral Festival of the Hamptons. He can be heard on the American Chamber Ensemble’s CD of Herbert Deutsch’s Woman in Darkness.

He has also performed with many theater orchestras including the John Engeman Theater in Northport, Airport Playhouse in Bohemia, Theatre Three in Port Jefferson, and “Tada” Childrens’ Theater in NYC. Mr. Larsen can also be seen performing as the “fifth Moptop” with the Beatles cover band, “Mostly Moptop”.

Mr. Larsen holds a BS in Music Education from Hofstra University and an MS in Music Education from Queens College. A native Long Islander, he lives in Huntington with his wife Sue, a French Horn player. In 2006 he retired from the Hicksville Public Schools after 32 years as a band director. We are delighted to welcome him as this year’s Artist-in- Residence and eagerly anticipate his solo performance. Make sure you come to all of the concerts so you don’t miss it.

HENRY DEVRIES, Organist, is a 1984, cum laude graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, majoring in organ performance. While at Westminster, he studied organ with Eugene Roan and Donald McDonald, harpsichord with James Jones and Mark Brombaugh, and voice and choral conducting with James McKeever, Allen Crowell, and Frauke Haasemann. In 1986, he was the winner of the Stamford (CT) American Guild of Organists Young Artists Competition. He has performed and accompanied frequently throughout New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania on organ, harpsichord, and piano.

Mr. DeVries is a rostered teacher of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LC-MS) and is currently serving as Minister of Music at Trinity Lutheran Church and School, in Hicksville, NY. At Trinity, he directs a multiple choir and handbell program, as well as teaching vocal and choral music in the school. Mr. DeVries has often played for or directed the choirs at festival services in the Atlantic District of the LC-MS. He is a frequent accompanist for the brass groups Clarino Consort and Celebrations Brass, the flute and French horn duo Momentum, the Bel Canto Chorale, and the Long Island Choral Society.

He currently serves as Dean of the AGO, Nassau (NY) Chapter, and is an active member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM), having previously held the office of Secretary/Treasurer for Region I of ALCM.