Pianist, Organist, Composer, Conductor
Ovid Young and the Famous Carnegie Hall Rodgers Organ
In loving memory of Ovid Young (1940-2014)
It is with great sadness we announce the passing of Ovid Young on August 24, 2014. On September 27, 2014 a special Memorial Concert was held at Olivet Nazarene University. The announcement for the concert is below and you may click on the image for access to the video of the concert. You will be blessed by the beautiful music and tributes to Ovid Young.
Biography
One of the most versatile musicians before the concert public, Ovid Young – pianist, organist, composer and conductor – performed in virtually every sizable city in the USA as well as in England, Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Canada, Denmark, India and the Caribbean. His nearly 7,000 concert appearances over four decades placed him before hundreds of thousands of music lovers. Millions more have witnessed this veteran performer on television throughout America, Australia, Western Europe and the former Soviet Union.
As an organist, Dr. Young played many of the largest and most interesting organs in America (among them the instruments at the Crystal Cathedral, the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, the US Air Force Academy Chapel and the famed Wanamaker Grand Court organ in Philadelphia) as well as numerous cathedral and church organs in Europe, including in a concert tour of Swiss and German instruments.
Ovid Young’s orchestral appearances, in addition to a ten-year musical directorship of a Chicago-area symphony, included the English Chamber Orchestra, the English Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul (Korea) Philharmonic, the Bohuslav Martinu (Czech Republic) Philharmonic, the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Aarhus (Denmark) Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic and symphonies of Pittsburgh, Denver, Phoenix and Nashville – among many others.
His many compositions and arrangements are published by several American publishers. A composer of orchestral scores for several feature-length films, he is widely remembered as the pianist-arranger-conductor for the prominent operatic singing duo of Robert Hale and Dean Wilder in more than 3000 performances on three continents and 15 albums of recorded music.
At the end of his life, he lived in Bourbonnais, Illinois where he was Artist-in-Residence in the College of Arts & Sciences at Olivet Nazarene University, a private Christian university 50 minutes south of downtown Chicago.
Ovid Young is survived by his wife Laura, and sons, Kirk and Erik.
