Angela Kraft Cross
Angela Kraft Cross, San Francisco Bay Area organist, pianist and composer, graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in 1980 with bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Organ Performance. She then earned her Doctor of Medicine degree at Loma Linda University, where she subsequently completed her residency in ophthalmology. In 1993, she completed her Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the College of Notre Dame with Thomas LaRatta, with whom she continues to study. Her organ teachers have included Louis Robilliard, Marie-Louise Langlais, Sandra Soderlund, S. Leslie Grow, William Porter and Garth Peacock. In 2001, she was awarded the Associateship credential of the American Guild of Organists (AAGO) after passing rigorous playing and written examinations. Since 2008, she has studied composition with Pamela Decker.

Dr. Kraft Cross has performed extensively on both organ and piano, having given over three hundred concerts across the United States, in Canada, England, Holland, France, Hungary, Lesotho and Guam, including such venues as Notre Dame Cathedral, St. Sulpice and the Madeleine in Paris, Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., St. Thomas Church in New York City, Methuen Memorial Music Hall and Trinity Church in Boston, and Westminster Abbey and Southwark Cathedral in London. She has been featured soloist with local Bay Area ensembles; Master Sinfonia Orchestra, Soli Deo Gloria, Sine Nomine, and the San Jose Symphonic Choir as well as Seattle’s Philharmonia Northwest Chamber Orchestra. She has released six CDs; three with Arkay Records: two on organ (French Romantic and North German Baroque) and one on piano (Classical Piano Sonatas); and three with Compass Audio in Europe: (200 Years in the Germanic Tradition, the Majesty of Cavaillé-Coll and her most recent release: a 2CD set of Mendelssohn’s organ works recorded on the 1801 organ of St Margaret’s Lothbury, London.) Three of her organ albums have received critical acclaim in The American Organist magazine. She has served as the organist of the Congregational Church of San Mateo since 1993, and is currently their Artist in Residence. She is also a staff organist at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

In addition to her musical career, Dr. Kraft Cross is a practicing ophthalmic surgeon at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Redwood City. She is committed to the musical education of young people, and since 1997 has been instrumental in organizing an annual Organ Camp for young pianists headquartered at her church. She also served as faculty for the 2005 Pipe Organ Encounter in San Francisco. She is currently serving as SubDean for both the Peninsula Chapter and the San Francisco Chapter of the AGO. She is a member of the Concert Artist Cooperative. Come visit her website at: www.angelakraftcross.com

Email: krftcrss@yahoo.com