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 Notre Dame de Namur University with Thomas LaRatta, with whom she continues to study. Her organ teachers have included Louis Robilliard, Marie-Louise Langlais, Sandra Soderlund, S. Leslie Grow, Garth Peacock and William Porter. In 2001, she was awarded the Associateship credential of the American Guild of Organists (AAGO) after passing rigorous playing and written examinations.

Dr. Kraft Cross has performed extensively on both organ and piano, having given over two hundred fifty concerts across the United States, in Canada, England, Holland, France, Hungary, Lesotho and Guam, including such venues as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. 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 five CDs; three with Arkay Records: two on organ (French Romantic and North German Baroque) and one on piano (Classical Piano Sonatas). Both organ albums have received critical acclaim in The American Organist magazine. In December 2007, she released two new organ albums with Compass Audio, Buxtehude to Brahms: 200 years in the Germanic Tradition on the von Beckerath organ at American Church in Paris, and The Majesty of Cavaillé-Coll on the Cavaillé-Coll organ of Notre Dame d’Auteuil in Paris. She has served as the organist of the Congregational Church of San Mateo since 1993, and is a staff organist at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. In recent years she has shown a growing interest in composing and in September 2002, the premiere of her organ work, Symphony of Peace was enthusiastically received.

In addition to her musical career, Dr. Kraft Cross is a practicing ophthalmic surgeon at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Redwood City. In her free time 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 the Peninsula Chapter of the AGO and is a member of the Concert Artist Cooperative. Come visit her website at: www.angelakraftcross.com

angela@angelakraftcross.com