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-The American Organist Magazine

“Mark Laubach played a virtuoso recital. From start to finish, the nicely varied program was thoughtfully registered and impeccably performed. Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture came to life, as if an orchestra were in the room. Laubach played William Bolcom’s Gospel Prelude on What a Friend We Have in Jesus with rhythmic verve, and we heard yet more dulcet tones from the pipes in Gerre Hancock’s Improvisation on St. Clement, transcribed by Peter Stoltzfus Berton. Finally, it was quite an experience to hear Julius Reubke’s epic Sonata on the Ninety-fourth Psalm on the Girard College Chapel organ. I will never forget the chorus of reed stops sounding the heraldic fanfares well known in the piece, and Mark Laubach’s fiery playing and brilliant interpretation.”

-The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians

In a review of Mosaics in Sounds (2006 Pro Organo CD), Victor Hill wrote, “Indeed, [Laubach’s] playing throughout is of the highest order with respect to technique, rhythm, sense of sound, and interpretive understanding. … This is an absolutely first-rate recording.”

-The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians

"Mark Laubach’s recital at Pine Street Presbyterian Church included the commissioned work by Jeremy Gill, 8 Variations and Toccata on “Betzet Yisrael” in all its onomatopoeic splendor with trembling earth, mountains skipping like rams, and rocks turned into a fountain of waters! The 83-rank Skinner/Möller was more than equal to this challenge, as was Canon Laubach."

-The American Organist, October 2011

MARK LAUBACH

CONCERT ORGANIST

Since January 1986 Mark Laubach has served as Organist and Choirmaster of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre, the Pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of Bethlehem, where he administers an active liturgical and choral music program, concert series, and Music from St. Stephen’s, a radio broadcast heard weekly on WVIA 89.9 FM Public Radio. In 2008 Bishop Paul Marshall made Mark Honorary Canon Precentor of the Diocese in recognition of his accomplishments and contributions to the musical and liturgical life of the Diocese of Bethlehem. 

 

Mark Laubach received a Bachelor’s Degree in Church Music from Westminster Choir College in 1982 and a Master’s Degree in Organ Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in 1984. He served for one year as Fellow in Church Music at Washington National Cathedral. His organ teachers have included J. Clinton Miller, George Markey, Donald McDonald, and David Craighead. Since winning first prize in the 1984 American Guild of Organists (AGO) National Young Artists’ Competition in Organ Performance, Mark has performed in many prominent churches and concert halls in the USA and in Great Britain and Germany. In the United States, he has performed at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and Saint Thomas Church in New York City, the Chapel at West Point Military Academy, the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Trinity Church in Boston, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Saint John’s Cathedral in Denver, Girard College in Philadelphia, the Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Methuen, Massachusetts, and the Crystal Cathedral (now Christ Cathedral of the Diocese of Orange) in Garden Grove, California. In Great Britain Mark has presented recitals at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and King’s College Chapel in Cambridge. He is a frequent recitalist, clinician, presenter of hymn festivals, and competition adjudicator for National and Regional Conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) and National and Regional Conferences of the Association of Anglican Musicians (AAM). He has recorded three critically acclaimed compact discs on the Pro Organo label: Teutonic Titanics, French Fest, and Mosaics in Sound. Canon Laubach teaches organ students privately and at Marywood University in Scranton. He is represented by the Concert Artists Cooperative. 

 

In 1993 and 1994, Mark began his involvement with the Royal School of Church Music in America when he served as an organist for the Valley Forge Course, which moved to Wilkes-Barre in 1995 and became the King’s College Course. He served as Course Manager in the late 1990s in Wilkes-Barre, and served as an organist for the Course in the years since. 

 

The year 2022 marked the 200th anniversary year of the birth of César Franck. In celebration of this, Mark performed all twelve of Franck’s major organ works in recitals at St. Stephen’s in Wilkes-Barre in November 2022. He also performed several other “Franck 200” recitals that same year in Binghamton (NY), Lancaster (PA), and Rutland (VT).    

 

In August 2023, Canon Laubach served as an organist for a choral residency at Exeter Cathedral in England sung by the combined choirs of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Harleysville, Pennsylvania and All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Princeton, New Jersey. He has served in this capacity for a number of other residencies at cathedrals in England, including Bristol, Chichester, Ely, Gloucester, Lincoln, Norwich, Wells, and Winchester. 

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