The following students from the Eastman School of Music Organ Department will be presenting at the 2025 Rochester Theater Organ Society’s “Eastman Bunch” program.
Abigail Crafton
Abigail Crafton is a first year undergraduate Organ Performance major in the studio of Nathan Laube at the Eastman School of Music. She has studied piano since the age of three and singing since the age of four. At the age of ten she began the organ. In the spring 2023, Abigail won both the local and Southeast Regional division of the American Guild of Organists Quimby Competition. As a result, she performed at the National AGO Convention in San Francisco, CA as a “Rising Star” in the summer of 2024. Abigail was recently a prize winner in the 2023 Baylor University High School Organ Competition and the American Guild of Organists 2024 Young Artist Competition in Columbia, SC. Abigail is a frequent recitalist and was previously the Organ Scholar at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, GA from 2022-2024. Abigail’s former teachers include Doug Brown and Dr. Paul Thornock.
Adam Chlebek
Adam Chlebek is a student at the Eastman School of Music, where he is pursuing a Master of Music in Organ Performance in the studio of Nathan Laube. A Polish American from Chicago, IL, he earned second prize at the 2022 Taylor Organ Competition and was a finalist in the 2024 Elizabeth Stephens International Organ Competition. Chlebek has performed throughout the United States and Poland, and has participated in masterclasses with organists Janette Fishell, William Porter, and Arvid Gast. In 2022, he served as the first Sacred Music Intern at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., where his playing was heard internationally via a livestream broadcast.
Adam is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied organ with Jonathan Moyer; there he also focused on choral singing and conducting. He sang in the Oberlin Musical Union, under the direction of Gregory Ristow, and Collegium Musicum, under the direction of Steven Plank; and has studied choral conducting with Jodi Kerchner and Ben Johns.
Adam is an avid jazz pianist; he has participated in Oberlin’s Performance and Improvisation Ensemble, where he has performed with Jamey Haddad, Jay Ashby, and Becca Stevens. He is also the keyboardist for The Surrealists, a psych-rock band based in Evanston, IL.
Adam currently serves as the Director of Music at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Rochester, New York, and sings in the acclaimed Christ Church Schola Cantorum, under the direction of Stephen Kennedy.
Abigail Crafton
Abigail Crafton is a first year undergraduate Organ Performance major in the studio of Nathan Laube at the Eastman School of Music. She has studied piano since the age of three and singing since the age of four. At the age of ten she began the organ. In the spring 2023, Abigail won both the local and Southeast Regional division of the American Guild of Organists Quimby Competition. As a result, she performed at the National AGO Convention in San Francisco, CA as a “Rising Star” in the summer of 2024.
Abigail is a frequent recitalist and was previously the Organ Scholar at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, GA from 2022-2024. Abigail’s former teachers include Doug Brown and Dr. Paul Thornock.
Katherine Jolliff
Named one of The Diapason’s Top 20 Under 30 in 2023, Katherine Jolliff is pursuing a BM in organ performance at the Eastman School of Music where she studies with David Higgs. Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, she began piano studies at the age of five and started organ lessons with Marco Petricic during her freshman year of high school. She finished her high school studies at the Interlochen Arts Academy, where she majored in both piano and organ performance, graduated with honors, and earned the Fine Arts Award in Organ Performance. In addition to being declared a winner at the Regional Competition for Young Organists, she has also won first prize in the East Carolina University Young Artists Competition in organ performance (including the Bach Interpretation Prize and the Hymn Playing Award) as well as first place in the 2021 M. Louise Miller and Paul E Knox Scholarship Competition. More recently, she won first place in the Immanuel Lutheran Organ Scholar Competition and the Taylor Organ Competition. Outside of music, Katherine enjoys training at the local aerial studio, where she also teaches trapeze, aerial silks, and lyra.
Cameron Oostdyk
Cameron Oostdyk is a first-year undergraduate Organ Performance major in the studio of Nathan Laube. This is Cameron’s first performance with the Eastman Bunch.
Augustine Sobeng
Augustine Sobeng hails from Ghana. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Technology in 2014 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (K.N.U.S.T) in Kumasi, Ghana. He studied for his Masters in Organ Performance in the studio of Dr. Annie Laver, at Syracuse University between 2019 and 2021. Augustine is currently pursuing his Doctoral program in Organ Performance and Literature, in the studio of Nathan Laube, at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester University.
Alexander Richard Straus-Fausto
Alexander Richard Straus-Fausto is a Canadian organist completing his Advanced Diploma in Performance at the Eastman School of Music under Prof. David Higgs. He earned his Master’s degree in organ performance at the Yale University, School of Music and completed his Bachelor of Music at McGill University. He has further expanded the organ’s reach by creating more than 50 original transcriptions of major orchestral works, reflecting his passion for the symphonic organ as a virtually unlimited medium for artistic expression. He is a member of The Diapason’s “20 under 30 Class of 2023,” which recognizes young artists under the age of 30 who have made significant contributions to the fields of organ performance, harpsichord, organ building, carillon, and church music. With the funding of the Centennial Millennium Fund of the New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he co-founded Festiv’Orgue in 201ti, which succeeded in bringing a new audience to the organ at concerts using large downtown churches’ historic symphonic organs in the city of Montreal. He has given recitals in venues such as Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, La Madeleine in Paris, Trinity Church in New York, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Washington National Cathedral, and Princeton University Chapel. Outside of music, Alexander is an avid roller coaster enthusiast and connoisseur of nostalgia culture.
William Porter
William Porter, widely known as a performer in the United States and in Europe, has also achieved international recognition for his skill in improvisation in a wide variety of styles, ancient and modern. He has performed at major international festivals and academies, including the North German Organ Academy, the Italian Academy of Music for the Organ, the Smarano Organ and Clavichord Academy, Organfestival Holland, the Göteborg International Organ Academy, the Dollart Festival, the Lausanne Improvisation Festival, the Festival Toulouse les Orgues, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, the McGill International Organ Academy, Eastman’s Improvfest, and the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists.
Professor of Organ, Harpsichord, and Improvisation at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, from 2002 until his retirement in 2013, he has also been a member of the music faculty at McGill University in Montreal, where he lived from 2004 until fall of 2015. From 1985 to 2002 he taught organ, music history, and music theory at the New England Conservatory in Boston, and from 2001 until 2005 he taught improvisation at Yale University. Porter holds degrees from Oberlin College, where he also taught organ and harpsichord from 1974 to 1986, and from Yale University. He has recorded on historic instruments, old and new, for the Gasparo, Proprius, BMG, and Loft labels. Now residing in Rochester, New York, he has returned to the Eastman School of Music as Adjunct Professor of Organ. This will be his 13th appearance with the “Bunch.” Bill is also an Honorary Member of RTOS.
The second half of the Eastman Bunch program will be a performance on the theatre organ by Camden Church.
Nineteen-year-old Camden Church got his start in theatre organ two years ago after attending an organ concert at the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda, NY. Camden’s skills have evolved quickly to include a variety of musical genres. This young artist amazes audiences with hits like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and music from famous movies and popular musicals like “Phantom of The Opera“. Camden demonstrates mastery of the theatre organ with varying orchestral styles using different techniques, instruments and tonal color.
