Rhonda Sider Edgington is a passionate, masterful organist and scholar of the organ whose interests and repertoire span the entire timeline of Western music.

Ms. Edgington has performed all over northern Europe, on instruments such as the famous Arp Schnitger organs in Norden, Steinkirchen, Neuenfelde, and Weener; the Jugend Ahrend organ in Bremen’s St. Martini Church; and a mean-tone instrument with sub-semitones by Van der Putten in Bremen-Walle.  In 2007, she performed in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam as a finalist in the International Sweelinck Competition, playing a recital of music composed between 1560 and 1660.  In 2009, she performed organ music of the 20^th and 21^st centuries in Bremen’s St. Petri Cathedral, including pieces by students and faculty at Bremen’s University for the Arts as well as standard modern repertoire by Cage, Ligeti, Kagel, and Messiaen.

Ms. Edgington has also performed throughout the United States, including at venues such as Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Buffalo, and Fourth Presbyterian and Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.  A friend of many varied styles and repertoire, she has performed in three national conventions of the Organ Historical Society, and a regional convention of the American Guild of Organists.

Before arriving in Bremen, Germany with a Fulbright scholarship in 2004 to study with Prof. Harald Vogel, Rhonda Sider Edgington was organist at the First United Church of Oak Park, Illinois.  The 88-rank Casavant there, especially well-suited to French repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries, inspired her to focus those years on composers from Franck through Messiaen and record a CD of these works, French Organ Music of the 19th and 20th Century on the Casavant Organ at First United Church in Oak Park.

Ms. Edgington has studied in Germany with Harald Vogel, Hans-Ola Ericson, Edoardo Bellotti, and Hans Davidsson, and in the U.S. with Larry Smith, Marilyn Keiser, John Chappell Stowe, Edward Zimmerman, and her father, Ronald Sider.  She has a Master’s Degree in Organ from Indiana University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Piano from Wheaton College, and a Diploma in Organ Performance from the Hochschule für Künste/ University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany, where she was awarded the highest possible grade for her graduation recitals.

Rhonda Sider Edgington has worked as a church musician since her student days, and has held jobs in Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, and Episcopalian churches in the States, as well as working as a church musician in Germany.  As an organ teacher, Ms. Edgington was Assistant Professor at Concordia University, River Forrest (IL), and Interim Professor of Organ at Houghton College (NY).

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