NATCHITOCHES – Organist Ray Cornils will present a recital at Northwestern State University on Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. The concert is part of the Louisiana Piano Series International. Tickets are $15. Northwestern, BPCC@NSU and Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts students are admitted free with a current student I.D. A livestream will be available at capa.nsula.edu/livestream.  

NSU Assistant Professor of Piano Dr. John Price and Associate Professor of Piano Dr. Francis Yang are co-directors of the of the Louisiana Piano Series International. The concert highlights Northwestern’s organ program which includes a bachelor’s in sacred music. 

Cornils served as municipal organist for the City of Portland Maine from 1990 to 2017. For 30 years he was minister of music at First Parish Church, UCC, Brunswick Maine, where he led an extensive music program of five vocal and two handbell choirs. He has held church positions in Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Maine. 

Known for his highly diverse programming, Cornils has concertized throughout the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, New Zealand, and Ecuador. He has been a featured recitalist for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. In addition to his solo work, he performs regularly with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. 

Cornils has been a member of the music faculties of Bowdoin College, the University of Southern Maine, the Young Organists Collaborative and the Portland Conservatory of Music, where he taught organ, harpsichord and related classes. In 2020 he taught organ lessons at Northwestern. 

He has held many leadership roles in the American Guild of Organists, including convention coordinator for the 2014 National Convention in Boston. 

The program includes works by Rosalie Bonighton, from the Susanne van Soldt Manuscript, Felix Alexandre Guilmant, Georg F. Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ermend Bonnal, Jesse Greer and John Weaver. 

Northwestern’s emphasis on preparing students with an interest in sacred music and organ performance is shown by having a full-time faculty member who teaches organ and having an organ in Magale Recital Hall. 

The sacred music major is taught by Dr. Mary DeVille who has been on the faculty at NSU since 1991 and has been a full-time faculty member since 2011. DeVille developed and implemented the degree program which was approved by the National Association of Schools of Music. While at Northwestern, DeVille created and implemented a history of jazz course, revised the music literature/history curriculum to a four-semester required music history curriculum for all music majors. 

“NSU’s program in sacred music is unique because we have the only fully accredited degree program in a state college/university in Louisiana and one of the few in the region at a public institution,” said DeVille. “This program is a broad-based, non-denominational sacred music degree program that trains and qualifies the student to work in any Judeo-Christian music tradition in the organ, keyboard and choral areas.” 

DeVille said graduates of the sacred music programs have been accepted into top graduate programs and hold positions in major churches, cathedrals, seminaries and accredited schools of music. 

For more information on degree programs in Northwestern’s Department of Music, go to https://www.nsula.edu/music/music-degree-programs.