Staff
Dr. Andrew E. Henderson
Director of Music & Organist
Andrew Elliot Henderson became Director of Music & Organist at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (MAPC) in July 2005. Andrew succeeded his former teacher, John Weaver, following his distinguished 35-year tenure at MAPC. At the church he directs an extensive liturgical program with a number of choirs, a choral society, the Saint Andrew Chorale, and the Saint Andrew Music Society’s Music on Madison series. In addition to his position at MAPC, Andrew is the organ instructor at Teacher’s College, Columbia University; teaches graduate organ literature courses at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ; and is the Assistant Organist at New York City’s Temple Emanu-El, the largest Jewish house of worship in the world.
Dr. Henderson, a native of Thorold, Ontario, holds degrees in music from Cambridge University in England and Yale University. While at Cambridge he held the position of Organ Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge from 1996 to 1999, and at Yale he completed his graduate studies in organ performance on a full scholarship from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. The recipient of a C.V. Starr Foundation fellowship, he was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Juilliard School in 2007, receiving the Richard F. French prize for the best doctoral document. From 2001 to 2005 he was the Assistant Organist at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York, where he was actively involved in their renowned liturgical and concert programs.
Andrew was a finalist in the international organ competition Grand Prix de Chartres held in Chartres Cathedral in 2002, and the following year he won first prize in the biennial National Organ Playing Competition sponsored by the Royal Canadian College of Organists. As well as performing recitals in St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, London, and in most major venues in New York City and at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., he has been featured as a performer on NPR’s Pipedreams. Recent performances include organ and continuo playing with the New York Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Musica Sacra, The Collegiate Chorale, in addition to performing solo recitals in Krakow, Poland (Krakow Philharmonic Hall), at the Elora Festival (Ontario), and in Colorado (Boulder Bach Festival), Georgia, Kansas, Nebraska, New Jersey, South Carolina, at the historic Round Lake Auditorium in Upstate New York and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. His first solo CD, Andrew Henderson at St. John’s, Elora, was recorded and released in 2010.
A Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, his teachers have included John Tuttle, Barrie Cabena, David Sanger, Thomas Murray and John Weaver. Andrew is married to organist Mary Wannamaker Huff, who is the Associate Director of Music at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and Director of the Children’s Choirs at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola. Andrew and Mary have two young boys, Elliot and Christian.
You can hear audio files from his recent CD and various recitals–and find out more about Andrew’s upcoming concerts–on his website at: www.andrewhenderson.net.
