Silent Night

David M. Cherwien, born 1957, is currently serving as Director of Music at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN, and in 2002 was appointed Music Director for the National Lutheran Choir, also based in the Twin Cities. He has also held full time parish music positions in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Chicago, Seattle, and Berlin. During the 2000-2001 academic year he served as Organist/Cantor of Christ Chapel and Visiting Instructor of Music at Gustavus College, St. Peter, MN. While in Chicago, he served as Teaching Associate in Service Playing and improvisation at Elmhurst College. He completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance, and the Master of Arts degree in Theory and Composition, both from the University of Minnesota. His undergraduate work was in organ performance and music education at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, where he was honored as distinguished alumni in the fall of 2000.

Following his undergraduate work he studied for two years at the Berlin Church Music School in Berlin, Germany. There he studied improvisation with Renate Zimmermann, organ Literature with Karl Hochreither, and composition with the late Ernst Pepping. He has also studied organ with Christian Baude in Aix-en-Provence, France, and with Paul Manz, Heinrich Fleisher, and Earl Barr in this country, and is a Fellow with Melodious Accord, studying composition with Alice Parker.

This little piece comes from the volume "Carol Vignettes for Organ" (Sacred Music Press, 70/1400S). Some of the pieces in the volume are more challenging than others, this one is simple and soft - I often use it at some point during the Christmas season - sometimes on Christmas Day after all of the big bombastic stuff the night before. Enjoy!