Members of the Los Angeles and San Diego Chapters present various solo organ works of JSB as part of Bach-a-thon 2025.
Trio sonata No. 6 in G Major, BWV 530
Vivace
Lento
Allegro
Ed Murray, organ
Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 720
Allein Gott in der Hoeh' sei Ehr, BWV 711
In dulci jubilo, BWV 729
David Simmons, organ
Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, BWV 626
Trio, BWV 585
Emma Yim, organ
Heut' triumphiret Gottes Sohn, BWV 630
Herzlich tut mich verlangen, BWV 727
Fugue, BWV 576
Sean O'Neal, organ
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 730
Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott, BWV 721
Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 737
Mark Hilt, organ
Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 646
Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV 647
Meine Seele erhebt den Herren, BWV 648
Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 649
Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter, BWV 650
Organ Concerto in G major (after Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar), BWV 592
Gabriel Arregui, organ
A well-known figure on the Southern California music scene, Edward Murray was for close to 30 years Director of Music and Organist at historic Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles and has served an eleven-month stint as interim organist at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. He is presently organist at St. Victor Church in West Hollywood and an active free-lancer. He holds degrees from the University of Oklahoma and Southern Methodist University and has done advanced work at the University of Southern California.
Edward Murray has been a prize-winner in numerous important national and international competitions. He played more than ten seasons with the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra and other notable early music ensembles as harpsichordist. He has also championed new music for organ, giving local and regional premieres of numerous, including Olivier Messiaen’s monumental Livre du Saint Sacrement and the southern California premiere of Stephen Paulus’s first Organ Concerto before a capacity crowd in San Diego’s Balboa Park. He has served on the adjunct faculties of California State University at Los Angeles, Occidental College and U.S.C. He has performed as organist with many Southern California choirs, including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pasadena Chorale and Millennium Consort Singers, among others.
Emma Yim is currently pursuing her Master's in Organ Performance at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music under Dr. Christoph Bull. As a recent graduate of UCLA, she also holds her bachelor’s degrees in both Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology and Organ Performance.
Emma was introduced to the organ by her teacher, Jennifer Puhl and attended her first Pipe Organ Encounter (POE) in 2016, which sparked her interest in the organ. She started playing piano at a young age and began her cello performance journey in elementary school, including serving at church for over twelve years. Along the way, she taught herself trombone to join jazz and marching band in high school. At UCLA, she has collaborated and performed with fellow musicians, professors, and orchestras, with many instruments. In 2022, she performed with Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) by LA Phil, for the League of American Orchestras National Conference at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, where Gustavo Dudamel conducted. She has further enriched her musical journey by participating in masterclasses with distinguished organists, George Ritchie and Jens Korndorfer. Additionally, she has performed a wide variety of chamber music and operas in various music festivals, with the Hourglass Quartet as the resident cellist.
Away from the keyboard, Emma conducts research in a women’s health metabolism lab at the UCLA Department of Medicine, where they study the effects of the estrogen receptor in different tissues.
Sean Coburn O’Neal was born and raised in Long Beach, CA. He began musical studies with the piano at age 10, and then with the organ at age 16 – since 1993, his teacher/mentor has been James Walker. Sean has received various musical honors and awards from various musical organizations, most notably having been awarded the first-place performance prize in two regional American Guild of Organists competitions: Arizona, 1995 and Hawaii, 1997.
Sean is a frequent recitalist, both locally and around the United States, having been featured at the national AGO convention in Denver, CO. (1998); has performed in other prestigious venues around the U.S. such as St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral (Seattle, WA), Grace Episcopal Cathedral (San Francisco, CA), St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral (San Francisco, CA), First Congregational Church (Los Angeles, CA) and at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angeles (Los Angeles, CA). In June of 2000, Sean was featured on the national public radio program “Pipe Dreams” and, in September of 2001, was the featured soloist with the Long Beach Symphony in a performance of the “Organ Symphony” by Saint-Saens. Sean has the distinction of having served as music director for the most recent consecration of Los Angeles diocese bishop John H. Taylor in July of 2018, and conducted the 80-voice choir for that service.
In addition to playing the organ, piano and choral conducting, Sean has been a pipe organ builder for nearly 20 years in the Southern California area, and is the owner of O’Neal Pipe Organ Service of Long Beach, CA. Sean formerly held the position of Director of Music & Organist/Choirmaster at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Covina, CA.
J. David Simmons has been the Organist-Choirmaster at St. Matthew’s Anglican Catholic Church, Newport Beach since 2003. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California (M.M.) and the University of Kansas (B.M.). On full scholarship at USC, he was honored with the Grancell and Liberace Foundation awards. He was also awarded the Stewart Grant for graduate music study by the Musical Research Society. At the University of Kansas the faculty granted him the Preyer Award for the outstanding graduating music major. He became a church organist at the age of 12 and has continuously served churches of various denominations as organist or organist-choirmaster since then. He has collaborated with Sir David Willcocks as organist at Choral Evensong, and with conductor Robert Shaw as piano accompanist. Also a composer, he has written over 200 liturgical choral pieces especially for the St. Matthew’s Parish Choir. He has performed organ recitals, including several pipe organ dedication concerts, in California and the Midwest, and has performed piano recitals and concerts with orchestra all over the world, his fondest memory of which is his performance of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Bratislava Chamber Orchestra in Bad Aussee, Austria. From 1999-2002, he was a visiting guest artist for Crystal Cruises where he played weekly classical piano recitals. He also has one credit as an actor, playing the part of a concert pianist in a Windows XP commercial. Currently, he is an adjudicator for the Southern California Junior Bach Festival.
Mark Alan Hilt has served as Organist & Director of Traditional Music at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica since 2000. He is a pupil of Robert Town at Wichita State University & Marianne Webb at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He also taught orchestra & music theory at Harvard-Westlake School for 27 years.
Gabriel Arregui recently left his position as Assistant Organist of St Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, San Diego, where he performed for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1983. His plans now are to collaborate with singers in one of his favorite musical forms: art-songs. He will freelance as a performer in chamber music and solo recitals, and is looking to accept organ and piano students. Arregui holds degrees from the University of Southern California (Collaborative Piano) and Loma Linda University (Organ Performance). While at USC he won the Hans Schiff Memorial Scholarship for excellence in chamber music, as well as the award for outstanding graduate from the Accompanying Department. He has appeared in recital with sopranos Julianne Baird and Rosa Lamoreaux, and has taught 18th-century counterpoint at La Sierra University.