Before his concert with flautist Melissa Freilich on September 24, Vince Ryan will play
our noon day organ recital, on September 6. You can read his bio below.
Suggested donation for this concert $20
Doppelflöte's unique concert features the Orgelkids kit - a small, real pipe organ that one can assemble and play.
During the concert, the audience will help build and pump it. Melissa and Vince love to interact with their audience;
Orgelkids is a perfect way to involve everyone in the room.
Vincent M. Ryan
Since 1997 Vincent M. Ryan has been Minister of Music at Advent Lutheran Church in Harleysville, PA, where he directs the church’s varied ensembles. He has vast experience accompanying solo instrumentalists, voice, mixed ensembles, and choirs of all levels, including the Gospel Choir of Wittenberg, Germany. Flautist Melissa Freilich and he are the duo Doppelflöte. In 2016, he participated in the premier Orgelfestwoche (organ festival week) in Wittenberg, and has returned annually. In 2019, he sang with the Adam Rener Schola Cantorum in Strasbourg, France. He is the organist for the Lancaster-Franconia Choral Singers, directed by Ralph Alderfer.
Mr. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in piano and Master of Arts degree in organ from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). His teachers included James Staples, Carol Teti,James Dearing and James Jordan.
He has composed or arranged over 300 works for a wide variety of solo instruments, ensembles, and choirs, some of which are published. He is a champion of outreach for the pipe organ. He created (with Noel Kennedy) a coloring book, “Meet the King,” to be used at his workshops that introduce children to the pipe organ, and has authored several published articles regarding the participation of children in worship. He is a steward of the OrgelkidsUSA organ, a real portable pipe organ that one builds and plays, and has demonstrated it over 60 times for over one thousand people aged 5-95.
He is a past-dean of the IUP chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and past-vice-president of the North Penn Chapter of Choristers Guild. He has served on the executive committee of the Philadelphia Chapter of the AGO, and was the editor of their newsletter “Crescendo.”
Vince enjoys being a husband to Carrie and father to Lauren, Vincent, Garrett, and Luke. He is also a private pilot.
Mellissa Freilich
Melissa Freilich has been performing and teaching flute in the Philadelphia area for over twenty years. She has been a soloist with the Ambler Symphony, the North Penn Symphony, and Young Peoples’ Philharmonic, and has given recitals in the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Ann Arbor areas. Melissa holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan School of Music, where she studied flute performance. Melissa’s primary teachers include Veronica Mascaro, Amy Porter, and Joshua Smith.
She has performed under several prestigious conductors including Leonard Slatkin and Franz Welser-Möst. Melissa can be heard on the 2005 Grammy Award winning recording of William Bolcolm’s Songs of Innocence and Experience.
Much of Melissa's career has been devoted to teaching private flute lessons. She maintains a thriving flute studio in the Upper Dublin area. She is the mother and Suzuki practice partner to Alexander, Harrison and Eleanor Freilich.
When she is not playing her flute, Melissa enjoys running, reading, playing with her children, and the occasional night out with her husband, Marc.