The pipe organ, with its considerable size, rich history, mechanical complexity, and power to reproduce and fill even the most massive venue with every sound in the orchestra, is one of the wonders of the musical world. And Daniel Aune delights in sharing his passion for the instrument. “I love teaching Peabody students,” he says, “who are not only gifted, but are dedicated to working hard in a conservatory setting.”
An award-winning performer, Aune earned his DMA in organ performance at the Eastman School of Music, where he also earned two master’s degrees, in organ and harpsichord, and a diploma in sacred music studies. Since 2011, he has presided over one of the finest organs in the country, Andover Opus 114, built for historic Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore and completed in 2007.
Part of the thrill of playing a pipe organ, built into and for a space integral to the instrument’s sound, is its sheer physicality. “You can produce the softest whisper,” he says. “You can shake a whole building, hear pews or chairs rattle. And you use both hands, both feet, so your whole body is engaged, and you have a whole orchestra in your hands—strings, flute, trumpet, oboe—so it’s an incredible experience. I love playing liturgy, I love playing hymns, but I also missed being in an academic setting and all of the discovery that goes with it.”
In 2017 Aune joined the faculty at Peabody, where students train on the magnificent Holtkamp organ, custom built in 1998 to fill Griswold Hall, as well as smaller pipe organs in the organ studio and practice rooms. In addition to private lessons, Aune teaches two classes a semester. He alternates teaching organ literature and church music from year to year, and every year teaches an organ class for non-majors.
He has also accompanied students on three trips to Europe to visit and play historic organs: twice to Paris and last summer he took nine students to Germany. “We started in the north, which had its own style in the Baroque period, and then went down to Leipzig and spent about a week in the area where Bach spent most of his life,” he says. “As organists, Bach tops the list, so that was extraordinary.”
The students visited nine organs in seven cities, spending several hours with each. They all had a chance to play, some even trying out pieces written specifically for the organ in question. “When we talk about performance practice, we try to emulate the sound and style of a period,” Aune says. “But when you actually play the instrument and understand how it works in the acoustic of the space, and even some of the physical limitations of those historic instruments, it just refines your understanding of why we approach certain music in specific ways.”
Aune also enjoys working with middle and high school musicians, giving lessons and teaching master classes at the American Guild of Organists’ Pipe Organ Encounters summer camps, which remind him of the summer organ camps he attended growing up in tiny Underwood, Minn., with its population of some 350 souls. Aune was inspired to play the pipe organ not only by the sound that so enchanted him every Sunday, but by the fact that his grandfather made his living as a choir director and music teacher.
“My family was supportive because they understood that you could earn a living as a musician,” says Aune, who is now helping to train the next generation of organists sought by churches and synagogues.
“Our most recent graduating class has done really, really well,” he says. Bethany Dame (MM ’25, Organ) is now organ scholar at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue in New York City, for instance, and Robert Baird (MM ’25, Organ) is the director of music at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.
Even while preparing the organists of tomorrow, Aune says he also loves teaching his organ class for non-majors. Designed mostly for piano and composition students, “it’s exciting to see them develop their organ skills, even perhaps playing in churches and making it a secondary part of their careers,” he says. “And it’s so inspiring to see composition majors explore the organ’s almost infinite possibilities of sound—and even, perhaps, create new music for us to perform.”