DEMOREST - Piedmont College was well represented at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s 2015 Fall Organ Conference held in Bloomington, Indiana, recently.
Piedmont President Dr. James F. Mellichamp received the Ragatz Distinguished Organist Alumni Award, while the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, professor of religion at Piedmont, delivered the conference keynote address. Mellichamp also made a presentation to the conference titled “Your Vocation Lies Elsewhere: Reflections of an Organist Turned College President.”
Named for the late Oswald Gleason Ragatz, who led the Organ Department at Indiana University for more than 40 years, the Ragatz Award is presented every two years to a Jacobs School graduate based on their contributions to the organ and church music fields.
Originally from Toccoa, Dr. Mellichamp’s concert career spans more than 40 years, and he has made appearances as an organist throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. A member of the music faculty at Piedmont since 1982, he has designed some 50 organs for churches and colleges in the United States. Dr. Mellichamp graduated from Huntingdon College and earned a diploma from the Hochschule fuer Musik in Herford, Germany, before earning a doctor of music degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.
Taylor is the Butman Professor of Religion at Piedmont, where she has taught since 1998. An Episcopal priest since 1984, she is the author of 13 books on religion, including the New York Times bestsellers “Learning to Walk in the Dark,” and “An Altar in the World.” Her first memoir, “Leaving Church,” won the 2006 Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association. In 2014, Taylor was named by Time magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” for her writing and preaching.
