In October 2019 the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies celebrated its fortieth anniversary at Oberlin Conservatory with a conference entitled ‘Blending Past & Present: Collections and Collectors’. Over seventy conference attendees enjoyed a four-day programme of recitals, papers, instrument visits, masterclasses, panel discussions and presentations, two keynote addresses, a banquet, and even a film screening. Oberlin proved an ideal setting for this meeting, since the Conservatory houses one of the most significant collections of historical and historically inspired keyboard instruments in the world. Conference instruments included organs galore, from the Fenner Douglass Memorial Organ by Greg Harrold (a Spanish-style instrument, recently acquired by Oberlin from the University of California Berkeley) to John Brombaugh's landmark meantone organ in Fairchild Chapel, multiple harpsichords (by John Phillips, Anderson Dupree and Malcolm Rose), early pianos (Anton Zierer and David Sutherland) and even clavichords (Dolmetsch/Chickering and Karin Richter).
The conference opened and closed with stimulating keynote lectures on the history and future of collecting and on historical performance. Highlights included two lecture-recitals – one at Oberlin's splendid Allen Art Museum featuring music on various keyboards alongside a promenade of paintings, the other providing fascinating context for a Schumann song cycle played on an 1810 Viennese piano – plus opportunities to hear and admire the Caldwell Collection of Viols and a cornucopia of items from the Selch Collection of American Music History. Papers addressed a wide range of topics, from early-modern ‘combination keyboards’ to the collecting habits of a wealthy Mexican businessman. Conference attendees were treated to music that also ran the gamut: one programme juxtaposed early seventeenth-century Italian chromatic works with the equally strange keyboard music of Charles-Valentin Alkan. Panel discussions provided great opportunities for conversation with several invited collectors and curators as well as instrument builders and restorers. Organized by Westfield's current Executive Director Kathryn Stuart, ‘Blending Past & Present’ epitomized this organization's wide reach and high ambition and served as a fitting climax to its fortieth anniversary year.
Founded in Massachusetts, the Westfield Center currently has its offices at Cornell University, though it presents programmes and conferences throughout North America. Significant milestones have included ‘Festival Organ’ (a four-year interactive exhibition with public talks and concerts across the United States); conferences on the themes of ‘The Historical Organ in America’ (Tempe, Arizona, 1992), ‘Beyond Notation: Improvisation in Mozart's Time’ (Ann Arbor, 2002), ‘Keyboard Culture in Eighteenth-Century Berlin’ (Ithaca, 2011) and ‘Cembalophilia’ (Berkeley, 2016); international competitions in organ, fortepiano and harpsichord; and study tours to Germany, Holland and Mexico. Its membership, while primarily American, extends to twenty different countries and includes significant benefits, including a quarterly newsletter, an annual scholarly journal and several landmark publications on the organ. Members include artists, builders, scholars, educators, students, enthusiasts and various partner organizations.
Founded in 1979 by Lynn Edwards and Edward Pepe, Westfield was intended to fill a need for keyboard events that promoted historical performance practice and instrument building in historical styles. Edwards, an organist and scholar, served as the Center's Director from 1987 to 1999 and was succeeded by Roger Sherman, an organist and harpsichordist who also owns and operates Loft Recordings and Gothic Records. Annette Richards of Cornell University served Westfield as its Executive Director between 2007 and 2017, during which time a partnership was established between Westfield and Cornell. Richards has also been the driving force behind Keyboard Perspectives, a peer-reviewed journal that provides a lively forum for scholars, performers, instrument builders and amateurs of the keyboard across both time and genre. As current President of the Westfield Board, I would like to acknowledge and thank these individuals in particular for their outstanding service to the organization.
Originally an association for organ performers and scholars, the Westfield Center now offers a unique environment for the study, appreciation, use and promotion of a wide range of keyboard instruments. Its long-standing priorities have included the intersections of historical practices and technologies with larger social and artistic developments, and it welcomes enquiries from prospective members and partner organizations. More information can be found on the organization's website, https://westfield.org.
