Organist Guy Whatley performs in concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, in the Doc Rando Recital Hall of the Beam Music Center. The program includes works by William Byrd, Dietrich Buxtehude, Girolamo Frescobaldi, J.S. Bach, and Johann Jakob Froberger. The baroque performance is free and open to the public, and also is a special prelude to UNLV's inaugural Baroque Music Festival, which will take place April 20-23.
Whatley studied music at the University of Bristol where he graduated with honors. He continued his studies in Stuttgart Germany; Lyon France; and in a number of other European countries. He holds a doctorate in music from Arizona State University. His teachers have included Ton Koopman, Maria Boxall, Ludger Lohmann, Marie-Claire Alain, Christopher Stembridge, Jean Boyer, and Kimberly Marshall. He has published a number of articles relating to early keyboard performance, and has presented the fruits of his research at universities across North America and Europe, and has broadcast on the BBC, PBS, and NPR. In partnership with Jean-Christophe Dobrzelewski he has recently produced a number of editions of baroque music for trumpet and organ.
He has held numerous church music and education positions, and is often invited as a visiting teacher and clinician. Although specializing in early music, he does not limit himself to this repertoire, having premiered, commissioned, and broadcast a number of major new works for the organ. His repertoire spans the fourteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Whatley has performed on historic organs and keyboard instruments across Europe and the United States, and at prestigious venues in Europe, Asia, and Central America. He keeps a busy concert schedule and has recently performed with the Arizona Bach Festival, the Grammy-award-winning Phoenix Chorale, Tucson Chamber Artists, St Andrew's Bach Festival, the Costa Rica International Festival of Music, and at the Connecticut Early Music Festival. Recent engagements included festivals in China, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, and Europe, and he recently performed the complete keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederic Handel, William Byrd, and the complete organ works of Franz Liszt. Guy regularly performs in a duo with trumpeter Jean-Christophe Dobrzelewski and they have performed all across Europe and North America. Their highly acclaimed CD recordings feature music of all periods and styles.
Whatley is the director of music at Camelback Bible Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona, where he leads a very large music program comprised of numerous choirs and instrumental ensembles. He is also a member of the teaching faculty at Arizona State University's West campus, and sits on the boards of various arts organizations in the Phoenix area. Additionally, he is the harpsichordist and organist for the Grammy-award-winning True Concord Voices and Orchestra.
