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"To invoke an old Southern expression, Bradley Hunter Welch plays the organ like nobody's business. Between the virtuosity of the playing and the easy going spoken commentary, he also proved that 'entertainer' and 'organist' needn't be mutually exclusive. It would be hard to play Widor any better than this....splendidly idiomatic and communicative." (Dallas Morning News, 2004)
A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Bradley Hunter Welch holds the bachelor of music degree magna cum laude from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he studied organ with Joyce Jones and piano with Jane Abbott-Kirk. After Baylor, Bradley continued his studies at Yale University where he studied with Thomas Murray and Martin Jean. He holds the master of music, artist diploma, and master of musical arts degrees in organ performance from Yale. He is currently a candidate for the doctor of musical arts degree from Yale.
Bradley was the winner of the Dallas International Organ Competition in 2003, where he was also awarded the Audience Prize for the second time, having also won it in 2000. In August 2005, he performed his European debut at Chartres Cathedral in France. He has appeared as soloist with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. With the DSO, he gave the world premier of Stephen Paulus' Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra, the piece written for Bradley as the winner of the Dallas International Organ Competition. He currently serves as Artist-in-Residence at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, TX. In addition to these duties, he performs approximately 20 concerts annually under the exclusive artistic management of Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, Hartford, CT. Bradley is excited to make the first solo organ recording on the 1996 Casavant at Broadway Baptist Church, having played the instrument several times for Broadway's Holy Week recital series and for the concert series of the Fort Worth Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.