Five Fast Facts: Dean Billmeyer 

Dean Billmeyer has been a faculty member at the University of Minnesota since 1982 where he has established himself as one of the most highly respected teachers in the Midwestern United States, teaching courses in keyboard curriculum including Organ Literature and History, Continuo Realizati on, and Advanced Keyboard Skills.

Billmeyer’s many awards include prizes in the Dublin International Organ Festival Competitions in 1980 and 1988, and the Lewis Elmer Award, given for the highest scores in the nation on the American Guild of Organists Certification examinations, which he won two years in a row.

Throughout the last 19 seasons, Billmeyer has appeared regularly as a guest artist with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. His 2003 recording of Dominick Argento’s A Toccata of Galuppi’s with the Dale Warland Singers received a Grammy nomination.

Billmeyer has also made significant contributions to research in the field of organ music. He annotated a volume of introductory organ works by Max Reger in 2016, and is currently researching the organ music of Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk David.

In 2018, Billmeyer released the first ever commercial recording of all ten works in Karl Straube’s edition of the Peters edition of Bach’s organ works. Straube’s edition contains ten of Bach’s most iconic organ pieces and was published in 1913.