Gordon A Young

Gordon Young (1919–1998) was born in McPherson, Kansas and educated at Southwestern College (Winfield, Kansas) and the Curtis Institute (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) where he was a student of Alexander McCurdy. After serving churches in Philadelphia and Kansas (where he also worked as a radio organist and newspaper critic), Young became the music director (for fifteen years) at First Presbyterian Church in Detroit, where he was a visible and important presence in the American church music scene. He also taught organ on the faculty of Wayne State University. Young published voluminously, and his organ and choral works were in the catalogs of most major American publishers. Numerous works of his were also issued in the Netherlands, where his music has remained very popular. Young is best known for his organ work "Prelude in Classic Style" (from Nine Pieces for Organ, Sacred Music Press, 1966), which has entered the worldwide standard organ repertoire.