Dr. Marnie Giesbrecht

Dr. Marnie Giesbrecht has been Joint Music Director at First Presbyterian Church, Edmonton, since November 2003, sharing the post with Dr. Joachim Segger. She performs as an organ soloist and collaborative artist on organ, piano and harpsichord.

Marnie was a full-time member of the Department of Music at the University of Alberta from 1988 to 2014, where she served as University Organist and is now Professor Emerita. She is also Adjunct Professor of Music at The King’s University in Edmonton. She studied at the University of Alberta, the Eastman School of Music and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and was the first graduate of the University of Alberta’s Doctor of Music program in organ performance.

With Joachim Segger she forms Duo Majoya, a keyboard team that has commissioned more than twenty works for organ duet and organ with piano from Canadian and international composers, and has performed across North America, Europe, South Africa and Asia. Their recordings include Organ Duets on the Davis Concert Organ and Canadian Suite Celebrations (2024). Her solo recording is Now and Then.

Marnie is a past National President of the Royal Canadian College of Organists and was made an Honorary Fellow of the College in 2015. She was inducted into the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame in 2014. She advised on the 2007 refurbishment of First Church’s 1909 Casavant organ, served on the committee that selected the Davis Concert Organ for the Winspear Centre, and is a founding member of Early Music Alberta.