A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, any of the arts, or on any other occasion where skills are being developed.

Kevin J. Vaughn is director of music and organist at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in South Bend, Indiana, and instructor of organ and harpsichord at Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana. He performs regularly as a solo organ recitalist and also appears frequently in collaborative programs of sacred music for voice and organ with baritone Stephen Lancaster. Recent engagements include lecture recitals at the University of Notre Dame, Valparaiso University, and for various American Guild of Organists chapters; solo recitals in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Washington; and collaborative programs in Illinois, Virginia, and Michigan. He also enjoys performing as soloist for Haydn and Handel organ concerti and as organist for major choral works, most recently Duruflé’s Requiem, Faure’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass.

Kevin was a semifinalist in the 2013-2014 cycle of the National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, and, in February 2015, he won first prize in the Immanuel Lutheran Church Organ Scholar Competition in Evanston, Illinois. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano, organ, and sacred music, including the first Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance conferred by the University of Notre Dame. His former teachers include Phyllis Warner, Gail Walton, and Craig Cramer. An active member of the American Guild of Organists, Kevin currently serves as Dean of the St. Joseph Valley (IN) Chapter and holds the Guild’s Colleague certificate. He also maintains active membership in the American Musicological Society, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and the Organ Historical Society.

​Kevin’s scholarly research and lecture recitals focus on French organist/composer Gaston Litaize (1909-1991), especially his organ Masses, as well as twentieth-century French liturgical music for solo organ more broadly. Of particular interest are genre designations, compositional techniques, and reception of Litaize’s and other composers’ works after World War Two.