Emily Maxson Porter

Emily Maxson Porter is Organist at St. Philip's Lutheran Church in Fridley, Minnesota. Previously, she has served as Organist, and Children's Choir Director at several churches in the Milwaukee area, in Toledo, and in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. She has also been Professor of Theory and Organ at Lynchburg College, in Virginia, and Asst. Professor of Organ and Theory at Concordia College in St. Paul. For 10 years she was a software engineer for several corporations in Milwaukee. She has numerous published works, including anthems, vocal, choral, instrumental pieces, and larger organ works. Porter won the 2002 Holtkamp-AGO Award in Organ Composition, a prestigious prize including performance at the 2002 National AGO Convention.

Porter was born in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1942. She earned a B.A. in Elementary Education, with a Minor in Music (organ study with Paul Manz), from Concordia College in St. Paul. She earned a M.F.A. in Organ from the University of Minnesota. She has done additional organ and composition study at the University of Michigan and Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. She also holds a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is a member of AGO, ALCM, the American Composers' Forum, and the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers.