Jeffrey Brillhart

"I want to say thanks again for a wonderful week of improvisation
here at WWC. You exceeded my hopes for the week and made it possible for
my students also to exceed what I had hoped they might accomplish.
Thanks so much for your masterful teaching. Your recital was similarly
spectacular with impeccable performance of literature and mind-blowing
improvisations."
-Kraig Scott, Professor of Organ, Walla College, following a residency in which which Mr. Brillhart taught improvisation and presented a concert. (June 20, 2007)

"In the Poulenc, you can't argue too much with interpretations that are primarily defined by conductor and organist not getting in each other's way. On Thursday, there was a great sense of collaboration between Honeck and Brillhart on how a certain kind of sound can be made together. That's so much more satisfying.

"A word about the organ postlude concert: Brillhart improvised on three popular show tunes, "Goodnight My Someone" from Meredith Willson's The Music Man; and two Richard Rodgers tunes, "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" and "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top." The first took on great personality, thanks to an undulating bass line plus variations on a lot of richly voiced major-seventh chords. The song itself is a pared-back outline of "76 Trombones"; Brillhart had the good taste not to acknowledge that.

"With Rodgers, Brillhart had some fun, perverse moments giving this chipper music a dark, gothic aura." 
-David Patrick Stearns, the Philadelphia Inquirer

“Jeffrey Brillhart’s splendid performance was an exciting conclusion to the concert and to the convention.”
The American Organist

“A jubilant program...Brillhart is an aristocrat of this least manageable of all the keyboards...his sense of timing is impeccable and he phrases with finesse.”
Leslie Valdes, the Philadelphia Inquirer

“His Cochereau-style symphony was a tour de force: a dense, wild, and woolly first movement...an atmospheric rumination on “Nun komm,” a sprightly scherzo....and a virtuosic toccata on “Adoro Te”...that the first prize belonged to Brillhart was beyond dispute.”
Scott Cantrell, for The American Organist

“Jeffrey Brillhart…conducted with a passion and precision rarely encountered in this day and age… he oversaw every instance of the music as well as propelled that music to its consoling conclusion… this was the most successful overall performance of this great score I’ve heard.”
-Michael Caruso, for Chestnut Hill Local. ( Performance of Verdi “Requiem”)