William John Stuivenga

1953 -

William "Will" Stuivenga, a part-time organist, pianist, and vocalist, holds a full-time position as Cooperative Projects Manager for Library Development at the Washington State Library, where he has been employed since 2004. From 1999 to 2004, he was Computer Systems Manager for the Coastal Resource Sharing Network, a consortium of libraries located on the Oregon coast. Before that appointment, he had worked as Library Liaison Officer-Internet Trainer for Amigos Library Services in Dallas,Texas, and as Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian at Southern Methodist University.

An active musician, Stuivenga served as Dean of the Olympia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists from 2006-2008, having served as its Secretary and Newsletter Editor for two years previously, and since. He has held a number of church music positions since completing a B.Mus., cum laude, at Walla Walla College in 1976.

Stuivenga completed an M.A. in music theory at the University of Washington in 1984 and an M.S. in library science at the University of North Texas in 1989. He studied organ with Melvin West, Walter Eichinger, Robert Tupper, and Judy Meyers and choral conducting with Abraham Kaplan, Joan Conlon, and Harold Lickey. He currently serves as Organist/Pianist for the Olympia, Washington, First Baptist Church and is one of the organists at the Chehalis, Washington, Seventh-day Adventist Church, where he enjoys playing its 49-rank Casavant pipe organ.

Other musical activities have included playing in an annual series of noon organ recitals during Holy Week at The United Churches in Olympia, Washington, for the past several years. In September 2006, Stuivenga presented a program titled Holy, Holy, Holy & Worthy Is the Lamb, A Celebration of Revelation, Chapters 4 & 5, with Hymns and Organ in the 11:00 hour worship service at Chehalis Seventh-day Adventist Church.

He played organ recitals at Olympia First Baptist Church in 2007 and 2008, and at St. David of Wales Episcopal Church, Shelton, Washington, in 2005, while serving as organist at St. David. He presented a sacred organ vespers concert at Chehalis Seventh-day Adventist Church in October of 2009, and helped organize and served as organist for a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, also in 2009.

In 2002, Stuivenga sang a leading role, that of Ralph (Rafe) Rackstraw, in eight performances of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore in Tillamook, Oregon. He directed the Tillamook Community Chorus from 2002 to 2004. While residing in Tillamook, he served as one of the organists at the Tillamook Seventh-day Adventist Church, and also directed the handbell choir and played in a handbell quartet. He served (simultaneously) as organist at St. Alban's Episcopal Church (9:30 a.m. Eucharist), and as organist at Tillamook First United Methodist Church (11:00 a.m. service).

While residing in Texas in the 1990's, Stuivenga served as president of the local chapter of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Musician's Guild and organized annual programs featuring massed church choirs and other musicians from several Adventist churches in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. He served as choir director and assistant organist for several years at the Richardson, Texas, Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Stuivenga is married to Arline L. Moore, the daughter of the late Dr. Herbert Moore, an optometrist and a fine musician who taught music in the Yakima Valley before obtaining his optometry degree. Moore sang, directed choirs, and played piano and organ for many years in Adventist churches in Washington, Oregon, and later, in Texas.

ds/ws/1996/2010

Sources: Earlier information provided by Will Stuivenga, 1996; Emails with proposed revised and updated biography, 2 December 2008 and 22 November 2010.