Orpha Ochse is Professor of Music Emerita at Whittier College, Whittier, CA. She held teaching positions at Central College, Western
Illinois State College, and Phoenix College before moving to California in 1957. She was Director of Music at the First Congregational Church,
Pasadena, CA, for twelve years, and Lecturer in Music at the California Instute of Technology for fifteen years. She joined the Whittier College faculty
in 1969, and retired from teaching in 1987.
Dr. Ochse's activities in the organ profession have included European recital tours, published compositions for organ, and research studies in various aspects of organ playing and organ history. She has served as Dean of the Central Arizona and Pasadena Chapters and as a member of the National Council of the American Guild of Organists. In 1991 she was elected a lifetime honorary member of the Organ Historical Society.
Her first book, The History of the Organ in the United States (1975), received international recognition. A second book, Organists and Organ-playing in 19th-Century France and Belgium, was published in 1994, and a third, Austin Organs, in 2001.
A native of St. Joseph, MO, Orpha Ochse enjoys a wide variety of interests in addition to organ research. International bicycle tours and cross-country ski excursions are annual events on her calendar. She is a member of the Pomona Lawn Bowling Club, a vounteer in a local library, and a founding member of the board of directors of the Ruth and Clarence Mader Memorial Scholarship Fund.
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