Biography
Rhonda Sider Edgington is Organist and Director of Music at Hope Church (RCA) in Holland and a regular performer, both in West Michigan, across the US, and in Europe. Seven years spent in North Germany, originally with a Fulbright scholarship, lead to her specialization in the music of 17th century Germany, and regular recital engagements there. Since returning to the US, she also broadened her standard repertoire to include much music of the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as music by women composers.
Important teachers and mentors include Harald Vogel and Hans-Ola Ericcsson (Bremen), Larry Smith and Marilyn Keiser (Indiana), Ed Zimmerman and William Phemister (Wheaton), John Chappell Stowe and her first teacher, her father Ronald Sider.
She has worked as a church musician in the US and Germany, directing choirs, leading handbells, planning worship, and organizing lay musician groups. She is a regular accompanist on the piano and organ and a frequent collaborator with area chamber musicians. She also plays the harpsichord and carillon, and in her free time enjoys riding her bike, shopping at the amazing Holland Farmers Market, and writing poetry.
She and her husband Mark live in Holland, MI with their two children.
Education
- Performer's Diploma, Organ performance, Hochschule fuer Kuenste (University of the Arts), Bremen, Germany
- MM, Organ performance, Indiana University
- BM, Piano performance, Wheaton College Conservatory of Music
