Dr. Jerrode Marsh to present solo piano recital at Concordia Nebraska

Dr. Jerrode Marsh is the director of music at Saint Paul Lutheran High School in Concordia, Missouri, where she oversees an award-winning music program and has twice taken her high school music students on summer European choir tours. She is also in her fifth season as artistic director and conductor of the Sedalia Symphony Orchestra, the second-oldest continuously performing symphony west of the Mississippi River.  

She is also the founder and executive director of the Concordia Music Conservatory, a non-profit regional music center based in Concordia that offers private music lessons, summer music camps and workshops, community choirs and ensembles, music courses and seminars and community concerts. In addition to running CMC, she conducts the CMC Kinderchor, a regional children’s choir for students grades 4-8, and she teaches the advanced piano students enrolled at CMC. She is passionate about teaching young people to love music. 

Marsh will be performing a solo piano recital at Concordia University, Nebraska on Saturday, April 25 at 3:30 p.m. in the Borland Center Recital Hall. Marsh said she is looking forward to visiting campus. 

“Dr. Kurt von Kampen and I have been talking about this for a couple of years, since my first career was as a concert pianist. But until now, I have never found the time to make it work. I had a few years of reverse culture shock, adjusting to teaching at a high school - in addition to music, I was teaching German and Family Living and Child Development - so it didn’t leave much time for keeping up my piano skills!” she explained. “Since I am performing this program also in two locations in Oregon this June, I thought it would be a good year to finally make it a reality and it worked out! I have many former students at Concordia Nebraska and many of them are in the A Cappella Choir. I also have many friends in Seward, and so it is a joy to have this opportunity. I also have friends in the Omaha area who were close friends in Germany, who plan to come and I even got a text from some friends I met who lived in the Czech Republic who will be at the concert that weekend, too! It’s always exciting to watch the Lutheran worlds come together! Music will do that! “  

 Marsh will be performing a variety of Spanish and French music in the solo concert. The program includes some well-known favorites, such as “Clair de Lune” and “Gardens in the Rain” but also some unknown pieces that she describes as “delightful and very accessible,” such as pieces by female composer Cecile Chaminade.  

Marsh said she is looking forward to spending time on the Concordia Nebraska campus.  

“I work closely and know well several of the music faculty,” she said. “I teach a dual credit music appreciation class at Saint Paul Lutheran High, and I have students come up for Musical Arts Day each fall…My first introduction to Kurt von Kampen and Concordia Nebraska was in 2013 when the A Cappella Choir sang a concert my Frankfurt home church. Never in a million years would I have thought that two years later I’d be leaving my life in Europe to move to the little tiny town of Concordia, Missouri! In 2013, neither of my children, who were born and raised in Germany, even knew where Nebraska or Missouri was on the map! But they loved the university and clearly, God had a plan for my two children to go to Concordia Nebraska.”   

“By sharing the beauty of music, whether instrumental or choral, we have the opportunity to let others ‘see with their ears’ a glimpse of the beauty of Christ through His creation of sound. Music can sometimes communicate what words cannot.”

Marsh holds a bachelor of music in piano performance from Portland State University, where she studied with the late Harold Gray, member of the Florestan Trio. She received her masters and doctorate in piano performance from The University of Texas at Austin, where she was personally recruited to study with the renowned pianist Gregory Allen, grand prize winner of the 1980 Artur Rubenstein Piano Competition and silver medalist of the Queen Elizabeth Competition. In the mid-1990s, she moved to Frankfurt, Germany, where she worked for nearly two decades performing extensively as a piano soloist and collaborative artist in Europe. It was while living in Europe that she discovered her love for conducting and developed a more intense interest in church music. She founded and served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Trinity International Concert Choir, e.V., an international community choir devoted to performing large sacred choral masterworks with orchestra. She also worked as an auxiliary vocal coach and accompanist for the Frankfurt Opera, and served as the director of Music at Trinity Lutheran Church in Frankfurt. At Trinity Lutheran, she was the organist and director of three church choirs and led a vibrant international church music program. 

In the fall of 2015 she moved to Concordia, Missouri, to lead the music department at Saint Paul Lutheran High. Since coming to Missouri, she has been performing solo and chamber music and has soloed with the Marshall Philharmonic Orchestra. One of her joys is bringing the European tradition of performing concerts in the home to her house in Concordia, by organizing “Hauskonzerts”, where she transforms her home into a small concert hall and invites guests throughout the region to experience chamber music as it was intended—in an intimate home setting. She has led choral workshops and clinics throughout the U.S. and abroad and regularly adjudicates contests and festivals.  

She is the principal organist at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Warrensburg, Missouri. She has two grown children, Vanessa ‘19 (married to Seth Rodewald), and Christoph ‘24, who were both members of the University A Cappella Choir and the Chamber Choir/Vocal Jazz Ensemble. She is Omi to two beautiful grandchildren, Oliver and Keira, who are the delight of her life. She also enjoys traveling, cooking and gardening, entertaining and remodeling her 100-year old home.  

Marsh said she hopes the concert will inspire college musicians and remind them that what they do is important. 

“By sharing the beauty of music, whether instrumental or choral, we have the opportunity to let others ‘see with their ears’ a glimpse of the beauty of Christ through His creation of sound. Music can sometimes communicate what words cannot,” she said. “While sacred music is traditionally applied to vocal music with sacred text, I believe that instrumental music is also sacred—if what we do is for God’s glory, then this is an offering, something sacred. J.S. Bach, one of my great heroes in the music world, wrote much instrumental music, including a “Musical Offering” at the end of his life. Though the piano (or other instruments) don’t speak words, it has so many different colors that it can evoke powerful emotions, and can often speak to the heart in ways that words fail to.”   

 At Concordia University, Nebraska, music is a vibrant part of campus life. About a third of Concordia Nebraska students participate in music through lessons, ensembles and classes. Concordia Nebraska’s music students and alumni have earned regional and national honors in performance and composition, demonstrating the strength of the university’s Christ-centered music education.