Brenda Portman is the Resident Organist at Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, where she plays the IV/88 Casavant organ, accompanies the Wesley Choir and Cathedral Choir, and serves as Executive Director of the church’s renowned Organ Concert Series.  She also serves on the Executive Board of the Cincinnati chapter of the American Guild of Organists.  In 2010 she was a semifinalist in the AGO’s National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance and a finalist in the Fort Wayne National Organ-Playing Competition.  She has received First Place in the Bank District British/American Organ Competition, (London, England, 2009), the Arthur Poister Organ Competition (Syracuse, NY, 2007) and the Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition (Wethersfield, CT, 2006). 

Brenda has recorded a CD entitled “All Might and Majesty”: organ works of Edwin T. Childs, which was performed on the Schantz organ at College Church in Wheaton, IL and released in 2009.  Selections from the album have been featured on American Public Media’s weekly radio program Pipedreams®. 

Brenda holds a Bachelor’s Degree in music education from Wheaton College and a Master’s Degree in church music and organ performance from Northwestern University.  She has studied privately with John Behnke, Edward Zimmerman, Douglas Cleveland, and Marilyn Mason, and has also participated in masterclasses or additional coaching with Susan Landale, Frédéric Blanc, Naji Hakim, François Espinasse, David Craighead, and Janette Fishell.  She lives in Cincinnati with her husband Patrick and 3-year-old son Micah.