Duo Majoya

Marnie Giesbrecht and Joachim Segger are Duo Majoya, a versatile and innovative keyboard team that performs keyboard duets of all combinations in North America, Europe, South Africa and Asia. The duo performs and records a distinctive repertoire of commissioned, original, and arranged works. Commissions include more than twenty works for organ duet and organ/piano by Canadian and international composers. Duo Majoya records a broad range of repertoire on CDs and on their YouTube channel. 

The release of their latest CD, “Canadian Suite Celebrations,” published on the Canadian Music Centre’s Centredisc label in April, 2024, was launched September 7th, 2024, at the Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton, Alberta. 

The duo is inducted in the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame and are Honorary Fellows of the Royal Canadian College of Organists. 

Dr. Giesbrecht is Professor Emerita at the University of Alberta and Adjunct Professor of Music at The King’s University, Edmonton. Dr. Segger is Professor Emeritus at The King’s University. Together they co-chair the Royal Canadian College of Organists’ national competition and serve as Program Chair (Marnie) and President (Joachim) of the Edmonton RCCO Centre. Giesbrecht and Segger are Music Directors at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Edmonton. In addition to conducting and playing weekly rehearsals and services, they curate organ and choral concerts, fundraise for refugees, and support community music making.

Marnie Giesbrecht

Keyboard artist Marnie Giesbrecht performs and records as organ soloist, and collaborative musician (organ, piano, harpsichord) in mainstream repertoire, as well as new and early music. Dr. Giesbrecht is Professor Emerita at the University of Alberta (1988 to 2014), Adjunct Professor of Music at The King’s University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Graduate degrees are from the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria (piano); Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY (piano); and University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta (piano, organ). 

A committee member for the purchase and design of the Davis Concert Organ in the Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton, Giesbrecht’s numerous performances there and at the University of Alberta as well as other venues include solo organ, concertos with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and University of Alberta Orchestra, duets and duos with piano, saxophone and percussion; chamber and choir collaborations. With Joachim Segger as Duo Majoya, a versatile and innovative keyboard team, she tours, performs and records a distinctive repertoire of commissioned, original, and arranged works for organ duet and organ/piano duos. Two Duo Majoya CDs were recorded at the Winspear Centre for Music: “Organ Duets on the Davis Concert Organ” and “Canadian Suites for Organ and Piano” (2024). Her solo CD “Now and Then” contrasts mainstream repertoire with contemporary Canadian and American compositions. 

Giesbrecht commissions, performs and records solo and collaborative new music. In January, 2025, she premiered four commissioned works for organ and percussion with Mark Segger in Convocation Hall at the University of Alberta. As well, she is a founding member of Early Music Alberta, with whom she has performed solo, duo and chamber music on harpsichord and continuo organ. 

An ambassador and advocate for organ music, Dr. Giesbrecht has served/continues to serve in many local, regional and national leadership roles in the Royal Canadian College of Organists including as past National President. She adjudicates on a variety of local, national, and international competition juries and panels including the Canadian International Organ Competition (Montreal), and Longwood Gardens International Competition (Philadelphia). Together with Joachim Segger she chairs the Royal Canadian College of Organists National Competition and directs the music at First Presbyterian Church, Edmonton.

Joachim Segger

Dr. Joachim Segger  (BMus, MMus, Performer’s Certificate, Eastman School of Music; DMus UAlberta) is a versatile musician who performs internationally as a piano soloist and collaborative artist. Primary mentors and teachers were Ernesto Lejano, Cécile Genhart, Kurt Neumuller, Helmut Brauss  and Menahem Pressler. As winner of the New York Canadian Women’s Club competition he performed a solo recital in Carnegie Recital Hall, NY.  He recorded the Ravel G Major Piano Concerto with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and performed numerous concertos with the ESO and the Edmonton Youth Orchestra.  Joachim’s solo piano CD “Bravato” was recorded on the iconic nine-foot Yamaha concert grand once owned by Glenn Gould, now housed in Knoppers Hall at The King’s University. It features works by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Ginastera, Haydn and Beethoven. 

A church organist since the age of nine, Joachim was a student of Hugh Bancroft. He enjoys improvising at the piano and organ using classical and contemporary musical styles as well as hymn-based improvisations.  Joachim has performed several improvisation recitals including collaborations with visual artists and scientists.  He co-directs the music program at First Presbyterian in Edmonton, Alberta with Marnie Giesbrecht.

Joachim regularly joins Marnie Giesbrecht as the internationally well-known Duo Majoya (Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame; Honorary Fellows RCCO).  Together they have commissioned and played more than twenty contemporary works for organ duet, piano duet and the unlikely but magnificent organ/piano combination.  Their new CD, “Canadian Suite Celebrations,” recorded in the Winspear Centre was released on the Centredisc label in April 2024.

Most recently Joachim performed the complete Beethoven violin and piano sonatas with Frank Ho at The King’s University, a solo piano recital and three chamber music recitals at the University of Alberta where he taught an exceptional group of piano students as a sabbatical replacement for Jacques Despres.

 Dr. Segger is Professor Emeritus of the Music Department at The King’s University, Edmonton, a Christian University, where he taught piano and related courses for thirty-eight years and Chaired the Music Department for ten years. Together with his long-time colleagues Jacobus Kloppers and Charles Stolte, he helped develop the strong music program and acquired the Glenn Gould Nine-Foot Yamaha Grand and other major keyboard instruments.