Nashville Flooding Affects Concert Hall Organ

Our friends in the Nashville AGO Chapter have affected by the severe storms and flooding in the area. The Chapter meeting scheduled for May 3 was cancelled. Many people are without power and have had to evacuate their homes. Some churches have experienced minor flooding. The Schermerhorn Concert Hall, which houses a new Schoenstein pipe organ, was flooded in the basement level. The organ console is stored on that level, and it was ruined, along with two Steinway concert grand pianos. Read the full news article here.

Greater Huntsville Organ Competition Winner Announced

Jacob Benda, Aaron Tan and John Woolsey were the three finalists chosen to compete on Saturday, March 13, 2010. The competition was held at First Baptist Church, Huntsville, Alabama, on the church's 76 rank Casavant organ. Candidates for the competition were chosen through a semi-final recorded round, and are all under the age of 25.

Judges for the final round were Dr. Jeff McClelland, of Independent Presbyterian Church, Birmingham; Dr. Michael Velting, of Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville; and Andrew Risinger, Nashville Symphony Organist. Mr. Paul Jacobs, Professor and Chair of the Organ Department at Juilliard, served as moderator for the judges’ panel, and also played a recital the evening preceding the competition.

First place was awarded to Aaron Tan, and second place to Jacob Benda. Mr. Tan is a student of David Palmer, University of Windsor Ontario, and winner of the 2009 RCCO National Organ Playing competition. Mr. Benda is finishing his master's degree in Organ Performance at Louisiana State University where he studies with Herndon Spillman.

Special thanks goto First Baptist Church, specifically Dr. Elizabeth Hostetter, for hosting this event, to the Huntsville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists for their leadership, to HCMG for sponsorship of Mr. Jacobs, and to the Milnar and Miller Organ companies for their contributions to the cash prize.

Summer Organ Workshop - July 19-23

This organ workshop is part of the North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Music Program. These music workshops are ideal for students wishing to immerse themselves in a rigorous, artistic atmosphere, and study under the guidance of world-class performers and dedicated teachers. The organ faculty for the week is Dr. Timothy Olsen. Please visit the website for more information.

Nashville Organs in the News

Members of the Nashville Chapter are featured in a newspaper article. Click here to link to the article.

Fourth Annual Young Artist Competition for Pre-College Organists

East Carolina University
April 16-17, 2010

The East Carolina University Young Artist Competition for Pre-College Organists is an innovative outreach program designed to inspire young musicians in our region to strive for the highest level of musicianship and technical accomplishment piano and organ performance. The competition is open to any pre-college student in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia,
Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Florida. In addition to generous monetary prizes, the first place winner will also receive invitations to return to perform at East Carolina University in the 2010-2011 season.

The competition will be staged in two rounds. From the recorded application round three finalists will be chosen to compete live on April 17. All three will receive prizes and will be considered for two special prizes: The Bach Prize and the Hymn-Playing Prize. Organists chosen for the Final Round arrive for practice on Friday, April 16 and may elect to attend The Marriage of Figaro, staged by ECU Opera Theatre at the School of Music at 7:00 PM.

The organ competition will take place in the afternoon of Saturday, the 17th, on the Perkins and Wells Memorial Organ, C.B. Fisk, Opus 126, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, which borders the ECU campus. The weekend will conclude with the awarding of prizes. All recitals, master classes and competitions are free and open to the public. All entrants should complete the application form and submit it by March 15, 2010. For full organ competition details and the application form, please contact Professor Andrew Scanlon at scanlona@ecu.edu.