| July 26, 2002 |
|
AMERICAN GUILD OF ORGANISTS First Prize
The AMERICAN GUILD OF ORGANISTS is the national professional association serving the organ and choral music fields. Founded in 1896 as both an educational and service organization, the AGO seeks to set and maintain high musical standards and to promote understanding and appreciation of all aspects of organ and choral music. The purpose of the AGO is to promote the organ in its historic and evolving roles, to encourage excellence in the performance of organ and choral music, and to provide a forum for mutual support, inspiration, education, and certification of Guild members. The Guild currently serves more than 20,000 members in 343 local chapters throughout the United States and abroad. The American Organist Magazine, the official journal of the AGO, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America, reaches an audience of more than 24,000 each month. The official Web site of the AGO is <www.agohq.org>. |
 |
TIMOTHY OLSEN, a Minnesota native, is currently a doctoral student of David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music. He received his bachelor’s degree from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., where he studied with Peter Nygaard. He received his master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music in 2000, studying with Mr. Higgs. Mr. Olsen was a finalist in the Arthur Poister Competition in 1997 and 2001, the John Rodland Memorial Scholarship Competition in 1999, and a semifinalist in the NDR International Organ Competition in Germany in 2000. He is currently director of music-organist at the Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in Rochester.
KOLA PAUL OWOLABI, a native of Toronto, Canada, holds a bachelor of music degree from McGill University, where he studied with Bruce Wheatcroft and John Grew. He was the recipient of the McGill Faculty of Music Salsinger Tani Gold Medal in Performance. In 1999, Mr. Owolabi won second prize in the RCCO National Organ Playing Competition. Currently a master of music degree candidate at Yale University, he is pursing a double major in organ performance and choral conducting under the tutelage of Martin Jean and Marguerite Brooks. He has served as assistant organist at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto, the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montreal, and is currently organist at the Yale University Chapel. Mr. Owolabi is also a published composer, and has received commissions from the Archdiocese of Toronto and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.
CHRISTIAN SCHMITT was born in Erbringen, Saar, Germany, and studied musicology and theology at the University of Saarbrücken. He also studied church music there with Leo Krämer. A scholarship student at Boston Conservatory, he is pursuing the artist diploma as a student of James David Christie. He has been a prizewinner at various international organ competitions, including those in Spire, Brugges, Tokyo, Ljuljan, and Rome. A 2001 winner of the Deutscher Musikrat in Berlin, he was invited by President Johannes Rau to play at the state visit in Australia and New Zealand.