RCYO WINNERS SELECTED IN PHOENIX, FORT WORTH

Four young organists from across the country were named "AGO Rising Stars" in the Regional Competitions for Young Organists (RCYO) at the AGO's summer conventions. Eight finalists were selected from an initial recorded round and performed live for the judges in Phoenix, Ariz. on June 16 and Fort Worth on June 30. Two winners at each convention received $5,000 cash prizes and were featured in a special recital. They have also been invited to perform at the 2026 National Convention in St. Louis. Congratulations to the winners and all the talented young musicians who participated this year!!

Click here to learn more about RCYO and the competition guidelines. 

WINNER BIOS (Phoenix)

Daniel Colaner
Daniel Colaner is a 2023 National YoungArts Winner with Distinction in Organ/Classical Music and a member of The Diapason magazine’s “20 Under 30” Class of 2021. He has been featured on PBS with the American Pops Orchestra and on NPR’s From the Top (Show #377). He was the 1st Prize winner in the Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition Hartford (HS Division) and the L. Cameron Johnson Organ Competition. As a student of Alan Morrison, he holds the Dr. Mi Wha Lee Fellowship at the Curtis Institute of Music and serves as the Michael Stairs Organ Scholar at the Church of The Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, PA.

Henry Dangerfield
Henry Dangerfield lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and is in his junior year of high school. He started organ lessons in 2019 after receiving a scholarship from a local AGO chapter in Minnesota. Currently, he takes lessons from Dr. Catherine Rodland, Artist in Residence at St. Olaf College. He was a finalist in The Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival competition and won first prize in the Greater Columbia Chapter AGO Young Organist Competition, the Cameron Johnson Memorial Organ Competition, and the David Dubois Organ Competition. He plays regularly for his congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

WINNER BIOS (Fort Worth)

Emily Dawn Amos
Emily Dawn Amos began studying organ at the age of eight, and at nine years old was the youngest ever admitted into a Pipe Organ Encounter (POE). She is currently organ scholar at St. Paul’s United Methodist in Houston, Texas. Emily studied with Scott Dettra from 2015-2017 and attended the Interlochen Arts Academy from 2017-2019. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she studied with Alan Morrison. Emily is pursuing her master’s degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice, studying with Ken Cowan.

Carolyn Hoff
Carolyn Hoff is a third year bachelor’s student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studies organ performance with Todd Wilson. She works at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights as organ scholar, and has previously worked as organ scholar at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, and St. Paul’s, K St. She is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy where she studied with Tom Bara. She has attended summer organ programs at the Curtis Institute, Oberlin Conservatory, and Interlochen Center for the Arts, and choral courses run by St. Thomas fifth Ave, the Royal School of Church Music, and the Rodolfus Foundation.