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AGO Young Organists

Year of the Young Organist Recruitment Contest Winners
  • Hong Kong (small size chapter) achieved a net growth of 20 new young organists members.
  • Denver Rocky Mountain (medium size chapter) achieved a net growth of 22 new young organist members.
  • Los Angeles (large size chapter) achieved a net growth of 17 new young organist members.

The AGO wishes to congratulate and thank you for all of your hard work in recruiting and engaging the new young organists in your chapters.

Young Organists: Remember to renew your membership!

Click here to watch a 1-minute video with Emily Amos, Councilor for Young Organists, about the importance of renewing your membership.

Get Involved!

AGOYO Women Composers Project

Dear AGOYO Members,

You are invited to be a part of AGO Young Organists’ Women Composers Project! This initiative seeks to elevate the voices of this group of marginalized and lesser-known composers of organ music. We invite you to explore new repertoire or submit pieces you already play as a part of this project.

Please review these guidelines for music selection and assignment procedures:

  • Select 1-3 pieces you would be willing to play and record. Submit these on this Google form by March 12.
  • The deadline for recording and submission will be May 31.
  • Important note: due to copyright limitations, all pieces to be recorded must be in the public domain. Please check the copyright status of the pieces before form submission.
    • In the US, generally pieces published before 1928 will be fair game. However please take a few minutes to ensure your piece is not an exception before submission.
  • By March 17, you will receive an email with your assigned piece, recording guidelines and a link to submit recordings.
  • Piano music adapted for organ or transcriptions from other instruments are perfectly fine and encouraged, as long as they meet the copyright rules stated above.

If you need some inspiration, we’ve compiled a list of women who wrote organ music that is currently public domain. See the list here.

For our friends who will be under the age of 18 on June 1, 2023, we need an additional permission form in order to post and stream your videos. If this applies to you, please have your parent or guardian fill out this form and email it to Phylicia Ross, Member Engagement and Chapter Support Manager pross@agohq.org.

If you are interested in participating in this project, please fill out this form by March 12. We hope you can join us in elevating these musical voices!

Sincerely,

AGOYO

Bach In Space

Dear Young Organists,

Welcome to Bach in Space! We offer a wonderful opportunity for you to perform great works of music, showcase your work, and make the world a better place.

Bach in Space is a music and education project by the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), the professional association of flown astronauts, in collaboration with the American Guild of Organists and other partners. We feature a combination of Earth fly-over videos (in glorious 4K footage) and organists performing Bach. We have work from organists, ensembles, and others in our catalog already. We want the result to lift souls and help people embrace both the planet Earth and the music we create.

Please explore: Bachinspace.org

AGOYO project: Brief Orbital Videos Accompanied by Bach

In collaboration with the Association of Space Explorers, we are opening this opportunity up to all organists. We will be creating short clips for social media (YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, etc.) combining NASA’s footage of the Earth with your own recordings of Bach. Through the efforts of our social media team, these videos could reach a global audience!

All of the specific guidelines are listed below. Your recording needs to be a piece by Bach, in any kind of literal or creative interpretation. While your submission can really be any length, each clip we ultimately generate will be no longer than 1 minute in order to fit into most popular video platforms. Select your music, provide  a high-quality recording (either audio, or both audio and video), and submit it to the AGOYO Committee through our Google Form here.

Meanwhile, start exploring what views of Earth you might want with your music.  To explore some of the footage available for selection, take a look at this 50-minute, sped-up orbital footage on the Bach in Space webpage (the footage will be slowed to real-time for each completed performance video): https://www.bachinspace.org/Brief-Bach

After you approve the result, we will post it on the AGO’s social media channels, where we will build an audience. We want viral! And we would be thrilled to have you be part of it.

Contact the AGO Committee for Young Organists with any questions by emailing agoyo@agohq.org. Let’s start making some clips!

Google Form for submission 

Guidelines:

  1. The performance recording may be submitted in either video or audio format. Submit through AGOYO’s Google Form
  2. There are no strictures to performers on choices of performance practice; the only points for selection are overall quality of performance and audio, along with the goal of generating some overall repertoire and performer variety across the project.
  3. The submission piece may be any organ work attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, a creative interpretation of the work, or an organ performance of any non-organ work by J. S. Bach.
  4. Any final video will be no longer than 1 minute (60 seconds) in length. Performers can submit a cut portion of a longer work; a complete recording of a work no longer than 60 seconds; or a complete performance of a work longer than 60 seconds, with the understanding that only a portion of the recording will be published, which the performer is welcome to select.
  5. Performers will have the ability to select the orbital footage that is matched with their performance, using footage provided by the Windows on Earth project of the Association of Space Explorers. Visit https://www.bachinspace.org/Brief-Bach to see a rich sample of possibilities.
  6. Performers whose work is selected will be shown a draft of the proposed final video clip before publication on the internet, with the chance to make any changes to the final clip. The performer’s name will always be displayed in each clip.
Upcoming AGOYO Online Workshops and Webinars 

Sunday, March 26, 2023, 5pm EDT
Movement and Alexander Technique Basics for Organists
Learn how to “use yourself well”! We will learn the basics of the Alexander Technique and how it can be applied to us as organists in order to move efficiently and well while we play. Our guest teacher is Jonathan Conjurske, AmSAT, certified Alexander Technique teacher. Register here. 

Past Events

Saturday, February 4, 2023
Ask AGOYO Anything: Grab Bag!
A networking event providing space for AGOYO members to ask questions, share ideas, and pool our collective knowledge and resources.

Tuesday, December 13, 2022
AGOYO Holiday Party
For our Young Organist members! Grab a snack and your favorite hot chocolate and spend some time with other young organists.

Saturday, November 12, 2022
Mindfulness for Musicians
For our Young Organist members! This session will cover some basics of mindfulness for musicians! We will cover some core principles, try some practices together, and explore how it can be used to enhance your musicianship. Presented by: Zack Clark, a PhD candidate in music education at Indiana University. He is a certified instructor of mindfulness-based wellness and pedagogy.

October 23, 2022
Technology & forScore
For our Young Organist members: A webinar on technology as a tool for organists with a tutorial of forScore and its features. How can technology help you and how can you maximize the forScore app?

AGOYO Bach-a-thon

The Year of the Young Organists presents the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach played by members of the American Guild of Organists under the age of 30. This premiered in June of 2022.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

AGOYO online events from 2020-2021 may be found here.

 

Councillor for Young Organists (AGOYO)

Emily Dawn Amos
Emily Dawn Amos

Emily Dawn Amos is a young organist whose passion for music has taken her across the nation and beyond. She started studying organ at the age of eight, and at nine years old was the youngest ever admitted into a Pipe Organ Encounter (POE). Since then, she has attended a total of twenty summer intensives. Emily was an assistant organist in both Alexandria, La., and Traverse City, Mich., and most recently was the organ scholar at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill, Pa. Emily is also an assistant at the Wanamaker Grand Court at Macy’s. She has participated in masterclasses with professors such as James David Christie, Daniel Roth, Alan Morrison, and Johann Vexo. Emily participated in and won the 2015 and 2016 Young Artists Competition on NPR (Red River Radio). She also won third place, audience prize, and the hymn prize at the 2018 Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival and second place at the AGO Quimby Regional Competition (Grand Rapids Chapter). Emily studied with Scott Dettra as her primary organ teacher from 2015–2017, attended the Interlochen Arts Academy from 2017–2019, and is currently attending the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studies with Alan Morrison. At Curtis, Emily holds the Stephanie Yen-Mun Liem Azar Fellowship.

Committee for Young Organists

The Committee for Young Organists is an AGO board comprised of six young organists to benefit those across the United States and foreign chapters. Through online resources, social media, and some in-person events, a community of young organists who are members of the AGO are connecting in this mostly virtual community to establish networking opportunities and generate innovative web-based programming.
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Laura BotteiLaura Bottei is pursuing her MM in Organ Performance at Indiana University, studying with Chris Young. A native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Laura began studying piano at the age of 5, and 14 years later fell in love with the organ. Prior to graduate studies at IU, she graduated from Loyola University Chicago with degrees in music and psychology. At Loyola, she studied organ with Steven Betancourt, voice with Sarah Ponder, and piano with Anthony Molinaro. Laura had the joy of serving two years as the organ scholar at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and spent two summers as the resident organist on Squirrel Island in Maine. She currently serves as the organist of First United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ind. Her additional professional interests include psychology, music education, mental health, and mindfulness. Outside of organ and church music, Laura enjoys fitness, gymnastics, dogs, and vegan food.

Clayton FarmerClayton Farmer serves as the Assistant Director of Music and Organist at Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, MI, where he accompanies the choirs and assists in all playing duties. He is also an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he is working towards a dual-degree in organ performance and sacred music along with computer science. He regularly works as a professional piano accompanist, and his musical background also includes experience as a conductor and music educator. In 2021, Clayton was the second-place winner of the AGO Great Lakes Regional Competition for Young Organists. Clayton is a passionate fan of classical music of all types, and is committed to inspiring the next generation of organists, musicians, and audiences.

Lindsey JohnsonLindsey Johnson is an organist from Fort Worth, Texas. She began piano studies at age 4 with Elsa Cañizares and continued with Dorla Price-Aparicio, Zuleca Savignon, Elena Bulgakova-Abel and Dr. Lerie Dellosa. While studying with Dr. Dellosa, Lindsey became interested in the organ, eventually pursuing a Bachelors’s degree in Organ Performance at Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, TX, with Dr. Devon Howard. In addition to her organ studies, she was a cellist in the Southwestern Symphony Orchestra, sang in the auditioned University Singers traveling choir, and served as department student accompanist for a variety of instrumentalists, vocalists, and ensembles. She has traveled and performed with the University Singers throughout the United States and abroad, including France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Spain, and Portugal. Most recently, Lindsey has been accepted to the Master’s program in Organ Performance at Arizona State University, in the studio of Dr. Kimberly Marshall.

Kardos, MichelleMichelle Kardos is an organist, pianist, and music therapist. She is currently the Assistant Organist at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Alongside this, she is the Program Assistant for the Thornton Community Engagement Program and a grader for the University of Southern California. Through the involvement of her local chapter, Michelle has been a member of the American Guild of Organists since 2014. From 2018-2021, she served as the Secretary for the Seton Hill University Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She is currently serving as a member of the AGO Task Force for Gender Equity. Michelle has received both her Service Playing and Colleague Certification from the AGO. She is also a member of SWO, AMTA, and MTNA. She obtained her Master of Music in Sacred Music at Duquesne University. While at Duquesne, she was accepted into the National Music Honor Society, Pi Kappa Lambda. At graduation, she was presented with the Jean Langlais Award, awarded to a graduating organ student with the highest academic standing in Sacred Music. She obtained her Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy along with the Sacred Music Certificate, Pastoral Ministry Certificate, and psychology minor at Seton Hill University. There she studied organ with Mr. Edgar Highberger and piano with Mr. Edward Kuhn. During her studies, Michelle was named the Presser Scholar, based upon her merit and achievement in the music program, and was accepted into the International Psychology Honor Society, Psi Chi. Michelle is currently attending the University of Southern California to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance studying under Professor Cherry Rhodes.

Ethan Neal is a native of Georgetown, Ohio, and is an active performer at the organ and beyond. Ethan is studying Voice, Choral Music Education, and Organ at the University of Kentucky under the tutelage of Dr. Everett McCorvey, Drs. Lori Hetzel & Elizabeth Wilson, and Dr. Schuyler Robinson. Ethan also serves as the Director of Music at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity and on faculty at Georgetown College in Georgetown, KY. When not working as an organist, Ethan performs regularly as a collaborative pianist and vocalist, recently with the Santa Fe and Kentucky Operas, OperaLex, and the American Spiritual Ensemble. A recipient of the “Charlie H. Mitchell” McCracken Award, Ethan performs throughout central Kentucky and beyond.

Steiner, JasonJason Steiner is a music minister currently serving Christ Congregation in Princeton, New Jersey. He was previously the inaugural Music Resident at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio, where he apprenticed under the Reverend John Neely and worked with the church’s two-hundred participant music program. He holds a B.A. in Music from Westminster Choir College, where he studied primarily with Jim Goldsworthy and Alan Morrison; he completed part of his coursework at Princeton University, studying queer theory, Asian religions, and the intersection of those fields. He is a passionate music educator and maintains a private piano studio. In his free time, Jason loves reading, trail running, and seeking out his favorite bird, the American Coot.