The Organ Scholar Program offers emerging organists the opportunity to experience an annual ten-month internship within a significant music ministry program in the United States. The program model is designed to include combined investments from AGO National Headquarters, a local AGO chapter, and a host church for a total of $30,000. In addition, the host church provides housing and healthcare options for the organ scholar. The application period for 2023-2024 scholar will be December 15, 2022 – January 31, 2023. To reach Jillian Gardner, Chair, Organ Scholar Program, click here.
Apply for the 2023-2024 Organ Scholar Program
Duke University Chapel Will Host the 2023-2024 Organ Scholar
The vibrant musical and liturgical opportunities at Duke Chapel offer a young musician an unparalleled opportunity to gain experience working with both professional and volunteer singers; to learn from the five world-class organs housed at Duke Chapel and Duke Divinity School; and to live in a community enriched by the presence of Duke University. Combined with our engagement in the liturgy and music of Methodist, Lutheran, and Episcopalian traditions, an organ scholar has access to almost any situation they will encounter throughout a career in church music. Since 2015, Duke’s organ scholar program has sought to nurture and equip the next generation of church musicians with practical, hands-on skills as organists and choral directors that are generally not covered in academic degree programs. In partnership with AGO, we will continue to foster a supportive, encouraging educational environment for the successful candidate. We will take the skills they have already cultivated in sacred music and build upon them through immersive exposure to all facets of the music program at Duke Chapel.
2022-2023 Organ Scholar
Daniel Jacky, the AGO’s first organ scholar (2022–2023 academic year), is a senior and Stamps Scholar at Oberlin College and Conservatory where he is completing a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in addition to a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance. At Oberlin he studied organ with Jonathan Moyer, conducting with Jody Kerchner, and continuo and harpsichord with Mark Edwards. During his time at Oberlin he interned at St. Peter’s Church (ELCA) in Manhattan where he studied with Balint Károsi. He currently serves as the Director of Music at St. Peter’s UCC in Amherst, Ohio. Daniel performs frequently in ensembles and as a soloist, and is particularly interested in the cantatas of J. S. Bach. In his free time, he enjoys staying active in any way possible, and he is an avid but hopeless fan of the Cincinnati Reds.
Interested in being a host institution? Click here for more information.