N.C. Organ Festival and Competition is Jan. 26-28

The 2024 North Carolina Middle and High School Organ Festival and Competition will be held Jan. 26-28, UNCSA Kenan Professor of Organ Timothy Olsen has announced.

2024 marks the 12th year for the event, which is co-sponsored and hosted by UNCSA, Salem College, and the Piedmont NC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Olsen, who is director of the festival and competition, also teaches at Salem College and leads the organ studio at both schools.

Throughout the weekend, participating students will be able to meet other organists their age from the region; tour the organ facilities at UNCSA and Salem College; hear UNCSA keyboard faculty and students perform in recital; participate in workshops, master classes and lessons; and build a small functioning pipe organ.

Professor Olsen will give a recital at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26, in Shirley Recital Hall in Elberson Fine Arts Center at Salem College, 601 South Church St.

A UNCSA/Salem College Organ Studio recital will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, in Crawford Hall in Gray Building on the UNCSA campus, 1533 South Main St.

Both recitals are free and open to the public; no ticket is required.

The competition, including warm-ups, will take place Saturday, Jan. 27, at Salem College’s Elberson Fine Arts Center. Middle and high school organists from North and South Carolina and Ohio are expected to compete. Seven organists will compete in the two divisions (intermediate and advanced) beginning at 10:30 a.m. in the Fine Arts Center. The winners recitals (one for each division, performed consecutively) and prize presentations are scheduled to begin at approximately 3:30 p.m. in Shirley Recital Hall. All are free and open to the public; no ticket is required.

Prizes for the Advanced Division of the competition include the Thomas S. Kenan III First Prize of $2,000 or one year of in-state tuition to UNCSA; second prize of $1,000, sponsored by the Piedmont NC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (and a $3,000 scholarship to UNCSA upon matriculation); third prize of $500; and the John and Margaret Mueller Hymn Prize of $350.

Prizes for the Intermediate Division include a first prize of $500, sponsored by the Piedmont NC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists; second prize of $250; third prize of $150; and a Hymn Prize of $100 in honor of Margaret Sandresky, faculty emerita of Salem College and founding faculty member of the UNCSA organ department.

All prizewinners will also receive a special gift: a volume of the complete works of J.S. Bach or another pedagogical work published by Leupold Editions, compliments of the publisher.

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