The Diapason is proud to list its 20 Under 30 Class of 2025:
Davis Badaszewski
Davis Badaszewski serves as organist & choirmaster at Saint James Episcopal Church in Painesville, Ohio, where he is the curator of the church’s tonally unaltered 1926 Skinner Organ Company pipe organ, Opus 608. He is also a doctoral candidate in organ performance and is the organ department teaching assistant at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), studying with Professor Todd Wilson. His dissertation, “Harold Friedell (1905–1958): His Compositions for Organ and Their Relation to American Organ Design and Construction in the First Half of the 20th Century,” focuses on the intersection between music composition, organbuilding, and organ pedagogy in New York City between 1900 and 1960, as exemplified by Friedell’s life and works. Davis’s past degrees include a Master of Music in organ performance, also from CIM, a Bachelor of Music in organ performance from Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, as well as a Certificate in Injury Preventive Keyboard Technique from Salem College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians, the Charles Villiers Stanford Society, and the Herbert Howells Society. Davis has also served in several leadership positions in the American Guild of Organists and is the dean of the Cleveland Chapter.
Joseph Brantley
Joseph Brantley is a harpsichordist and organettist hailing from Northeast Florida. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and French from Jacksonville University in 2023, and he is currently in his last semester pursuing a Master of Music degree in harpsichord from University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, studying under Michael Unger. He has played both solo and continuo repertoire on numerous occasions around the Cincinnati area, including the Cincinnati Early Music Festival, Trinity Episcopal Church (Covington, Kentucky), and Christ Church Cathedral. In addition to the harpsichord, he also performs on the organetto, a medieval portative organ. In 2021 he travelled to Italy and San Marino, staging and performing medieval liturgical dramas under the direction of portative organist, Cristina Alís Raurich. Furthermore, in 2022 he participated in a week of medieval music classes and performances at the cathedral in Cuenca, Spain. He has chanted Medieval plainchant as well as performed various organ works from the fifteenth-century sources, Codex Faenza and Buxheimer Orgelbuch. In addition to his performances, he has presented original research at local and national conferences, including the South Atlantic Modern Language Association and the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Kelly Cleveland
Kelly Cleveland’s fascination with pipe organs began at age fifteen when he built a single-rank direct-electric-action organ, combining his interests of music and woodworking. At sixteen, he started studying organ with Annette Richards in Ithaca, New York. During his final year of high school, he built a mechanical-action organ with hand-operated bellows using reclaimed metal pipes. In 2017 he enrolled at Rochester Institute of Technology to study furniture design and woodworking. For his final project, he built a two-stop tracker organ, crafting all of the mechanical parts, the keyboard, and ninety wood pipes by hand. After graduating, Cleveland joined Parsons Pipe Organ Builders in Canandaigua, New York, where he continues to refine his woodworking skills while working on pipe organs in a variety of capacities. His dedication to both craftsmanship and music drives his work in the field of organbuilding.
Ariana Corbin
Ariana Corbin is the organ scholar at Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., where she plays for Sunday and weekday Eucharist and Evensong services and assists with administrative duties for the cathedral music department. Prior to this position, she served as director of music and organist at the Episcopal Church of the Advent in Tallahassee, Florida, where she directed the adult choir and oversaw all aspects of the music program. Ariana grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, where she began taking piano lessons at age five. After pursuing private piano study at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance during high school, Ariana began the Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance at age sixteen. Upon completing her undergraduate studies (summa cum laude), she began graduate studies at Florida State University College of Music, where she studied piano, organ, and harpsichord. Ariana holds master’s degrees in both piano and organ performance as well as the Doctor of Music degree in organ performance. Her organ teachers have included Iain Quinn, Colin Andrews, and James Kibbie. Ariana was a recipient of the E. Power Biggs Scholarship from the Organ Historical Society in 2022–2023, and was a featured performer at the 2023 Festival of Pipes hosted by the Organ Historical Society and the Royal Canadian College of Organists in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Charles Douthit
Charles Douthit is an organist, collaborative pianist, and choral musician from Mooresville, North Carolina. He currently studies organ with Jens Korndörfer at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, as a Master of Music degree candidate in the church music program. He also holds a Bachelor of Music degree in church music from Baylor, having studied organ with Isabelle Demers and Margaret Harper. During his undergraduate studies, Charles won first prize and the prize for outstanding hymn playing in the fiftieth annual William C. Hall Pipe Organ Competition in 2021. In 2022 he was selected as the organ division winner in the Baylor School of Music Semper Pro Musica Competition. As a collaborative artist, he has worked with the Baylor School of Music in various roles as a pianist and organist, notably serving a five-semester term as the accompanist for Baylor Bella Voce, a select treble ensemble founded by Lynne Gackle. Charles’s greatest passion is church music, serving as the organist and accompanist at the First Baptist Church of Waco. In addition, Charles frequently accompanies chapel functions on Baylor’s campus and substitutes at Waco area churches spanning a wide range of liturgical traditions.
Annie Gao
Annie Gao is a carillonist and software engineer from the sunny suburbs of Southern California. She first met the carillon in 2017 as a member of the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs, completed her Guild of Carillonneurs in North America carillonneur exam in 2020, and graduated from Yale in 2021 with combined Bachelor of Science/Master of Science degrees in computer science. She then had the tremendous privilege of continuing her carillon studies internationally with world-renowned carillonists Geert D’hollander, Boudewijn Zwart, and Eddy Marien. Along the way, she has been recipient of the Bok Tower Gardens Blanchard Carillon Fellowship, the Belgian American Education Foundation Fellowship, and the Kors Monster Festival Performance Nomination. She has taught carillon performance masterclasses at Bok Tower Gardens, Yale University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Florida at Gainesville, and she currently chairs the Emerging Artists Grant committee for the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America. She is also a jury member of the Guild’s professional certification exam. In her free time, Annie enjoys competitive ping pong, puzzles and brainteasers, good reads, and opportunities to explore and improve her fascinatingly bad sense of direction.
Daniel Grotz
Daniel Grotz is an Episcopalian organist based in Cincinnati, Ohio. He grew up in Culpeper, Virginia, and began piano lessons at age eight. During his time as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia he decided to become an organist after hearing the excellent organ concerts on Taylor & Boody Opus 3 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville, Virginia. In 2018 he became organist at Church of Our Savior, Episcopal, in Charlottesville, where he remained for four years. He has since completed his master’s degree in organ performance with Michael Unger at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, during which time he was organ scholar at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral, Cincinnati. He is now pursuing his doctorate in organ performance at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where he serves as the graduate assistant for the organ program, and he is one of two organ scholars at Saint Francis in the Fields, Harrod’s Creek, the largest Episcopal Church in Kentucky.
Jacob Gruss
Jacob Gruss is a fourth-year undergraduate organ student at The Juilliard School, studying in the studio of Paul Jacobs. Based in New York City, he serves as organ scholar at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. Jacob won first prize and audience choice in the twenty-seventh annual Albert Schweitzer Young Professionals Competition in Hartford, Connecticut. He placed first in the Westmorland Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition, first in the Cassel Competition (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), and was a winner in the 2023 American Guild of Organists Quimby
Organ Competition for the northeast region. Jacob is an organist with the New Choral Society Orchestra of Scarsdale, New York, and has performed with The Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. In the summer of 2024, he was a featured artist on WQED-FM Pittsburgh’s Voice of the Arts, interviewed by Jim Cunningham. A budding composer, Jacob’s works include liturgical music, such as his recently commissioned Mass of the Immaculate Conception, which premiered in Irwin, Pennsylvania, in August 2024. Jacob is a proud recipient of the American Guild of Organists Pogorzelski-Yankee Memorial Scholarship and was the inaugural recipient of the Robert and Nancy Powell Scholarship (Greenville, South Carolina). In addition to organ, Jacob studies conducting, composition, improvisation, and harpsichord.
Ethan Haman
Ethan Haman is an award-winning organist, pianist, improviser, and composer from the San Francisco Bay Area. For the past three years, he has worked as staff accompanist for the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Greater New Haven Community Chorus and as director of music for the Episcopal Church at Yale. Since 2019 he has also served as organist and assistant conductor at Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien, Connecticut. In his youth, Ethan studied with concert organist Angela Kraft Cross. In 2019 he graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music degree in composition and organ performance, studying with Andrew Norman, Morten Lauridsen, and Cherry Rhodes. Ethan graduated from Yale University with Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts degrees in organ performance in May 2022, studying with Jon Laukvik, Craig Cramer, Martin Jean, and Jeffrey Brillhart. Ethan has traveled on several sponsored study trips to Paris and Lyon for immersion into the French tradition of organ performance and improvisation on historic instruments, including Notre-Dame Cathedral and Saint-Sulpice Church. He has performed and recorded in twelve countries and twenty-two U.S. states, including such venues as Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Trinity Church in Boston, Notre-Dame d’Auteuil in Paris, and the Grote Kerk of Saint Bavo in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Ethan was a finalist and audience prize winner in both the 2022 and 2024 National Competition in Organ Improvisation of the American Guild of Organists. He has taught organ and improvisation privately and in workshops for universities, the Church Music Institute, and local chapters of the AGO, and he is regularly commissioned to compose new choral and keyboard music.
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson plans to teach and inspire the next generation of performers, academics, and church musicians. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, he is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music, where he studies with David Higgs and serves as a teaching assistant in music theory. His previous degrees include a Master of Music and graduate performance diploma from Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Daniel Aune, and a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Illinois Wesleyan University. Additional private organ study has been with John Walker, Marie-Louise Langlais, and Jean-Baptiste Robin. Andrew is assistant organist at Christ Church in Rochester, New York, following tenures at Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore, Maryland, and Wesley United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Illinois. He holds the American Guild of Organists Associate and Choirmaster certifications and earned the 2023 S. Lewis Elmer Award. His research has been published in The American Organist and The Tracker, and his competition credits include earning second place in the 2022 Sursa American Organ Competition, first place in the inaugural James M. Weaver Prize in Organ Scholarship (2023), and being a finalist in the 2024 AGO National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance.
Gavin Klein
Gavin Klein is a native of rural Massachusetts and is a skilled organist and harpsichordist. He is a rising senior at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and serves as one of the organ scholars at the institution. Gavin is a student of Ezequiel Menéndez and previously studied with C. Henry Mason and William Ness. Gavin began organ lessons around the age of ten after studying piano for a number of years. Growing up, he sang in the choir of All Saints Episcopal Church in Worcester, Massachusetts. The choir of All Saints is one of the oldest continuously running church choirs in the United States and is something Gavin often attributes as the source of his desire to study organ and sacred music. Currently, he serves as the organist at Saint Bernard Catholic Church in Worcester and was formerly artist-in-residence at the Harvard Historical Society in Harvard, Massachusetts. In January of 2020, Gavin gave the inaugural organ recital at the Epsilon Spires Performing Arts Center in Brattleboro, Vermont, featuring the historic Estey Opus 300 organ. Since then, he has performed at many notable venues worldwide and regularly tours both the United States and Europe. Gavin was recently a finalist in the National Undergraduate Organ Competition in Ottumwa, Iowa.
David Kraft
David Kraft is pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, studying under David Higgs. He began piano study at age five and organ at thirteen, studying with John Morabito. He has served at several Rochester area churches, including Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Webster, and Saint Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, Irondequoit, and is assistant organist at Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral, Rochester, where he helped establish the Cathedral Youth Schola. David won first prize in the 2021 Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition and was a finalist in the Lynnwood Farnam Competition, performing in Montreal. He has played in masterclasses with Chelsea Chen, Jean-Baptiste Robin, and Janette Fishell, and he was featured on Pipedreams Live! in 2024. David is organist at the United Church of Canandaigua and will perform in the 2025 Piccolo Spoleto L’Organo series in Charleston, South Carolina. An organ technician with Parsons Pipe Organ Builders, David maintains instruments at Eastman and across Western New York and assisted in the 2024 installation of Parsons Opus 52 at Saint Benedict Catholic Cathedral, Evansville, Indiana. He regularly services reed organs and is currently restoring a Trayser harmonium. He is also building a table organ inspired by the instruments of Jean-Baptiste Micot.
Chase Loomer
Chase Loomer is organist and associate choirmaster at the Cathedral of Saint Philip in Atlanta, Georgia. He has given solo recitals throughout North America and performed with ensembles including the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Brass, Yale Philharmonia, and Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. Chase received first prize in the 2018 Taylor Organ Competition and 2015 American Guild of Organists/Quimby Southeast Regional Competition for Young Organists and has been a semifinalist in the National Competition in Organ Improvisation and the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition. He has performed at national and regional conventions of the AGO, the American Liszt Society Festival, and has been featured on Pipedreams. Previously, he served as associate director of music at Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, and on the collaborative piano staff of Butler University. In 2024 he was organist for the Royal School of Church Music Midwest summer choral residency. Chase holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Yale University, and has completed coursework for the Doctor of Music degree at Indiana University. His teachers have included David Higgs, Martin Jean, Christopher Young, Edoardo Bellotti, Jeffrey Brillhart, Jeffrey Smith, and Patrick Scott. In addition to organ, Chase is a jazz pianist and composer of choral, keyboard, and jazz music.
Dylan Madoux
Dylan Madoux is a conductor and harpsichordist specializing in early music. He is artistic director of the Oklahoma Baroque Orchestra, director of music at First Christian Church, Midwest City, and adjunct professor of music at Oklahoma City Community College. Equally at home in historical and modern performances—he has led ensembles ranging from early music to opera and choral productions. In 2024 he conducted Cimarron Opera’s The Gondoliers by Gilbert and Sullivan. Previously, he was an apprentice conductor with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and assistant conductor with Oklahoma Youth Orchestras. Dylan earned his Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting and harpsichord performance from Oklahoma City University (OCU) and his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Oklahoma (OU). As a harpsichordist, he has performed with the UCO Brisch Center for Historical Performance, OU Collegium Musicum, OCU Early Music Ensemble, Tactus, and OU Festival Ballet. He has also worked with the Boise Baroque Orchestra and participated in the Saint Andrews Baroque Institute, studying with Rachel Podger, John Butt, and others. Dylan is active in organbuilding and historical keyboard maintenance. He is a pipe organ technician with Red River Pipe Organ Company and offers independent tuning and technical services for harpsichords and other historical keyboards.
Maksym Mahlay
Maksym Mahlay is a Cleveland-born keyboardist, teacher, composer, and lecturer. He is a second year master’s degree student at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), studying harpsichord performance with Michael Unger. Throughout his conservatory career, Maksym has focused on multiple projects, from researching the evolution of fugue to archiving Ukrainian early music. In his undergraduate years, Maksym composed over 100 fugues. In addition, he performed fugues on stage, with his recent solo master’s recital including fugal improvisation throughout the program. As a continuo player, Maksym has performed with CCM’s Concert Orchestra, CCM Chamber Singers, Indiana Slavic Choir, and local musicians from the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky area, accompanying on harpsichord, organ, and Ukrainian folk instruments. In addition, Maksym maintains an active social media presence, regularly posting content ranging from improvisatory videos to rarely performed works.
Joseph Min
Winner of the Ninth Queen Fabiola Carillon Competition, Joseph Min currently lives in New York City and attends the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. After graduating summa cum laude from the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn” in Mechelen, Belgium, in 2023, studying under Koen Cosaert and Koen Van Assche, he has performed on carillons throughout the United States and Europe. Prior to this, he studied under Joey Brink at the University of Chicago, where he was introduced to the instrument. He is a member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) and has premiered multiple new compositions at GCNA congresses. Joseph now occasionally plays the carillon at The Riverside Church and is a member of the Riverside Ringers handbell group. His work in acoustics and design will hopefully further both architecture and carillon culture.
David Preston
David Preston is an award-winning organist and harpsichordist, presently based on Long Island. He is pursuing a second master’s degree in harpsichord performance at Stony Brook University with Arthur Haas, having previously studied at Yale University for his Master of Music degree in organ performance and at Texas Christian University for his bachelor’s in church music. He is a laureate of the Miami International Organ Competition (2024), the AGO/Quimby competition (2021), and was awarded the Charles Ives Prize (2023) in his first year at Yale. David has earned the Colleague certificate of the AGO. His musical interests are varied, and he is presently focused on harpsichord music in experimental keys from the high Baroque and early Classical periods, as well as organ music from the Classical and early Romantic eras. Concurrently with his studies, David holds the position of associate organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, New York. As a church musician, he finds great fulfillment in accompanying the congregation and choir alike. He is grateful to all his teachers and mentors for fostering his appreciation for church music and its numerous traditions.
Henry Webb
Henry Webb is the recipient of the second prize, audience prize, and the Raymond Daveluy prize of the Canadian International Organ Competition and is completing his master’s degree at McGill University, where he studies organ with Isabelle Demers and harpsichord with Elizaveta Miller. Webb earned a bachelor’s degree in organ performance with David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music and a diploma of specialization with Johann Vexo from the Strasbourg Conservatory, where he also studied harpsichord with Benjamin-Joseph Steens. Henry’s other former teachers have included Scott Dettra and Nathan Laube. He has also received the second and audience prizes of the 2023 Ottumwa National Undergraduate Organ Competition. Henry has been featured as a recitalist in the United States, France, and Canada, notably on Pipedreams Live!, the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival, the 2019 Organ Historical Society national convention, and the Stras’Orgues festival in France.
Abigail Wood
Abigail Wood is a senior organ performance major from York, Pennsylvania, studying at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, with Anne Laver and pursuing a minor in jazz studies. She is organist at University United Methodist Church in Syracuse and music minister for Lutheran Campus Ministries. Her recitals feature a variety of repertoire and also include improvisations and compositions of her own. In 2023 she won the Quimby Potomac Chapter Organ Competition and received the 2024 Robert & Nancy Powell Scholarship of Greeneville, South Carolina. She also was a winner of Syracuse University’s 2024 Outstanding Artists Competition, and performed Charles-Marie Widor’s “Allegro” from Symphony VI with the Syracuse University Orchestra. Most recently, she was named a Visual & Performing Arts Scholar by Syracuse University, one of the school’s highest honors. Her research focuses on the English organ and liturgical practices of Victorian-era Britain. She attended the Royal College of Organists’ 2024 Summer Course and studied with professionals in London, making recordings of these instruments for two weeks and compiling her research into a paper. She also assisted Dr. Laver in presenting data found on organ programs of the 1915 San Francisco Exposition at the 2024 American Guild of Organists national convention.
Eddie Zheng
Driven by a passion for bringing the grandeur of organ music to wider audiences, Eddie Zheng is a rising concert organist whose performances have been “rapturously received” across the United States, Canada, France, and China. He has won numerous competitions, including first prizes at the 2018 Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition, the 2019 American Guild of Organists Quimby Northeast Regional Competition, and the highest awarded prize at the 2024 Pierre de Manchicourt International Organ Competition in Saint Omer, France. Eddie currently serves as assistant organist at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church in New York City, associate organist at Église St. Jean Baptiste, and guest organist at The Riverside Church. He also maintains a thriving teaching studio with more than ten students. Eddie Zheng studied with Matthew Lewis before earning his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees and the Artist Diploma (2025) from The Juilliard School under Paul Jacobs. He has been fortunate to learn from esteemed organists such as Peter Richard Conte, Olivier Latry, Nathan Laube, Thomas Murray, and Johann Vexo.
