The annual Arthur Poister Scholarship Competition in Organ Playing took place on April 12 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Syracuse, New York. Three contestants were invited to perform 30-minute programs on the basis of their preliminary-round recordings. This year’s competition was part of the Syracuse Pipe Organ Festival, a three-day event that also featured a downtown organ crawl and student and faculty concerts at Syracuse University. 

De la Porte Publishing announces a new book, Born by the Thames: Stephen Dodgson, A Centenary Celebration (978-1-8383269-1-3, £12.99), edited by Oliver Chandler and Thomas Hyde. 

Dodgson (1924–2013), a British composer, produced many works in a variety of genres, including a corpus of works for harpsichord and harpsichord with other instruments. 

Jack Mitchener has been praised for playing that is technically brilliant, yet expressive and poetic. According to The American Organist, “Mitchener brings music to life with his supple rhythmic control, clear phrasing, energy, and sensitivity.” In response to his recording on the historic Salem Tannenberg organ entitled Dulcet Tones, a reviewer for the International Record Review of London asserted: “Superb…an impressive and rather moving listening experience.”  

The Jean-Louis Florentz International Organ Competition will take place May 17–18, 2025, in Angers, France. Applicants must be under the age of 30 as of May 18, 2025. 

The semi-final round will be held May 17 in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd and Saint-Maurice Cathedral; the final round will be the following day at the cathedral. First prize is €6,500 and recital offerings; a prize for the best interpretation of the compulsory commissioned work by Grégoire Rolland is €1,500; second prize is €1,000; audience prize is €500. 

The Olivier Messiaen International Organ Competition 2024 takes place October 22–26 at the Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon, France. 

The competition is open to organists under the age of 30 from all over the world. It will take place over four rounds, including three public rounds. The prizes consist of financial awards and an invitation to perform at AIDA. In addition to works by Messiaen, the competition will be open to other repertoires. 

Organist, conductor, and composer David Schelat will retire from a 38-year tenure as minister of music at First & Central Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, Delaware, on June 3. During his tenure he led the church to acquire a 29-stop Gabriel Kney organ in 1989 along with new Steinway and vintage Mason & Hamlin pianos, as well as Orff instruments. In 2009 he helped form and led a non-profit organization, Market Street Music, to administer the church’s outreach music programs.

William “Bill” De Turk died March 14. Born May 15, 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, he earned his Bachelor of Music degree cum honore from Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio, in 1967, and his Master of Music degree in organ performance from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1969. While at Michigan he studied carillon with Percival Price. In 1974 De Turk was the first carillon scholar at the Bok Singing Tower, Lake Wales, Florida, working with Milford Myhre for one year.

Treasure in the hills: French Romantic organs in a silver boomtown

When searching for sung daily offices, a French-style abbey church, and two French Romantic organs, one might look in Europe, but not in Silverado, California. The city and its namesake canyon, located east of Los Angeles in the Santa Ana range, hold scenery found in old Western films: dusty mountainsides that turn pink at dusk, tumbleweed blowing across the winding two-lane road, a creek with little more than eight ounces of water in its bed, old mine shafts from the silver boom.