The Reuter Organ Company has announced the winners of the 2009 Augustana Arts/Reuter National Undergraduate Organ Competition. This biennial event has now concluded its seventh season. The competition is held at Augustana Lutheran Church in Denver on Reuter Opus 2071 (IV/61), with support from the Reuter Organ Company, Augustana Lutheran Church, Augustana Arts, and the Denver AGO chapter. Cindy Lindeen-Martin, minister of music at the church, is the competition director. Ronald Krebs, Reuter vice president, presented the prizes on behalf of the company.
A work by Bach, a Romantic or contemporary composition, the hymn Slane and the Concerto No. 6 in G Major of Franz Xaver Brixi were played by each of the competitors at the Saturday afternoon competition. Patrick Kreeger, a student of Alan Morrison at the Curtis Institute of Music, won the first prize. He received an award of $5,000 and performed the Brixi concerto with the Musica Sacra Chamber Orchestra at the winner’s concert, as well as Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 3 in A Major. The second prize of $2,000 was presented to Victor Li, a student of Donald Sutherland at the Peabody Conservatory, who played Messiaen’s “Serene Alleluias” from L’Ascension on the Sunday evening program.
Judges for this year’s competition included Joseph Galema, music director and academy organist at the United States Air Force Academy; Edmund Ladouceur, retired director of cadet chapel music and cadet choral activities at the academy; and Tamara Schmiege, director of music and organist at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Fort Collins. In addition, Dr. Galema was also featured in a Denver premiere performance of the Stephen Paulus Organ Concerto for Organ, Strings and Percussion at the winner’s concert.
