The final round of the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP) was held during the 2010 national convention of the American Guild of Organists. Both the first prize and the audience prize were awarded to Dongho Lee, a native of Seoul, South Korea, and a doctoral student at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she studies with Christopher Young. Ms. Lee studied at Yonsei University (Seoul) with Tong-Soon Kwak and with Martin Jean at Yale University. She was a recent finalist in the Canadian International Organ Competition in Montreal.
The NYACOP first prize consists of the Lilian Murtagh Memorial Prize, which is a $3000 cash award and career development assistance, funded by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.; a commercial CD release on the Pro Organo label; and the opportunity to perform in recital at the next AGO national convention, scheduled for July 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee. The audience prize is a $1000 cash award funded by Martin Ott Pipe Organ Company, Inc. Dongho Lee’s debut CD is expected to be recorded in late 2010 and released in early 2011.
Other finalists in this year’s NYACOP were Susan De Kam, a doctoral candidate in organ performance at the University of Michigan, studying with James Kibbie, and Annie Laver, who is pursuing a doctoral degree at the Eastman School of Music, and who serves as project manager for the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI).
The competition was held on the new three-manual, 62-rank A. E. Schlueter pipe organ at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. The July 6 finals concluded the competition, which began with 37 applicants in April 2009.
