The 2024 Northern Ireland International Organ Competition (NIIOC) took place August 12–14 in Armagh. Thirteen organists selected by recordings competed in the Senior Category, for players above Grade 8 and age 21 and under, on August 12 in St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh.
Jan Liebermann, 18, of Germany, won the competition with a prize of £4,000 awarded by the John Pilling Trust, along with five international recitals and a trophy presented by Neiland & Creane Organ Builders. He is a student of Gerhard Gnann at the Johannes Gutenberg University School of Music in Mainz, where he also studies organ improvisation with Lutz Brenner.
Second prize, the David McElderry Award, was presented to Daniel Colaner, 19, from the United States, a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2021, who won £1,000 and three public recitals. Colaner also won the Bach Prize of £300. Third prize of £500 by Wells-Kennedy Organ Builders was awarded to Eben Eyers, 20, of the UK, along with three public recitals. Eyers is an undergraduate at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. The Dame Gillian Weir Medal and £300 for the most outstanding performance of a single work was awarded to Adam Suk, 19, from the Czech Republic, for his performance of “Finale” from Petr Eben’s Sunday Music.
Ludwig Emanuel Haenchen, 16, from Germany, a student of the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig, won the Intermediate Category, for players of Grades 6–8 standard who have not yet gained an organ diploma. This first prize amounted to £500. Seven organists played 12-minute recitals in St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral on August 13. Second prize of £300 from The Pipe Organ Preservation Co. went to Pascal Georges, 15, from Germany. Third prize of £200 went to Chamberlain Ofosu, 14, from the UK. These first and third prizes was provided by John Miley. Martin Droppa, 15, from the Czech Republic, won the first prize of £300, sponsored by Alasdair MacLaughlin, in the Junior Category, for players of Grades 4–5 standard, which took place on August 13 in St Malachy’s Church, Armagh.
The competition jury consisted of Thomas Trotter (UK, chair), Anna-Victoria Baltrusch (Germany), David Hill (UK and United States). Prizewinners’ recitals in the Senior Category of the competition will be arranged at venues including St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York; Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and St. George’s Church, Hanover Square, in London; King’s College and Trinity College, Cambridge; New College, Oxford; the “Bach Corner” at the St. Albans International Organ Competition 2025; Glasgow Cathedral; Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; St. Michael’s Church, Dun Laoghaire; the Portico of Ards, Northern Ireland; and a European recital yet to be announced.
For information: niioc.com.
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