The 37th Arthur Poister Competition 2013 took place April 6 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Syracuse, New York. The winner was Aaron Tan of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Second place went to Thomas Gaynor of Rochester, New York. The other finalists were Yoomi Chang (University of Kansas), Silviya Mateva (University of Oklahoma), Mike Powell (Indiana University) and Ben Stone (University of Notre Dame). Judges were Judy Congdon of Houghton College, Donald Sutherland of Peabody Conservatory, and Kola Owolabi of Syracuse University.
Aaron Tan earned the PhD in engineering from the University of Michigan, studying organ with Marilyn Mason. In Toronto he studied with John Tuttle, earning the FRCCO. A post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, he serves as organ scholar at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Detroit, and a board member of the Boychoir of Ann Arbor. Tan was second-place winner of the Poister in 2008; he will play his winner’s recital this fall on the Holtkamp Organ in Setnor Auditorium of Syracuse University.
Thomas Gaynor is in his first year of the MM program at Eastman, where he studies with David Higgs; he holds the BMus (Honors) from Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, where he studied with Douglas Mews. He is organist of Salem UCC in Rochester. He will play at Hendricks Chapel in the Malmgren Concert Series 2013–14.
