The Royal Canadian College of Organists announces results of its 2021 National Organ Playing Competition, held during the RCCO’s Organ Festival Canada in Hamilton, August 8–13.
The First Place Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Prize was awarded to Manuel Piazza; the Second Place Paul Murray Prize was presented to Tyler Boehmer; the Third Place Muriel Gidley Stafford Prize went to Samuel Lee.
Jurors were Michael Bloss, Isabelle Demers, David Enlow, John Laing, and Patricia Wright. John Laing composed a work required for the final round, Our Hope for a Better Tomorrow: Fantasia for Organ. The competition was hosted by the Ancaster Canadian Reformed Church and Central Presbyterian Church in Hamilton.
Manuel Giovanni Piazza, a native of Toronto, is a graduate student at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, New Haven, Connecticut, studying with Martin Jean, and is junior organ scholar at Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven. Tyler Boehmer is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Kansas and is a prize winner at several competitions. Samuel Lee is a doctoral degree candidate at McGill University, studying with with Hans-Ola Ericsson and Jonathan Oldengarm.
For information: rcco.ca.
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