The American Guild of Organists (AGO) is an international organization of academic, church, and concert organists in the US, headquartered in New York City with its administrative offices in the Interchurch Center. Founded as a professional educational association, it was chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York in 1896, with the authority to grant certificates of associate or fellow to members who passed examinations.[1]
Membership is not limited to professional organists, but is open to anybody with an interest in organs and organ music. As of 2020, there are approximately 14,000 voting members in all categories of membership. The AGO's current president is Eileen Hunt, elected in 2022.
The guild seeks to set and maintain high musical standards and to promote understanding and appreciation of all aspects of organ and choral music.[3]
The American Guild of Organists is geographically divided into seven regions and 298chapters. The AGO has chapters in Australia (Sydney), Barbados, Hong Kong, Kenya (Nairobi), Finland (Helsinki), Singapore, Shanghai, and Taiwan. The European chapter is the oldest chapter outside of the US, with many members in France and Germany, as well as other countries.[3]
The leadership of the AGO consists of a National Council, seven regional councillors forming a Board of Regional Councillors, and various local chapters within each region. The national headquarters is located at 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1260, in New York, New York, in the Interchurch Center.
The National Council is the governing body of the American Guild of Organists. The four national officers, five national councillors with committees in portfolio, and the chair of the board of regional councillors (selected by the seven regional councillors from among their number) are members of the National Council. The executive director is a non-voting member of the National Council. The chaplain is an honorary member of the National Council.
The national officers of the guild consist of a president, a vice president/councillor of competitions and new music, a secretary/councillor for communications, and a treasurer/councillor for finance and development. National councillors coordinate and represent to the National Council specific areas of the work of the guild—education, membership, competitions and new music, conventions, young organists, and finance and development.
The regional councillors are elected by the members of the guild assigned to chapters within each of the seven regions. Regional councillors are responsible for supervision and coordination of the work of the guild in their regions and representation of the region on the National Council through the chair of the Board of Regional Councillors. The Board of Regional Councillors meets in person with the National Council once per year with voice, but no vote.
Appointed district conveners are responsible for the development of the guild's interests in each state or area located within the region. The district convener assists the regional councillor in the work of the region.
In addition to district conveners, regional coordinators are appointed to assist the regional councillor and a national councillor in coordinating work of a specific portfolio area of the guild within the region, such as education, regional competitions for young organists, and professional development.
In 2014, the formerly nine regions were consolidated into seven:
Northeast
Mid-Atlantic
Southeast
Great Lakes
North Central
Southwest
West
Over the years, a number of international chapters have been formed and are grouped into the following AGO regions:
Northeast:
Europe, Finland
Southeast:
Barbados, Nairobi
West:
Hong Kong, Sydney (Australia), Shanghai, Singapore, Taiwan
Eileen Hunt is currently president, elected in 2022 to a two-year term to succeed Michael Bedford (2016–2022). Other past presidents serving in the 21stcentury, and their terms in office, include John Walker (organist) (2014–2016), Eileen Guenther (2008–2014) and Frederick Swann (2002–2008).[7]
Programs and publications
The American Organist– monthly journal of the AGO
The organization holds national conventions in even-numbered years and regional conventions in odd-numbered years. The 2010 national convention held in Washington, D.C., on July 4–8, for example, included workshops and concerts at prominent Washington-area churches, with premieres of newly commissioned works.[8] The 2014 national convention, attended by more than 1,700members, featured several notable venues in the Boston area, including Memorial Church of Harvard University and Trinity Church. The 2020 national convention planned for July in Atlanta, Georgia, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The AGO sponsors a number of education programs, including "Pipe Organ Encounters", which are intended to introduce youth to the organ and its workings. It also produces a series of instructional DVDs for organists, providing insights into advanced playing technique, organ registration, improvisation, and interpretation. Renowned organists on these Master Series videos are: Catharine Crozier (vol.1), Marie-Claire Alain (vol.2), Frederick Swann (vol.3), Gerre Hancock (vol.4), and Marilyn Mason (vol.5).
The AGO issues several professional certificates and designations upon completion of the appropriate exams and membership in good standing: the Service Playing Certificate (SPC), Colleague (CAGO), Choir Master (ChM), Associateship (AAGO), and Fellowship (FAGO), the highest level of certification bestowed upon accomplished organists by the organization's Board of Examiners.[9]
The American Organist
Until November 1967, the journal The Diapason (published by Scranton-Gillette) was billed as the Official Journal of the American Guild of Organists, and the Official Magazine of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.[10] In 1967, the AGO began publishing Music Magazine, a news journal for its membership. Now titled The American Organist, the monthly magazine is the official journal of the AGO for members and non-member subscribers. The illustrated periodical features news about new and restored pipe organs, concert programs, research into organ literature, chapter activities, and reviews of new organ recordings. The American Organist is also the official magazine for the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America. Its masthead proclaims the journal's goal, to further the AGO's "ideals, objectives, and cultural and educational aspirations".[11] From October, 1968, to June, 2009, The American Organist was also the official journal of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.[12] The AGO also is an affiliate with the online journal Vox Humana.[13]
Contests
The AGO organizes several awards and competitions, including the Pogorzelski-Yankee Competition, the AGO/ECS Publishing Award in Choral Composition, and the AGO/Marilyn Mason Award in Organ Composition.[14]
The AGO/Marilyn Mason Award has its roots in the Holtkamp Organ Composition Contest, which was inaugurated in 1978 by Walter Holtkamp (president of the Holtkamp Organ Company) and Donald Hinshaw (president of Hinshaw Music) to encourage composers under 30 years of age.[15] The Holtkamp Organ Composition was held annually until 1984 in conjunction with the International Contemporary Organ Music Festival at the Hartt School of Music. Winners of the Holtkamp Organ Composition Contest included:[15]
1978: Thomas Crawford and Frank Wiley, co-winners; Steven Errante and Paul Hofreiter, honorable mentions
1979: Richard Campanelli, winner; Robert Sirota, honorable mention
1980: Thomas Crawford and Blair Sanderson, co-winners; Frank Wiley, honorable mention
In 1984 the award was rebranded as the AGO/Holtkamp Award which awards a commission (and publication) for an organ work and a cash prize. It's held every two years in conjunction with AGO's national convention. In 2010 the award was rebranded as the AGO/Marilyn Mason Award to honor Marilyn Mason. Until 2016 the winning compositions were published by Hinshaw music; since then they have been published by H. T. FitzSimons. Winners include:[17]
Thomas Tertius Noble was an English-born organist and composer, who lived in the United States for the latter part of his career.
William Hugh Albright was an American composer, pianist and organist.
Ivan Božičević is a Croatian composer, pianist, organist and jazz musician.
Joan Lippincott is an American concert organist and former head of the organ department at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.
Gerre Edward Hancock was an American organist, improviser, and composer. Hancock was Professor of Organ and Sacred Music at the University of Texas at Austin. He died of cardiac arrest in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, January 21, 2012.
David Craighead was a noted American organist.
Frederick Lewis Swann was an American church and concert organist, choral conductor, composer, and president of the American Guild of Organists. His extensive discography includes both solo organ works and choral ensembles he has conducted.
The Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO), founded in 1909, is a national association of organists and church musicians in Canada, with 28 centres from Victoria, British Columbia to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The National Office is in Toronto.
Dr. Evelyn Lim is the founding dean of the Singapore Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She has been one of the main driving forces behind the renaissance of organ music, both sacred and secular, in Singapore.
Kenneth Andrew Cowan is a Canadian church and concert organist who currently serves as professor of organ at the Shepherd School of Music of Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Chelsea Chen is an internationally renowned young American organist and composer.
John C. Walker, more familiarly known as John Walker, is an American concert organist, choirmaster, and CD recording artist. He is also a former president of the American Guild of Organists, elected in May 2014 to a two-year term of the 16,000-member organization. Walker has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe. He is "widely recognized for his flawless technique and execution as well as his controlled and passionate playing," said Duke University in announcing a John Walker recital at Duke Chapel. Since 2006 he has served on the faculty of the Peabody Institute and George Mason University.
Haig Mardirosian is Dean Emeritus of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Tampa, Professor Emeritus at American University in Washington, DC, a concert organist, composer, and conductor. He has performed in many of the most important concert venues throughout North America and Europe. He has over a dozen commercial recordings to his credit including well known and respected performances of the organ works of Bach, Brahms, Liszt, Petr Eben, and Jean Langlais.
Roberta Bitgood (Wiersma) (15 January 1908 – 15 April 2007) was an American organist, choir director, and composer. She was a pioneer of 20th-century American church music, and the first woman to serve as national president of the American Guild of Organists.
Nicholas O'Neill is an English composer, arranger, organist and choral director.
Marilyn Mason was an American concert organist, recording artist, and professor. Mason joined the staff of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1947, became chair of the organ department in 1962, and was named a professor in 1965.
John Michael Barone is an American organist, radio host, and producer, specializing in the pipe organ. His weekly Pipedreams program is distributed by American Public Media. He was the classical music director at Minnesota Public Radio for 25 years and had served as host for broadcasts of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and MPR's The New Releases.
Rachel Laurin was a Canadian organist, composer and music educator in Quebec.
Catharine Pearl Crozier was a leading American concert organist and teacher.
William Churchill Hammond was an American organist, choirmaster, and music educator. He is noted for being one of the founding members of the American Guild of Organists, and for a lengthy tenure on the faculty of Mount Holyoke College.
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