Dear OrgAlt and SICM list members,

There's always hidden good news going on in the Canadian organ scene, but
the last few days have been especially good, so I thought I'd let you in on
three things:


1) The first award of the RCCO Waterloo-Wellington Centre's Barrie Cabena
Music Scholarship has been awarded to St. Mary's native Christina Hutten,
alumnae of church music studies at Wilfrid Laurier University (including
organ with Marlin Nagtegaal) and now studying at Arizona State University.
On July 12, Ms Hutten will be playing an 8:00 p.m. recital at St. John the
Evangelist Anglican Church in Kitchener, where her former teacher is
Director of Music.
For more information... http://www.opus-two.com/rccow-w.html


2) Two entrants in the 20th Osborne Organ Competition of the Summer
Institute of Church Music have advanced to compete in the final round, to be
held Tuesday July 8th, 7:30pm at St. George's Memorial Church in Oshawa.
The finalists are Matthew Coons (Hamilton, ON) and Michael Oldaker (London,
ON). The Osborne Organ Competition, held biennially since 1970, was
partially endowed in 1975 by a gift from SICM founder Dr. Stanley L.
Osborne, and is currently being supported through the "Holy SONG!" touring
program. 1982 competition prizewinner Michael Bloss (who is principal organ
instructor at the Institute in its 39th session, 6-11 July) will chair the
final round jury. Competition co-ordinator John Leek and jurors Brent
Fifield and John Laing reviewed the entries and selected the two chosen to
be finalists. For more information... http://sicm.ca


3) The American Guild of Organists has named two Canadians and one American
the 2008 winners of its Biennial Prizes in Composition. The Canadians,
Stephen R. Fraser and Rachel Laurin were both prizewinners in the previous
(2006) cycle of the awards.

AGO DISTINGUISHED COMPOSER AWARD... Stephen Paulus (St. Paul, Minn.)
Paulus' distinguished body of organ and choral work includes three organ
concertos and several solo works, masses, motets and other works performed
by the Robert Shaw Chorale, Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Los Angeles
Master Chorale; and he has been prolific in creating symphonic, chamber,
band and operatic works.

AGO/ECS PUBLISHING AWARD IN CHORAL COMPOSITION... Stephen R. Fraser (Oshawa,
ON)
Mr. Fraser studied first at the University of Toronto with John Tuttle, then
Masters degrees at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University. He is
past winner of the Toronto RCCO Student Competition, the Fort Wayne Organ
Competition and an invitee to compete at Chartres, and currently studying
improvisation in Paris with Sophie-Véronique Chauchefer-Choplin and Thierry
Escaich.

AGO AWARD IN ORGAN COMPOSITION... Rachel Laurin (Ottawa, ON)
Ms. Laurin studied principally at the Montréal Conservatoire with Raymond
Daveluy, whom she also assisted at L'Oratoire St-Joseph from 1986 to 2002.
More recently she served as titular organist of the Basilique Notre-Dame in
Ottawa from 2002 until 2006. Her more than 50 works have been performed and
recorded in North America, Europe, Asia and South Africa, and her
publications are with Éditions Lucarel, Europart-Music, Doberman, and Wayne
Leupold Editions.

For more information... http://www.agohq.org/bulletin

-----
Christopher Dawes, Director
Canada's Summer Institute of Church Music