Bryan Anderson has won the top prize at the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition, held on 20-24 June.

Anderson was awarded the US$40,000 Pierre S. du Pont First Prize, a contract with Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, and a 2023-24 performance at Longwood; he also won the AGO Philadelphia Chapter Prize of US$1,000 for the outstanding performance of the judges’ choice piece.

Longwood Gardens director of performing arts Tom Warner commented: ‘Bryan exemplifies all that the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition is about. He created magnificent music that expertly showcased the Longwood Organ and his extraordinary talent.’

Anderson is director of music at St Thomas’s Episcopal Church and School in Houston, Texas. He has a Master’s in organ performance from Rice University and a Bachelor’s and Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. Prior to the competition, he said that winning it ‘would mean that the music I bring and the way I present it is communicated effectively, and that I as a player am on the same wavelength as the ears of the listeners. When that happens, if that can happen, in any context, it’s extremely fulfilling.’

The US$15,000 Firmin Swinnen Second Prize was awarded to Colin MacKnight of Bethesda, Maryland. MacKnight, who is director of music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock, Arkansas, also won the US$1,000 Audience Choice Prize.

Ádám Tabajdi from Debrecen, Hungary, received the US$5,000 Clarence Snyder Third Prize. Tabajdi is a doctoral student at the Liszt Academy, Budapest. He has interned at the Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris and was the resident organist of the Sapporo Concert Hall, Kitara, Japan.

The other two finalists were Samuel Lee, a doctoral candidate at McGill University studying organ performance, and Aleksanteri Wallius, a first-year Master’s student at the Sibelius Academy.

longwoodgardens.org