Portsmouth Teen Wins Organist Scholarship

The Young Organist Collaborative recently awarded Richie Gress the inaugural C. Pennington Brown Memorial Scholarship for Advanced Organ Study. The scholarship was established in 2012 to support the ongoing education of advanced Young Organist Collaborative organ students.

Gress is the first advanced student to receive this recognition. The Young Organist Collaborative, which supports the musical education of children ages 10-16 by providing scholarship money for organ lessons, also awarded eleven first and second year scholarships for the 2012-2013 school year.

Richie Gress is in his sixth year of organ lessons and currently takes weekly lessons with Bruce Adami, Organist and Interim Director of Music at Christ Church in Exeter, NH.  Gress was selected by a panel of three organist judges, which included Barbara Owen, Rick Gremlitz and Wendell Purrington during a blind audition. Gress played Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D-minor; Dupre’s Magnificat Gloria, and the hymn piece “Lasst es Erfreuen” (All Creatures of our God and King). Gress has played at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and St. Peter’s Cathedral in Morristown, NJ. He has given recitals locally, received an honorable mention in the Granite State piano competition in 2012, and sings bass in his church and school choirs. He is a substitute organist at various area churches, including Newmarket Community Church, Trinity Church York Harbor, Durham Community Church, and First Congregational Church Kittery Point.  Gress attended the High School Organist Summer Academy at Oberlin Conservatory in 2011. He wants to study organ in college and he also has a passion for composing music.  

"From the first notes, Richie established the drama of the piece," noted Rick Gremlitz, organist and choir director of First Parish Church in Dover. "Richie evokes solid, confident leadership from the organ.” 

“Richie has real promise and capability,” remarked Barbara Owen, scholarship judge, organist, author, historian, lecturer and Librarian of the American Guild of Organists' Organ Library at Boston University.

In addition to this year’s inaugural advanced scholarship award, the Young Organist Collaborative awarded first year scholarships to six organ students including Kasey Mann of Merrimac, Mass., who studies with Abbey Siegfried at Philips Andover Academy; Ben Blumenscheid of Newburyport, Mass., and Iara Manchester of Eliot, Maine, who both study organ with Barbara Flocco at her studio in Stratham; Abigail Steinhauer of South Berwick, Maine, who studies organ with Kevin Lindsay in Rochester; Jacob Golas of Hampton Falls who studies organ with Bev Caldon in Exeter; and Adam Peet of Newmarket, who studies organ with Bruce Adami at Christ Church in Exeter.

The Young Organist Collaborative also awarded five scholarships to second year organ students. Scholarship recipients include Clayton Jacques of Barrington, who studies organ with Kevin Lindsay at First United Methodist Church in Rochester; Christopher Shek of Hampton Falls, who studies organ with Bruce Adami in Exeter; Nathan Pace of Concord, who studies with Nicholas White at St. Paul’s School in Concord; and Christopher Thompson of Dover, and Joseph Stevens of Rochester, who both study with David Wold at his studio in Dover.  

Scholarships provided by the Young Organist Collaborative are funded entirely by donations. A challenge grant has been offered by a generous donor in order to build the C. Pennington Brown Memorial Scholarship fund. To help the Young Organist Collaborative meet the December 31, 2012 goal of raising $1,250, you can send a donation to The Young Organist Collaborative, PO Box 24, Portsmouth, NH 03802.

About The Young Organist Collaborative

The Young Organist Collaborative invests in the next generation of organists by providing scholarship money for musicians ages 10-16. An outreach program of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, NH, the Collaborative accepts and supports young musicians of all faiths. Scholarship funds go directly to organ lessons and students are asked to make a yearlong commitment to their musical training. Since its inception in 2001, the Young Organist Collaborative has supported 80 young organists in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts in their musical training. All scholarship funds come from contributions made directly to the Young Organist Collaborative. For more information on how to apply or to make a donation, visit http://www.stjohnsnh.org/music/

Submitted by Caroline Amport Piper, St. John's Episcopal Church, Portsmouth