Ninth annual High School Organ Festival is Friday, Jan. 31 through Sunday, Feb. 2
The ninth annual North Carolina High School Organ Festival and Competition takes place Friday, Jan. 31, through Sunday, Feb. 2, utilizing the superb instruments of Augsburg Lutheran Church, Salem College and UNCSA.
Competitors are expected from Texas, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, according to festival director Timothy Olsen, UNCSA School of Music’s Kenan Professor of Organ and associate professor of organ at Salem College. Olsen said the competition highlights Winston-Salem’s rich history and abundant resources of pipe organs and organ music.
Timothy Olsen is the Kenan Professor of Organ at UNCSA.
Prizes for the competition include the Thomas S. Kenan III First Prize of $2,000 or one year of in-state tuition to UNCSA; a second prize of $1,000, sponsored by the Piedmont Chapter of the American Guild of Organists; third prize of $500; and the John and Margaret Mueller Hymn Prize of $350.
Events that are open to the public at no charge include:
Student recital by UNCSA and Salem College organ studio at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 31 in Crawford Hall on the UNCSA Campus at 1533 South Main St. The students will perform on the University’s C.B. Fisk, Op. 75 organ.
Competition performances from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1 at Augsburg Lutheran Church, 845 W. 5th St., utilizing the 1968 Casavant with further modifications by Létourneau in 1997.
Winners recital at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Augsburg.
Competitors will be treated to a dinner and recital by Olsen and Barbara Lister-Sink, Salem College keyboard faculty member, on Salem College’s 1965/2013 Flentrop organ; workshops on injury-preventive keyboard technique by Lister-Sink and Alexander Technique by certified instructor Susan Perkins; and private lessons and a master class with Olsen.
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February 25, 2026