RCCO Ottawa Centre
CRCO Section d'Ottawa

PO Box 2270 Station D
Ottawa ON K1P 5W4
PRESS RELEASE
July 14, 2023

GODFREY HEWITT GRAND PRIZE - 2023 National Organ-Playing Competition

The bi-annual National Organ-Playing Competition presented by the RCCO took place in Toronto during the Toronto Organ Festival in July 2023. At the end of the Finals of the Competition, held in Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto, the Godfrey Hewitt Grand Prize of $5,000 was awarded to Martin Jones, who had been awarded the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship in 2021. The Muriel Gidley Stafford Third Prize of $1,000 was won by Alexander Straus-Fausto who was recently awarded the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship for 2023.

MARTIN JONES

Martin Jones

Martin Jones is in his second year of study with Professor Martin Schmeding for a Master's degree in organ performance at the Hochschüle für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig, Germany. In 2021 he was the winner of both the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship and the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation Prize. Martin won the 2018 AGO Southwest Regional Competition for Young Organists; he also won third prize and the audience and hymn prizes in the High School Division of the 2016 Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition. He has played in masterclasses with many notable performers including Alan Morrison, Nathan Laube, Paul Jacobs, Daniel Roth, David Higgs, Pieter Dirksen, and Jürgen Esst. Martin holds a Bachelor of Organ from Rice University in Houston, Texas where he studied with Ken Cowan. He is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he studied with Thomas Bara, and is a former American Boychoir chorister.


May 26, 2021

GODFREY HEWITT ANNUAL MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITION, 2023

The annual Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship, increased in 2022 for the first time from $5,000 to $6,000 annually, has been awarded for 2023 by the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Fund to

ALEXANDER STRAUS-FAUSTO

Alexander Straus-Fausto

Alexander Straus-Fausto is a Canadian organist from Kitchener, Ontario, who is completing his master's degree in organ performance at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, in the studio of Dr. Martin Jean. At Yale, Alex is Co-Organist and Choir Director at the Berkeley Divinity School, Yale, and Director of Music at Holy Advent Episcopal Church in Clinton, Connecticut. He completed his Bachelor of Music at McGill University Schulich School of Music and his secondary school studies at Michigan's Interlochen Arts Academy. He has also studied with Dr. Alcée Chriss, Hans-Ola Ericsson, Dr. Isabelle Demers, Dr. Jonathan Oldengarm, Christian Lane, Tom Bara, Dr. Peter Nikiforuk, and Joe Carere. While still a teenager, Straus-Fausto undertook a Canada Council-funded summer 2019 concert tour of the UK, playing in historic churches and cathedrals. Also in 2019, he was named Titular Organist at Église du Très-Saint-Nom de Jésus in Montreal, one of Canada's largest and finest symphonic organs. He has further expanded the organ's reach by creating more than 50 original transcriptions of major orchestral works, reflecting his passion for the symphonic organ as a virtually unlimited medium for artistic expression. He is a member of The Diapason's "20 under 30 Class of 2023" which recognizes young artists under the age of 30 who have made significant contributions to the fields of organ performance, harpsichord, and church music. He is one of ten finalists at the 2023 Longwood International Organ Competition, where he will compete in June for the largest cash prize of any organ competition in the world, and is also a Semi-Finalist in the 2023 National RCCO Competition. Many RCCO members will remember him as a boy fascinated by the organ, and he thanks each one of you who mentored him and permitted him access to organs, particularly Joe Carere who also allowed him to zoom his classes during Covid at Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate, when access to great organs was even more challenging than usual.



The Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship was established to honour the late Godfrey Hewitt, CD, DMus (Cantuar), FRCO, HonARSCM, and is administered by the RCCO Ottawa Centre. Awarded annually, the scholarship provides to an advanced organ student holding Canadian citizenship (or having permanent residency status in Canada) $6,000 towards further courses of study either at a university or with a particular organ teacher, within Canada or outside it. It is hoped that candidates will plan to use their skills in the future as organ teachers—not necessarily in an institution, and not necessarily as a primary source of income. Complete requirements and application details may be found at http://www.rcco-ottawa.ca/require.html.

Godfrey Hewitt, CD, DMus. (Cantuar), FRCO, HonARSCM, died in 2002 at the age of ninety-three. For over seventy years a prominent figure in sacred music in Canada, Dr. Hewitt left a very significant legacy to Canadian music. Born in England in 1909, he came to Canada in 1931 after serving as Organist for the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, London, in 1930. He became Organist and Master of the Choristers at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa, in 1931, and remained there for half a century, until his retirement in 1980. In 1973, Dr. Hewitt was awarded the Lambeth Doctorate of Music by the Archbishop of Canterbury; he was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1976. He was famed as performer, teacher, composer, and organ designer. This scholarship was established after his death both to honour his memory and to increase the number of highly-trained professional Canadian organists, not only to serve as organists in universities, concert halls, and churches, but also to teach future generations of performers and church musicians.

Previous winners of this scholarship were Craig Humber (2005), Isabelle Demers (2006), Michael Unger (2007), Ryan Jackson (2008), Matthieu Latreille (2009), Shawn Potter (2010), Wendy Nieuwenhuis (2011), Stephen Boda (2012), Sarah Svendsen (2013), Julie Pinsonneault (2014), Rachel Mahon (2015), Shane Murphy (2016), David Simon and Nicholas Walters (both in 2018), Stefani Bedin (2019), Samuel Lee and Manuel Piazza (both in 2020), Martin Jones (2021), and Maria Gajraj (2022).

The next annual competition for the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship in organ will close on April 30, 2024. Details may be found on the web site of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, Ottawa Centre: www.rcco-ottawa.ca

There is also a Godfrey Hewitt Prize of $5,000, awarded bi-annually as the Grand Prize at the National Organ-Playing Competition at the RCCO National Organ Festival; the next Prize will be awarded in July 2023 in Toronto.

Further details may be obtained from:

Frances Macdonnell
613-726-7984

E-Mail:Frances Macdonnell



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This page was last updated on: Monday, 17-Jul-2023 20:59:16 EDT