Judges
Christopher Houlihan
First Round JudgeChristopher Houlihan
The organist Christopher Houlihan has established an international reputation as a “passionate and intelligently virtuoso musician” (Gramophone), hailed for his “glowing, miraculously life-affirming performances” (Los Angeles Times). His playing has been praised as “eloquent” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (Wall Street Journal), and “first-class” (The Diapason). He has concertized at major concert venues throughout the United States, including the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, Davies Symphony Hall, and at Walt Disney Concert Hall where he performed with the principal Brass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Los Angeles Times raved about his debut, proclaiming, “Houlihan is the next big organ talent.”
David Hurd
First Round JudgeDavid Hurd
David Hurd is widely recognized as one of the foremost church musicians and concert organists in the United States, with a long list of awards, prizes, and honors recognizing his achievements and expertise in organ performance, improvisation, and composition. From 1976 until 2015, David Hurd taught on the faculty of The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City, eventually being named Professor of Church Music and Organist. For his work at The General Theological Seminary and for his substantial contribution to church music, four other seminaries have awarded him honorary doctorates. He has taught also at Duke University, Manhattan School of Music, Westminster Choir College, and Yale University. He studied in New York at the Juilliard School, the High School of Music and Art, and the Manhattan School of Music. His undergraduate music degree is from Oberlin College in Ohio, and he continued his studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. As a concert organist David Hurd enjoys instant recognition both at home and abroad. Since winning first prizes both in organ performance and in improvisation of the 1977 International Congress of Organists, he has performed throughout North America and Europe, and has been a featured artist at numerous national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. He is represented exclusively in North America by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC. He is the composer of dozens of published choral, vocal, liturgical, and organ works. In 2010 he became the fifteenth recipient of The American Guild of Organists’ Distinguished Composer Award. From 1998 until 2013 he was Music Director and Organist at Church of the Holy Apostles (Episcopal) in New York City. In 2016, he was appointed Organist and Music Director of the famed Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Times Square.
Christa Rakich
First Round JudgeChrista Rakich
Organist Christa Rakich has performed widely throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. As a Fulbright Scholar, she studied for two years with Anton Heiller at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. She holds bachelor’s degrees in organ and German from Oberlin College & Conservatory (Phi Beta Kappa, 1975). Upon earning her master’s degree with honors from New England Conservatory, she was invited to join the faculty there and remained for many years, serving ultimately as department co-chair. She has also served on the faculties of Westminster Choir College, Brandeis University, and the University of Connecticut, and as assistant university organist at Harvard. A prize winner in numerous international organ competitions, Rakich has received particular acclaim for her interpretations of the music of J.S. Bach. With keyboardist Peter Sykes, she performed a complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard works in a series of 34 concerts named Tuesdays With Sebastian, which raised $20,000 for Boston-area charities. With keyboardist Susan Ferré, Rakich is a founding performer of the Big Moose Bach Festival, which presents Bach cantatas, chamber music, and keyboard music each year in rural Berlin, New Hampshire. Rakich also pursues an active interest in the clavichord, and she serves as vice president of the Boston Clavichord Society. Her 2018 performance for the society included Otto Singer’s transcription for two clavichords of Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 (“Jupiter”) with Erica Johnson. Rakich maintains two artist residencies near her home in Connecticut: with the Congregational Church of Somers and the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist in West Hartford. Past residencies have included the University of Pennsylvania and First Lutheran Church in Boston.
Lynne Davis
Final Round JudgeLynne Davis
Playing with precision and “le bon goût” (The Calgary Herald), Lynne Davis exhibits a “level of authority in playing French works that is virtually unmatched in this country.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) Ms. Davis lived in France for nearly 30 years and studied with Marie-Claire Alain, Jean Langlais, and Maurice and Madeleine Duruflé. Her unique living, vast working experience, and lineage of study in France makes her an authority in all French organ repertoire and imbues marvelous refinement and joie de vivre to her performances.
Martin Jean
Final Round JudgeMartin Jean
Martin Jean holds a secure place within the highest ranks of the world’s concert organists and is widely recognized as an exacting and warmly communicative artist whose playing exhibits “visceral intensity, expressive eloquence, and exquisite elegance” (The Kansas City Star). Winner of the illustrious Grand Prix de Chartres (France) and numerous American Guild of Organists competitions, Dr. Jean is deeply admired for his wide musical interests and radiant musicianship. He is Director of the Institute of Sacred Music and Professor of Organ and Church Music at Yale University.
Huw Lewis
Final Round JudgeHuw Lewis
The playing of Welsh-born Huw Lewis is described as breathtaking and suave, offering the kind of transcendent performance one always hopes for but only gets to experience once or twice in a lifetime. The performances he offers are the perfect balance of elegance, brilliance, scholarship, and refined good taste – and have been described by The Birmingham News(Alabama) as “joyous.” Dr. Lewis is the head of the organ department at Hope College in Michigan.
