The final event in the Twelfth National Organ-playing Competition sponsored by the Ruth and Clarence Mader Memorial Scholarship Fund was held on November 6 at the Claremont United Church of Christ, Claremont, California. The competition was open to organists under the age of 35 who are residents of the United States. Three finalists had been selected previously from recorded performances submitted by 23 contestants. In both the preliminary and the final events, the repertoire was unrestricted except for one required work: October Interlude by Clarence Mader.
Four prizes were awarded: $6,000 (first prize), $4,000 (second prize), $2,000 (third prize), and $1,500 (audience prize). The audience prize was given by the Los Angeles AGO chapter, and the other awards were supplied by the Mader Fund.
First prize was awarded to David Baskeyfield, a doctoral student at the Eastman School of Music, where he studies organ with David Higgs and improvisation with William Porter.
Second prize and audience prize were both awarded to Weicheng Zhao, a student of Cherry Rhodes enrolled in the Graduate Certificate program at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, Los Angeles.
Third prize winner Chelsea Ann Vaught is a doctoral student at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, where she studies with Michael Bauer.
The instrument used for the final competition was Glatter-Götz/Rosales Opus 2 (1998). James Hopkins, Frederick Swann, and Peter Sykes served as judges.
The Ruth and Clarence Mader Memorial Scholarship Fund was founded in 1971 to honor the memory of two outstanding Southern California musicians. Dr. Frances Nobert is president of the organization. In addition to organ-playing competitions, the fund has sponsored new compositions and research projects related to the organ.
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