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Organist Daniel Sullivan Pulled Out All the Stops in Chicago
Pipe Dreams Can Come True
Organ performance and
music theory major Daniel Sullivan '02 won first prize in the 2002 Gruenstein
Memorial Organ Competition, sponsored by the Chicago
Chapter of the American
Guild of Organists and held on April 6 at Grace Lutheran Church in
River Forest, Illinois. The award carries a cash prize and a place on
the Chicago Chapter's recital series. Sullivan will return to the River
Forest church for his recital, which will take place September 22, 2002.
All competition participants were required to submit the toccata from J.S. Bach's "Dorian" Toccata, BMV 538 on an audition tape; Sullivan performed three movements from William Albright's Organbook III for the live round.
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 Sullivan turns pages for Professor Thomson during 2001 inaugural recital of C.B. Fisk organ. |
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Sullivan says that he comes from a family of music lovers. He began piano studies at the age of five and started on the organ about 10 years later. He also studied violin for seven years.
"One of my strongest attractions to music is its ability to directly address the soul," he says. He considers winning the competition a "blessing."
"I love playing for people; this is providing me with another opportunity to do so."
Sullivan had a rare opportunity to present several recitals in England during the summer of 2001, the result of his exemplary performance at the Oundle International Festival in Peterborough, U.K., a year earlier. A review in the Hexham Courant following his recital in Hexham Abbey enthused over his performance of Mendelssohn's Sonata No. 2: "It was superb! . . . Daniel brought out the rich textures of the music with an interpretation that had just the right touch of romanticism." Of William Albright's Jig for the Feet, the reviewer wrote: "The composition is amazing but Daniel's footwork even more so. Brilliant, astonishing, almost unbelievable, a tour de force which I shall long remember."
A student of Professor of Organ Haskell Thomson, Sullivan graduates this month. He plans to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and will attend Yale University in the fall, enrolled in the master of music program.
During its 40-year history, several notable organists have been winners of the Gruenstein Competition, including Mary Preston, organist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Anne Wilson, director of music and organist at Forest Hill Church (Presbyterian) in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
The American Guild of Organists (AGO), founded in 1896, is the national professional association serving the organ and choral music fields. The Guild serves approximately 20,000 members in 348 chapters throughout the United States, Europe, Korea, and Argentina.
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