NORTHERN IRELAND INTERNATIONAL ORGAN COMPETITION RETURNS TO ARMAGH 21–23 AUGUST 2023
NORTHERN IRELAND INTERNATIONAL ORGAN COMPETITION RETURNS TO ARMAGH 21–23 AUGUST 2023
The 11th Northern Ireland International Organ Competition (NIIOC) will take place in Armagh from 21–23 August 2023, returning to the cathedral city where it was founded for the first time since the pandemic.
The competition jury will be chaired by the Canadian organist Isabelle Demers, who has an international reputation as a recitalist and recording artist and is associate professor of organ at McGill University, Montréal. She will be joined by Daniel Moult, head of the organ department at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and by regular jury member David Hill, artistic director of the Bach Choir, London, the Yale Schola Cantorum, Connecticut and of the Charles Wood Summer School, which runs concurrently with the organ competition.
For this year only the upper age limit for entrants has been extended to 22, because of the disruption to the competition schedules caused by Covid-19. In future years the age limit will return to 21.
The last in-person edition of the NIIOC took place in Armagh in 2019. The pioneering tenth NIIOC in 2021 took place online, with competitors submitting video recordings of themselves playing their choice of instruments near their homes around the world under recital conditions for adjudication. It was won by Laura Schlappa from Germany.
The tenth anniversary of the competition in 2022 saw all ten senior first prize-winners taking part in joint recitals in London and Belfast and individual recitals across Northern Ireland, with 2013 winner Richard Gowers premiering a new work by Grace-Evangeline Mason commissioned for NIIOC by the Commission for Victims and Survivors.
The Senior and Intermediate sections of NIIOC 2023 take place in St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh and the Junior Competition in St Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church, Armagh. Full details of the monetary prizes and recitals, and opening and closing dates for entries, will be announced on Monday 17 April.
For more information contact the competition organisers by email info@niioc.com
Facebook / NorthernIrelandInternationalOrganCompetition
Twitter / @NIIOC1
Press and media enquiries, interview and photo requests to:
Clare Stevens Media Relations
Clare.Stevens@me.com
07968 367079 (mobile)
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The Northern Ireland International Organ Competition was established in 2011 to provide talented young organists, aged 21 and under, with major recital engagements, financial support and recording opportunities. It is now recognised as the world’s leading international competition for young organists and is officially partnered with the St. Albans International Organ Festival.
The last in-person edition of the NIIOC took place in Armagh in 2019. The pioneering tenth NIIOC in 2021 took place online, with competitors submitting video recordings of themselves playing their choice of instruments near their homes around the world under recital conditions for adjudication. It was won by Laura Schlappa from Germany.
The tenth anniversary of the competition in 2022 saw all ten senior first prize-winners taking part in joint recitals in London and Belfast and individual recitals across Northern Ireland, with 2013 winner Richard Gowers premiering a new work by Grace-Evangeline Mason commissioned for NIIOC by the Commission for Victims and Survivors.
Since NIIOC began recital venues have included St. Thomas Fifth Avenue New York, Westminster Abbey, Southwark Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral Dublin, St. Columb’s Cathedral Londonderry, Trinity College Cambridge, Canongate Kirk Edinburgh, St. Peter Mancroft Norwich, St. Peter’s Cathedral Belfast, Worcester Cathedral and St. Michael's Cornhill London.
International jurors have included Thierry Mechler (France), Kimberly Marshall (USA), Mattias Wager (Sweden), Frédéric Blanc (France), Erwan le Prado (France) and Martin Jean (USA).
The Competition Board is chaired by Richard Yarr MBE.
The Dame Gillian Weir Medal, created by the Belfast School of Art at Ulster University, was commissioned by NIIOC in 2018 to celebrate the exceptional work of our Patron Dame Gillian Weir both as a musician and educator. It will be awarded by the jury, on behalf of Dame Gillian, for the performance of a single work which they consider the most outstanding in the Senior category.
Isabelle Demers has enraptured critics, presenters, and audience members around the globe with playing described as having “bracing virtuosity” (Chicago Classical Review) and being “fearless and extraordinary” (Amarillo-Globe News), She has appeared in recital throughout Europe, Oman, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada. Highlights include performances at the Maison Symphonique (Montreal, Québec), the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg, Germany), City Hall (Stockholm, Sweden), the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing, China), and St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster
Abbey (London, UK).
Dr Demers is in continual high demand by her colleagues as witnessed by performances for numerous regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Institute of Organ Builders and International Society of Organbuilders, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Organ Historical Society.
She has released three CD recordings on the Acis and Pro Organo labels. In 2018, she appeared as solo organ accompanist in an Acis recording of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem with the Baylor University Choir, recorded at Duruflé’s church in Paris.
A native of Québec and a doctoral graduate of the Juilliard School, Dr Demers is Associate Professor of Organ at McGill University (Montréal, Québec). She was formerly the Joyce Bowden Chair in Organ and Head of the Organ Program at Baylor University (Waco, Texas).
Daniel Hyde is a world-class conductor and organist, who has held the prestigious post of Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge since October 2019. As part of this role he is responsible for one of the world’s most renowned choirs, working with the choristers and choral scholars of King’s College Chapel.
Born in the UK, schooled as a chorister at Durham Cathedral, Daniel was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 17 and won the organ scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge, later taking up the position of Director of Music at Jesus College, Cambridge. In 2009, he became Informator Choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was also an Associate Professor. In 2016 Daniel moved to the USA where he became Organist and Director of Music at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York City.
Daniel’s broad-ranging discography can be found on the Opus Arte, Linn, Naxos and EMI and Priory labels, with future releases planned for the King’s College label. A phenomenal organist, Daniel has performed as a recitalist throughout the world. He has appeared at the BBC Proms on numerous occasions, and made his solo debut there in 2010, performing Bach’s Canonic Variations at the organ of the Royal Albert Hall.
David Hill, Artistic Director of the Bach Choir, London and Yale Schola Cantorum, President of the Royal College of Organists, former Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers and former Organist and Director of Music of Westminster Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral and St John’s College Cambridge, is a patron of the competition and has been a jury member every year since its inception. The other patrons are Mark Duley, Organist of St Nicholas Cathedral, Galway; James O’Donnell, Professor of Organ Practice, Yale; and Dame Gillian Weir.