Certification & Training

Have Questions on Repertoire? Fingering? Harmonization? Hymn-Playing?

Join in this free organ music workshop with Facebook Live on Saturday at 2 PM EDT (12 noon MDT), hosted by former NYC AGO Dean, David Enlow, a seasoned organ teacher and workshop presenter for national and chapter events. Bring your questions, read others’ comments and join in the discussion!

Virtual workshop hosted by NYC AGO

The AGO is excited to release new AGO Achievement Awards!

The AGO Achievement Awards are designed to assist and encourage early-level organists of any age as they improve their skills. A qualified mentor from the SLCAGO volunteers his/her time and energy throughout the process – from planning through completion. The candidate, who must be a chapter member, prepares the requirements independently or with the help of the mentor, teacher, chapter member, or friend. He/she may then complete the requirements at any time during one or more appointments with the mentor. After completing the requirements, the chapter prints the certificate, presents it to the member during a chapter event, and reports the results to National Headquarters. This provides a way for the chapter to involve new organists in chapter activity, and to encourage them to continue their education through AGO certification.

SLCAGO Organ Teachers have information about this new program. If you are interested in this program, please reach out via the Contact form on the web site, or discuss it with your organ teacher. This is an excellent way to improve your organ skills one by one, and to make sure that your organ skills are well-rounded. It is excellent preparation for eventual AGO Certification, too!

These are also excellent ways to approach topics that may be intimidating to new organists: pedals? transposition? harmony? You really can achieve practical and useful skills in these areas, and we’re here to help!

There are currently 5 AGO Achievement Awards that you can work towards:

• The Organ Console
• Organ Registration I
• Manual and Pedal Technique
• Transposition
• Harmony I

Click here for a flyer with more information, or visit the program web site.

We hope that you will embrace these skill areas and become even better organists!

The Rockford Chapter is pleased to host a Pipe Organ Encounter for Adults. The event will take place June 14 – 19, 2020. Pipe Organ Encounters is an educational outreach program of the American Guild of Organists. 

For more information see https://www.rockfordago.org/poe.

Each year, the AGO sponsors Pipe Organ Encounters (POE) across the country. Pipe Organ Encounters provide organ instruction to the attendees and the opportunity to meet and get to know organists of the same peer group.

There are a few variations of POE available:

• POE: for ages 13-18 (entering grades 9-12).
• POE+: for ages 19 and older
• POE Advanced: for ages 13-18, attendance requires audition recording
• POE Technical: for ages 16-23, emphasis on organ building. Organ playing skills not required.

The following POE events have been approved and scheduled so far in 2020:

• Long Beach, California (POE) — June 28-July 3
• Winston-Salem, North Carolina (POE) — July 19-24
• Manhattan, Kansas (POE) — June 22-27
• Hartford, Connecticut (POE) — August 2-7
• Ann Arbor, Michigan (POE Advanced) — June 28-July 3
• Rockford, Illinois (POE+) — June 14-19
• Richmond, Virginia (POE+) — July 26-31
• Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (POE+) — June 28-July 3

You can find updated details and links to apply to attend at the AGO website here: https://www.agohq.org/education/poe/poe/.

The Salt Lake City chapter is one of only four chapters in the AGO West region that serves as a testing center for all of the AGO exams: Fellow, Associate, Choir Master, Colleague, and Service Playing. Because these exams are conducted in confidence, many members are not aware of how busy our chapter is in administering these various exams. This past year, we had a dozen candidates take exams through our chapter. The October issue of The American Organist has a list of this year’s successful candidates, two of which are members of our chapter: Mary Beck and Scott Mills, both of whom obtained the Colleague certificate (CAGO). Two other successful candidates who took their exam through our chapter were John Harris, who obtained the Service Playing Certificate, and Daniel Kerr, who obtained the Associate certificate (AAGO). Congratulations to all of them on their achievement, as well as to all of the candidates who spent time preparing for an exam this year.

If you are considering taking one of the exams this coming year, the national Committee on Professional Certification has recently made a number of resources available, free of charge, on the AGO website. These resources were previously available only via mail-order and for a fee, but they are now available as free PDF downloads on the AGO website. These resources include the Service Playing Test Study Guide and Sight Reading Examples, as well as the Colleague Study Guide. Previous exams and solution books are also available, free of charge, for the CAGO, AAGO, FAGO, and ChM exams. There are also a number of TAO articles and other resources available (for free!) to further assist you in your preparation for an exam. If you have any questions about taking an exam, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I promise that you won’t regret taking an AGO exam!

Ryan North, AAGO, ChM

ryanwnorth@hotmail.com

On Saturday, 02 November 2019, we held our 2019 Pedals, Pipes, and Pizza. You can find some details about the organs we played, etc., in our last newsletter and on our web site.

Emily Spencer led the planning and execution of the event. Thank you, Emily! She has posted some pictures on Facebook here. Go have a look and make a comment! I think my favorite picture is of the young students exploring the working bellows on one of organs they played.

With students, parents, teachers, and staff, we had about 100 people at the event. It’s a thrill to enjoy students of all ages muster the courage to play in front of their peers and strangers. (We’re very friendly strangers, but strangers nonetheless!)

Our special thanks go to Bill Hesterman from Temple Square. As volunteer assistant to the Temple Square Organists, he is a great friend to the SLCAGO.

You can count on Pedals, Pipes, and Pizza next year around October. We’ll work on details next summer. We look forward to seeing you again.

Registration is now open for Pedals, Pipes, & Pizza! Please see the event page at https://slcago.org/event/pedals-pipes-pizza-2019/ for all event details and to register.

Registration will remain open until 24 October.

Here’s a quick summary:

• Check in on Saturday, 02/Nov at 8:00 a.m. at the West door of the Assembly Hall.
• Plan on playing 5 temple square organs, including some you may never have seen before!
• We will probably finish things up 1:30 p.m.

We hope to see you there!

Pedals, Pipes, & Pizza 2019

I got a few questions today in email from an organist who is considering attending the Certification Showcase this Saturday and wanted to understand more about what was going to happen. So let me share with you the answers I sent back — in hopes that YOU will also come this Saturday!

There will be handouts about the requirements. You’ll leave with everything you need to know to go choose your pieces and prepare the exam. (Well, we won’t give you all the music; that would be illegal. But you’ll know what to go buy.)

This will be one single demo session at the organ, or in the room with the organ. There won’t be breakout sessions. But there will be a reception afterwards where you can ask the questions that your forgot to ask, or were too nervous to ask. 🙂 There will also be some more exam-related materials for you to peruse then.

While my initial vision for the event was to do a mock exam. There would be a mock candidate who would play through the exam, in order, with a mock proctor, etc. But after some discussion, we decided that a thorough demonstration of all the exam skills would be more beneficial. 

So, Ryan North, who proctors all of our chapter exams, will do that demonstration. He is very dynamic and explains things very clearly. Questions will be most welcome, too.

For example, the exam has one play a repertoire piece from each of three groups of repertoire. Instead of just playing one from each, Ryan will play parts from many of those pieces, giving you a good feel for them and helping you identify ones that may be best suited for you. 

Another section is transposition (prepared, not sight-read), and Ryan will discuss various ways that students tend to approach learning transposition. 
I expect only a moderate turnout, so it should be very easy to see, hear, ask questions, and really get a vision of how you may approach your own exam. 

Oh, and we consciously chose to do this on a digital church organ instead of a grand pipe organ. Most organists play organs like these every Sunday, and I want to help volunteer organists to see that these skills are just as relevant — and just as effective for uplifting their congregations and encouraging singing — on their own instruments as they are on the grand instruments. 

Alas, I will not be in attendance. I am out of state handling a family emergency. I am so tempted to change flights to get there in time. My sister is trying to talk me in to doing that. I am really excited about this event!

And as a final aside, I am one of these volunteer organists. I started playing the organ 7 years ago. I am not certified and am technically not really trained, apart from two years attending BYU’s organ workshop. I have set a goal to certify SPC in 2020. With that in mind, I thought an event like this may be beneficial to all volunteer organists.

Even if you do not intend to certify (yet!), this event will demonstrate all the organ skills that make you an effective organist in any service, whether LDS, Catholic, or Protestant. You need to play hymns well. You need to play for choirs. You need to play for large conferences. You need to play for funerals. And by studying and preparing for the Service Playing Certificate, you can be prepared for all of these services.

Don’t just be an “organist.” Be an “ORGANIST!”

I hope that you will attend … and drag along with you 2-3 more volunteer organists! 

AGO Certification Showcase: Service Playing Certificate (SPC)