Bryan Anderson Wins 2023 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition

Kennett Square, PA--Bryan Anderson claimed the top prize at the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition, receiving the $40,000 Pierre S. du Pont First Prize, a contract with Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, and a 2023-24 performance at Longwood. Anderson, who hails from Houston, Texas, also won the AGO Philadelphia Chapter Prize of $1,000, which recognizes the outstanding performance of the judges’ choice piece.

 

“Bryan exemplifies all that the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition is about,” said Longwood Gardens Director of Performing Arts Tom Warner. “He created magnificent music that expertly showcased the Longwood Organ and his extraordinary talent,” Warner said. “All of the competitors are exceptional musicians who performed beautifully and embraced all the Longwood Organ offers,” he said.    

Anderson is the Director of Music at St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church and School in Houston. He received his master’s in organ performance from Rice University and holds a bachelor’s and Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. When asked what it would mean to win this year’s competition, Anderson shared, “It would mean that the music I bring and the way I present it is communicated effectively, and that I as a player am on the same wavelength as the ears of the listeners. When that happens, if that can happen, in any context, it’s extremely fulfilling.”

The $15,000 Firmin Swinnen Second Prize was awarded to Colin MacKnight of Bethesda, Maryland. MacKnight also won the $1,000 Audience Choice Prize and is Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock, Arkansas. MacKnight received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School.  

Ádám Tabajdi from Debrecen, Hungary, received the $5,000 Clarence Snyder Third Prize. He is a doctoral student at the Liszt Academy, Budapest. He has interned at the Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris and was the resident organist of the Sapporo Concert Hall, Kitara, Japan.

The Longwood Organ is a symphonic instrument designed to play transcriptions (pieces written for other instruments, but played on the organ), reflecting a form of entertainment popular in the 20th century. The largest residential organ in the world, with 10,010 pipes and 146 ranks, the instrument is not easy to wrestle with musically, but  these talented musicians performed a varied and challenging repertoire, which ranged from Bach to Wagner, Florence Price to Mozart, to name just a few composers. 

In addition to Anderson, MacKnight, and Tabajdi, the five finalists included Samuel Lee, a doctoral candidate at McGill University studying organ performance, and Aleksanteri Wallius, a first-year master’s student at the Sibelius Academy.

The Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition welcomes the organ world’s brightest young talents to compete for the $40,000 Pierre S du Pont First Prize, the largest cash prize of any organ competition in the world. The next competition will take place in 2026.

About Longwood Gardens
In 1906, industrialist Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954) purchased a small farm near Kennett Square, PA, to save a collection of historic trees from being sold for lumber. Today, Longwood Gardens is one of the world’s great horticultural displays, encompassing 1,100 acres of dazzling gardens, woodlands, meadows, fountains, a 10,010-pipe Aeolian organ, and grand conservatory. Longwood Gardens is the living legacy of Pierre S. du Pont, bringing joy and inspiration to everyone through the beauty of nature, conservation, and learning. Open daily, Longwood is one of more than 30 gardens in the Philadelphia region known as America’s Garden Capital. For more information, visit longwoodgardens.org.