Celebrating 21 years, the WorcAGO Scholarship Program is one of the hallmarks of our chapter. It’s an important part of our Mission, to not only provide educational programming throughout the year, but also financial support for training of member organists who are taking lessons from member teachers. Our program has had over 100 recipients in its 21-year history, and many years have featured a recital by scholarship recipients to demonstrate their progress. (See our blog for photos from the 2010 and 2011 recitals at First Baptist Church, Worcester.)

QUICK LINKS: APPLICATION FORM RULES TEACHER RECOMMENDATION FORM

2011-12 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED

WorcAGO is proud to announce the recipients of the 2011-12 scholarship awards: Karen Weilsma, Lydia Grek, and Justin Hernandez, all students of William Ness.

We appreciate the great work that our chapter teachers do to help improve the skills of these fine musicians, and we look forward to more successes in the future.

	Karen J. Wielsma began organ study at age 14 at the Village Congregational Church in Whitinsville where her teachers were Derek Ferris and Douglas Risner. Later she continued her studies in Worcester with Douglas Risner, Peggy Kelly-Reinberg, and Stephen Long. Karen has served as Organist/ Director of Music in several churches of various denominations and presently holds AGO certificates at the levels of Service Playing and Colleague. After several years away from studying, she will resume lessons with William Ness with the goal of improving her playing skills and musicianship.
	Justin Hernandez has studied piano for 8 years and is currently taking from Roy Imperio at Thayer Conservatory of Music in Lancaster. He also play cello and is part of a youth chamber ensemble known as New England Youth Chamber Ensemble (NEYCE).
	Lydia Grek, 17, is currently a junior at Auburn High School in Auburn, MA. She has been studying organ for over a year with her teacher, Mr. William Ness. In addition to organ, she has been studying piano for twelve years with Mrs. Lea Lipner, and trombone for seven. Lydia is studying various languages, namely Serbian, Spanish, and Chinese, and hopes to go to college for linguistics.

2010-11 SCHOLARSHIP STUDENT BIOS

The recipients for 2010-2011 are as follows, and their teachers will received a stipend of $400 per student for the year to assist in their hourly lesson fees:

Horacio Castro, Justin Hernandez, Marcel Sanders, Lydia Grek
(Students of William Ness)

Meredith Gibbons
(Student of Brett Maguire)

	Marcel Sanders, 14, has been studying piano for 8 years and is currently studying with Roy Imperio. His first solo performance with an orchestra was at the age of 10, and he performs regularly with the New England Youth Chamber Ensemble. He is also the principal bassist for the New England Youth Chamber Ensemble, the Nashaway Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Celtic fiddling group Rose, Thorn, and Fiddle. He is currently studying organ with William Ness.
	Meredith Sarah Kaipainen Gibbons is a fifteen-year-old musician from Lancaster, Massachusetts, the youngest member of a large family of musicians. She has been a student at the Joy Of Music Program for most of her life, beginning with music and movement classes, progressing through children’s choir, recorder and world drumming and finally settling into serious cello studies with Tim Terranella and piano with Sanghee Kim. On her 15th birthday a kind stranger presented her with a 1977 Lowry C500 Celebration Organ. She was very excited to receive an AGO scholarship this year to study with Brett Maguire in Worcester.In addition to her instrumental studies, Meredith sings with the Touring Chorus of the Worcester Children’s Chorus, with St Luke’s Episcopal Church Choir, with the Hudson Area Arts Alliance’s Pro Musica Youth Chorus, and in musicals in their Summer Drama Workshop. She is also a volunteer music intern with the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Urban Voices program at Worcester Arts Magnet School. Merry is home schooled, and supplements her studies by taking classes at Voyagers homeschooling coop in Acton and participating in Arts and Theology events at Andover Newton Theological Seminary. She is active in several ministries at St. Luke’s. She hopes to major in Psychology and Music in college and, though unsure exactly where life will take her, she is sure she will be a church musician in some capacity along with another primary career.
	Justin Hernandez has studied piano for 8 years and is currently taking from Roy Imperio at Thayer Conservatory of Music in Lancaster. He also play cello and is part of a youth chamber ensemble known as New England Youth Chamber Ensemble (NEYCE).
	Horacio Castro studied piano, along with voice and has participated in choir tours to Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. His choir was a winner of Villa Lobos’ Choir Festival at Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is a very active church musician in the Worcester area where he worked as Music Director at Leominster First Baptist Church, as well as an organist at Village Church in So. Lancaster, MA. He currently works at Thayer Performance Arts Center in So. Lancaster, and as a Music Director at Faith United Parish Church, in Fitchburg.
	Lydia Grek, 17, is currently a junior at Auburn High School in Auburn, MA. She has been studying organ for over a year with her teacher, Mr. William Ness. In addition to organ, she has been studying piano for twelve years with Mrs. Lea Lipner, and trombone for seven. Lydia is studying various languages, namely Serbian, Spanish, and Chinese, and hopes to go to college for linguistics.

2009-2010 Scholarship Recipients

QUICK LINKS: APPLICATION FORM RULES TEACHER RECOMMENDATION FORM

Scholarships are a good thing! Here are some of our previous recipients – congratulations to all!

Renee Meadows – University of Indiana; 1996 Methuen Music Hall scholarship
Gerald Senechal
Samuel Schmitt
Brett Maguire – a 1995 recipient, Brett is now himself teaching recent recipients. Brett had gone on to be an organ scholar at Holy Cross, and received his masters at Oberlin, and won first prize as well as audience prize in the 2006 Marchal International Organ Competition in France. He has held several organist/director positions in churches since, currently at Wesley Methodist/Worcester.
Emily Raymond
Krisjon Imperio – currently organist at Bolton Federated Church
Jerry Bellows – currently assistant director at First Unitarian, Worcester
Suzanne Reine
David Cushing
Karen Wilfrid
Kyle Bertulli
Barbara Paquette
Michael Celularo
David Anderson
Wesley Hall – currently studying with Jim Christie at Oberlin
Reginald Pineda
Kevin Mathieu – currently organist-director at St. Joseph’s, Charlton, and has his own pipe organ technician business
Andrew Hagberg – currently studying with Marilyn Mason at U of Mich/Ann Arbor
David Rose
Marcia Desilets
Annecca Smith – studying under Grant Moss at Smith
Clarence Chaisson
Deborah Page
Horacio Castro
Marcel Sanders
Lydia Grek
Justin Hernandez
Meredith Gibbons
Isaac Bates
Karen Wielsma
Dominic Richards

AGO teachers have included:
Marjorie & William Ness, Barclay Wood, Patricia Snyder, Scott Lamlein, Debra LeBrun, Ian Watson, Will Sherwood, Deborah Page, Peter Berton

If you know of any we’ve missed (our records are sketchy in the 1990s), or any updates for their musical activities, please let us know!

QUICK LINKS: APPLICATION FORM RULES TEACHER RECOMMENDATION FORM