Music at the Meetinghouse - Friday Organ Recitals
Five Fridays at Noon during Lent
The New London Chapter AGO is one of the sponsors of the Five Fridays Lenten Concert Series at the First Congregational Church of Madison.
All are welcome! We invite you to attend any of these recitals and we are thrilled to announce that in addition to chapter member and host Nathan Bayreuther, two of our members, Peter Fiore and Joshua Ziemski, will be performing recitals (March 13th and March 20th, respectively). Hope to see you there!
Choral Evensong at St James and Calvary in March
announcements
2026 Roberta Bitgood Organ Scholarship Recipient Announced!
We are thrilled to announce that the 2026 Roberta Bitgood Scholarship has been awarded to Benjamin Torcellini in the amount of $1,000.
Benjamin, a homeschooled high school student in his junior year, studies with Dr. Patricia (“Trisha”) Snyder, Organist at Storrs Congregational Church. He is currently studying with Dr. Ezequiel Menéndez while Dr. Snyder is on sabbatical.
Benjamin is from Eastford, CT and is a member of the Northeastern CT Chapter of AGO and looking forward to joining our chapter as a Dual Member. He was appointed Organist at the United Methodist Church of New London in December, 2025 and in January, 2026 also became Interim Organist at Chepachet Union Church in Chepachet, RI. Benjamin studies violin with Martha Herrle at the Community Music School, voice with Brian Cheney, and is a first bass with the Anglican Singers. In addition to being a member of AGO, he is a member of the Organ Historical Society, and the Reed Organ Society.
Many thanks to Scholarship Chairperson, Douglas Green, and judges, Simon Holt, Susan D. Paisley and Michael Noonan for all of their work on this annual competition.
Benjamin is very excited and grateful to receive the scholarship on behalf of our chapter.
Congratulations Benjamin!
2026 L. Cameron Johnson Memorial Organ Competition
The 2026 L. Cameron Johnson Memorial Organ Competition for High School students, sponsored by the Northeastern CT Chapter, AGO, will be held on May 30, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. at the Storrs Congregational Church on the campus of the University of Connecticut. The following cash prize awards will be offered: First Prize ($1,500), Second Prize ($750) and Third prize ($300). The deadline for the preliminary round is April 10, 2026.
Contact Dr. Angela Salcedo (angelasalcedo@glastonburyfirst.org) for the competition rules and application, or if you have any additional questions.
Entries must be submitted by April 10, 2026
containing one composition from each of the following periods:
Baroque, Romantic, and 20th or 21st century.
Community Resources
Winners of the 2025 Woman Composer Sunday organ composition contest:
1st (Concert Work) Brenda Portman, "Diptych for Organ"
1st (Short Work) – Maureen Howell, "Reflection on Kingsfold"
2nd (Short Work) – Evelyn Larter, "Here's One"
3rd (Short Work) – Miriam Reveley, "Adagio in C Minor"
Young Composer – Celina Kobetitsch, "Fantasy on Noël Nouvelet"
Downloads of the compositions, information about the composers, and performances videos:
https://agohq.org/Ago/News/2025-Composition-Contest-Winners-Announced.aspx
A page devoted to the life & legacy of Dr. Roberta Bitgood:
https://bitgood.eclectronics.net
A searchable database of our chapter music library:
https://www.cathedralofsaintpatrick.org/Music/AGO-Library. .
Our newsletter
Newsletter : Things Great & Swell
The newsletter is e-mailed to chapter members on the first of the month or shortly before. Deadline for submissions is the fifteenth of the preceding month. For submissions and related questions only, e-mail the editor here.
To contact the website manager: