28th Annual
Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival Hartford
September 26–27, 2025
All events are held at Trinity College and are open to the public free of charge, no tickets required. Information on parking and accessibility is available here. The complete Festival program is available here.
JACOB GRUSS, ORGAN RECITAL
Friday, September 26 at 7:30 p.m.
2024 ASOFH Young Professional First-Prize and Audience-Prize Winner
Heralded by The Diapason as a “Top 20 under 30,” Jacob Gruss is a rising star in the world of organ performance and church music. In 2024, Jacob impressed both the ASOFH jury and audience, taking home both the first-prize and audience-prize during the 2024 ASOF Hartford Young Professional Competition.
BIENNIAL HIGH SCHOOL COMPETITION
Saturday, September 27 starting at 10:00 a.m.
In-person and livestreamed from links below.
Learn more about our finalists here, and watch video interviews with each of them!
Henry Dangerfield (Minnesota)
10:00 a.m.
...returning to ASOFH after winning the David C. Spicer Hymn Playing prize and audience-prize at the 2023 Biennial High School Competition.
Kalan Warusa (Virginia)
10:45 a.m.
...makes his first appearance at ASOF Hartford, hot off his first-prize win at the 2025 UNCSA-Salem High School Organ Competition.
Philip Tummescheit (Connecticut)
11:30 a.m.
...Connecticut native and recent first-prize winner of the 2025 L. Cameron Johnson Memorial Organ Competition.
Following the competition, a light lunch is offered in the Chapel South Cloister where prizes will be announced. Tune in here to watch the announcement of prizes.
FESTIVAL CONCERT: Music for Organ, Choir, Oboe, Percussion & Harp
Saturday, September 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Featuring a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and the North American Premiere of Joanna Marsh’s A Psalm for Chichester. And—a performance by the 2025 ASOF Hartford High School Competition first-prize winner.
Gabriel Löfvall, conductor
Christopher Houlihan, organ
Chorus Angelicus and Gaudeamus
The Schola Cantorum of the Cathedral of Saint Joseph
Guest Singers from the Adult Choir of St. James’s Episcopal Church The Chapel Singers of Trinity College
The Story of the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival Hartford
This video celebrates the remarkable 25-year history of the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival Hartford, established in Wethersfield, Connecticut and in residence at Trinity College, Hartford since 2016. The mini-documentary includes interviews with three former first-prize winners (Alcée Chriss, Monica Berney, and Alexander Pattavina), Sean Duffy (executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac University), Dana Spicer (honorary board member of ASOFH and wife of co-founder David Spicer), and Vaughn Mauren (ASOFH former artistic director).
It also features a preview of our festival concert at Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, featuring Paul Jacobs and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Carolyn Kuan, conducting.
“Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter – to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way.”
