The 24th Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival Hartford—High School Division Competition

The 2021 Biennial High School Division Competition was held virtually on September 25, 2021. The finalists were Daniel Colaner (second prize and the David Spicer Hymn Playing Award), David Kraft (first prize) and Mélodie Michel (third prize). Adjudicating their performance submissions were Katelyn Emerson, Simon Thomas Jacobs and Julian Wachner.

Each competitor was required to play the Prelude and Fugue in G Major (BWV 541) by Johann Sebastian Bach; the Andante sostenuto from Charles-Marie Widor's Symphonie Gothique, Op. 70; and a work of their choice composed after 1937. Competitors were each assigned a hymn and given the freedom to play creative introductions and alternative harmonizations of the first and last verses.

The jury was given access to audio-only recordings of finalist submissions, presented to the jury by competitor number. The jury was not given any information about the finalists, the location of recordings, or the pipe organs used in the competition.