The 2024 Biennial Young Professional Competition

Bethany Dame is passionate about juxtapositions, performing historic music in contemporary spaces and contemporary music in historic spaces. She regularly explores the intersection of science and music with the goal of bringing herself and her audiences into a sense of awe and wonder.

An avid collaborator, she has worked with multiple choirs, orchestras, chamber groups, and composers, including the Hope College Chapel Choir, Peabody-Hopkins Conservatory Choir, and numerous churches in Michigan and the DMV area.

In the 2024-2025 season, she is serving as the Organ Scholar under Bert Landman at the Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore. Accolades include winning Hope College’s 2022-2023 Concerto/Aria Competition, performing on the Muskegon-Lakeshore Young Artist series in Fall 2022, winning first prize in both the Michigan Federation of Music Clubs and Annamae Rotman organ competitions in 2019, and playing at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

Bethany is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Organ Performance at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where she studies with Dr. Daniel Aune. She joined the organ studio on a trip to Paris in the summer of 2023 and enjoys serving as an ensemble library intern for Peabody and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She holds both a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where she completed additional studies in piano, percussion, and physics. Her past organ instructors include Dr. Chris Dekker, Dr. Huw Lewis, and Dr. Elizabeth West.

A native of Kentwood, Michigan, she attributes her coordination skills to growing up as a competitive fencer. In the car, she is most often listening to Steely Dan, Sammy Rae, Aubrey Logan, and Jacob Collier. When she is not on the bench, she enjoys reading, journaling, rock climbing, and making French Press coffee.

Pittsburgh native Jacob Gruss is a fourth-year undergraduate organist at The Juilliard School studying in the studio of Paul Jacobs. Currently based in New York City, Jacob serves as Organ Scholar at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine where he performs regularly with world-class orchestras, choirs, and musicians. At Juilliard, Jacob boasts a regular performance schedule including concerts on many of New York’s renowned instruments. Beyond a vast solo repertoire, Jacob’s performances often involve collaborations; including his recently premiered transcription of Richard Strauss’s “Morgen!” for soprano and organ.

Jacob placed first in the Westmorland Symphony Orchestra's Young Artist Competition, and first in the Cassel Competition sponsored by the Harrisburg AGO. Additionally, he was a winner in the 2023 AGO Quimby Northeast Regional Organ Competition.

Jacob is grateful to be named a recipient of the American Guild of Organists' Pogorzelski-Yankee Memorial Scholarship, and the inaugural recipient of the Robert and Nancy Powell Scholarship (Greenville, SC). In 2022, Jacob was awarded the AGO’s Student Commission Grant, premiering “Earth-Waves” by Boston-based composer Owen Johnson. In addition to organ, Jacob studies Choral Conducting, Composition, Improvisation, and Organ Literature. In his free time, Jacob enjoys travel, opera, biking, and art.

Nathan Ringkamp is an Assisting Organist at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. A native of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, he is a recent graduate of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. where he received his Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance while studying with Benjamin LaPrairie and Ronald Stolk. While at Catholic University, he also studied conducting with Murry Sidlin and voice with Gustavo Ahualli.

Nathan is the former music director at the National Shrine of Saint Alphonsus Liguori in Baltimore, Maryland, and a former organist at Saint Dominic Church in Washington, D.C. While pursuing his studies at Catholic University, he aided with organ accompaniment and composition for various ceremonies and Masses at the Basilica that were televised on EWTN. These included the Installation Ceremony of the University’s 16th president, the Mass of the Holy Spirit, the Mass of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Baccalaureate Mass, and the annual Christmas Concert for Charity.

Nathan has recently participated in masterclasses with Felix Hell and Paul Jacobs and recently attended the 2023 Yale Summer Organ Week. He began his Master of Music in Organ Performance degree with Dr. John Walker at the Peabody Conservatory in the fall of 2023.