Shorter College junior Justin Maxey places first in organ competition

March 17 - Shorter College junior Justin Maxey won first place in the American Guild of Organists Competition (AGO) for Young Organists recently and will now go on to compete regionally. The competition, held March 13 at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, was hosted by the Atlanta Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Maxey’s first place win will allow him to attend the Southeastern AGO/Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists in June. A junior organ performance major from Winder, Maxey serves as the accompanist for the Shorter Chorale. His piano instructors include Sue Williams and Mary-Ann Knight, and his organ instructors include Amelia Cotten and Dr. Peter DeWitt.   He has been actively involved in the Georgia Baptist Music and Worship ministries for many years through attending youth music camps and accompanying youth choirs on organ while touring Washington D.C. (2006) and New York (2008).

In 2008, Maxey traveled with the Shorter Chorale to Italy and accompanied the choir on The Grand Organ of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. In 2007, he was chosen as the featured young musician to represent the state of Georgia at the Baptist Church Music Conference in Winter Park, Fla. He also serves as organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Dalton.

Maxey, who has studied organ since the eighth grade, performed three pieces for the competition, including: “Prelude and Fugue in B Minor BWV 544” by J.S. Bach; "Dieu parmi nous" (God Who Dwells Among Us) from La Nativité du Seigneur (The Nativity of our Lord) by Olivier Messiaen, and the "Final" from Symphonie No. 1 by Louis Vierne.

“I was pleased with how the overall performance turned out,” Maxey said.  “I feel the thing that made the performance turn out as well as it did was the magnificent organ and room in which it resided that we were privileged to perform on. These organs cost over $3 million dollars to build and consist of a total of over 7,000 pipes.”

Maxey will be performing his junior organ recital on Friday, April 3, at 3:10 p.m. in Brookes Chapel on the Shorter College campus. The event is open to the public at no charge.

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