Each recital is sponsored with the intention of providing guild members and the community with enriching music from different eras and styles, with the hopes of broadening the the cultural and music experience in Indianapolis and Central Indiana. Our Chapter's Program Committee is charged with planning the Artists Recitals Series and selects each artist and instrument they feel our patrons would enjoy.

Organ Recital S. Wayne Foster Winner of the First Prize and Prize of the Audience at the first Dallas International Organ Competition Organist in Residence, First Congregational Church, Los Angeles Sunday, April 19, 2009  3:00 PM Reception following recital Second Presbyterian Church 7700 North Meridian Street Indianapolis, Indiana Tickets $10, Students $5

The first finals evening of the Dallas International Organ Competition, held at the Myerson Symphony Center, was a festive event played to a packed audience. It was impossible to miss the sense of anticipation and excitement as Mary Preston finished performing her Dupré while the judges tabulated their votes. Then the three competition finalists, who had each performed a different Bach work as well as the same Bolcom piece with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, returned to stage along with seven of the nine semifinalists, the panel of distinguished international judges, and dignitaries of the orchestra and competition. Jury chairman Robert Anderson announced the winners, concluding with the first prize going to S. Wayne Foster.

The great enthusiasm of the audience for this announcement was further explained when the Prize of the Audience was announced--judges and audience had voted for the same competitor, and S. Wayne Foster had reaped both major prizes of the evening.

Mr. Foster, from Melbourne, Florida, is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and Stetson University and is currently a graduate student and teaching fellow at the University of North Texas. He has taken prizes at several other competitions, including first honors at the William Hall Pipe Organ Competition in San Antonio in 1996. In 1990 he competed for admission to the prestigious French conservatory L'Ecole Normale Superieure de Musique de Paris, winning one of two spaces available for the school year and later earning the coveted Diplôme de Concertiste and Premier Prix de Virtuosité. He spent four years performing in France and working as assistant organist at the American Cathedral in Paris. His teachers include Jack Jones, Robert Hebble, Robert Murphy, Paul Jenkins, Murray Somerville, Suzanne Chaisemartin, and Lenora McCroskey.