Scott Montgomery, Organist

"Scott Montgomery was the 2006 first prize winner in the American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance, and it shows from stylish performances of music as different as John Cook’s Fanfare, de Grigny’s Ave Maris Stella, Bach’s An Wasserflüssen Babylon and the 9/8 Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 547, pieces from Messiaen’s Livre Du Saint Sacrement and Vierne’s Piéces de Fantasie, finishing with the Choral Fantasy on ‘Wie schön leuchtet uns der Morgenstern’ by Reger. Here is an artist of great promise- technically assured and well able to interpret very different styles of music. I particularly enjoyed his full treatment of the fugue in BWV 547. Montgomery is obviously ‘one to watch’, and it is especially good to hear this fine four manual Mander organ; would that we had more of them on this side of the Atlantic."

“You truly made it a festive occasion. Your playing was flawless, musical, and expressive. Your rapport with the audience was amazing! You gave the parish a feeling of pride, joy and accomplishment through your musical gifts and personality. This was an event our people will remember and treasure for years to come.”

"Illinois organist Scott Montgomery seemed at home on the bench of the Holtkamp organ at the Baptist Temple.

As the 2006 winner of the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance, one expected his technical abilities to be of the highest order, and they were, but it was his playing in the second half of Sunday’s concert that interested me most.

Montgomery played as part of the Orgelfest series, which is back after a two-year absence.

The second-half opener was a work by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, his Sonata No. 2 in A Major. After a rousing revelation of the first movement, Montgomery settled into the second movement.

For me, this is where the music began. He handled the work like one might prepare a small fish, very gently.

At no time was there the least suggestion of urgency and yet, he never allowed the mood of the music to lay fallow. Next up was two pieces from Louis Vierne’s Pieces de Fantaisie.

The first of these, Naiades, had Montgomery’s right hand playing the 5,000 notes that very clearly denoted the rippling water that sustained the floating melody like a buoyant sycamore leaf in autumn.

Vierne’s second selection, Claire de lune, move me more like a haiku bu the master poet Kobayashi Issa than the melodies of the other famous French Composition by Debussy. Vierne’s moon is more real than romantic, and more mysterious because of the reality.

There were plenty of “big” works on the program by Bach and Widor to sate the hunger of those with bigger appetites, and Montgomery handled them with great aplomb. But for me, those quiet, introspective middle works revealed more of this artist’s musical integrity and hint at greater things for him and, if we are lucky, those of us who listen as well."

"Montgomery is to be congratulated for winning not only the first prize, but also the audience prize, the first person in the history of NYACOP to do so...[H]e is a confident performer who conveys musical ideas not through flamboyance but through super-solid playing."- The American Organist

"There were many memorable events in the recent National AGO Convention in Chicago...The highlight for me as an organist was the incredible playing of Scott Montgomery, the winner of the AGO Organ Competition. His sensitive approach to a chorale prelude by Georg Bohm, and his rock solid, beautifully-phrased playing of Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in g minor bodes well for the future of organ playing in our country."- Howard Slenk, Dean of the Grand Rapids AGO

"Great sense of drama....'Walls of Water' [Messiaen] was precise and strong.....You presented exactly what Messiaen asked for. Excellent communication."- Christa Rakich, chair of the Organ Department at New England Conservatory

"Rhythmic control and self-assurance come across as very mature and well-grounded...Very compelling!"- Boyd Jones, Price Professor of Organ, Stetson University