Organist wins world record $40,000
mainSebastian Heindl, 22, a student of sacred music at the Musikhochschule Leipzig, has won the triennial Longwood Gardens Organ Competition in Pennsylvania, which carries a record first prize of $40,000 and an agency contract.
The second prize of $15,000 US dollars went to an American, Bryan Anderson.
Sebastian is also through to the St Albans Organ Competition in July. A staggeringly mature player for a 21 year old, his next London appearance is at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church on the 28th September at 4:00pm.
He is an amazing organist. I’ve listened to the few videos online, and his playing is spirited with a rhythm that doesn’t make the organ sound like the dreadful intimidation of sound it so often takes on. I don’t know how often I’ve heard a church organist sit on a chord, while sitting on their throne, and make it sound like damnation itself. Sebastian doesn’t do this. It’s amazingly refreshing for me to hear again what the organ really can be.