Pulling Out All The Stops

[Organ playing "William Tell Overture"] MAN: I think the Longwood competition is extraordinary.

I mean, it's unique.

It's in this garden.

The ballroom is adjacent to this conservatory.

[Overture continues] MAN: And I think here you have to tear out the rule book for the Longwood organ.

It's one of those instruments that has so much in it.

It's an orchestra, it really is, a symphony orchestra.

MAN: We have 10 competitors from all around the globe.

We had a couple of people come from here within the states, from New York, but also from Texas.

One of our competitors is from Russia, South Korea.

One of our competitors is from New Zealand, Paris.

MAN: It's attracted a caliber of musician that I really didn't necessarily realize was out there.

WOMAN: The competition is 18 to 30 years old.

MAN: They're coming to one of the world's most complicated organs and they're given five hours to, at least on some level, master it enough that they can play the 30 minutes of music that they've chosen to play.

And that's a staggering challenge.

MAN: The pressure is extraordinary.

And, of course, the prize money, well, it's the biggest prize money of any organ competition in the world.

This program has been made possible with major support from Wilmington Trust.

For more than a century, Wilmington Trust has been celebrating creative excellence in music, horticulture, and all arts that enrich our lives.

Wilmington Trust -- renowned for a reason.

Additional support has been provided by... [Organ playing fugue] Finally.

[Applause] [Indistinct conversation] WOMAN: When we set the competition, we hoped to have a large field from all over the world.

And we were so pleased.

We had 10 organists from six countries as far away as Russia, New Zealand, France, and Canada and the United States.

But we had a great raft of wonderful people.

They all came to Longwood and they discovered they got along with each other, too.

I was fiddling around with setting some matrices, and they all went wrong, so I turned it off, turned it on, and then it was all fine.

TOBIAS: You could tell that they were all enjoying actually talking with another organist -- two, three, four other organists -- who knew what they were talking about and were excited about the same things they were.

And they tended to stick together during the competition and talk with each other.

WOMAN: The competitors have been here practicing nonstop from 9:00 to 4:00, every day at Longwood Gardens in different classrooms and different areas around the gardens that we have.

They've also been at local churches.

We did offer them, at some point, to go to Philadelphia to have some fun.

MAN: For the most part, they just kind of wanted to practice and rest.

MOODY: But all of them are really in it to win it.

They want that prize.

MAN: We do not do the careers as organists, as musicians, certainly not as church organists, for the reneration.

We do it for love and for passion.

I saw this when I was very young.

I saw the organ and I thought, that's what I want to do.

So that's why having the support of prize money, for example, is a real thing, it's an important thing, because it means that one can pursue further study, fund a recording.

All of this stuff costs money.

I had my last practice session yesterday.

We had five hours in total, which is not a lot at all for an instrument of that size and there's really nothing like it.

So it's like learning a new language in five hours.

Just the size of the console is so massive.

It's been a great joy to spend five hours.

I wish it had been 15.

WOMAN: When I win, I think more people will just listen to organ music or hear me play.

That's I think why this competition is so great, that many people will learn about organ music.

MAN: Step one for us during the competition was, after the call had been put out, internationally, we received CDs and applications from quite a few organists all over the world, and those applications were put before a panel of judges who then chose the 10 semifinalists that would come for the next round.

MAN: It's much more complicated and the music just came off in a very natural way.

I liked that a lot.

I felt he sold it as a driving powerh-- and all the chords were clear.

MAN: Frequently the left hand is not exactly placed in timing with the right hand.

We're looking for, of course, number one, a great musician.

And we came up, I think, with 10 great names.

The competition is 18 to 30 years old, but really we have Thomas, who just turned 22, and then Batiste had a birthday, I believe, in between when he registered and the competition, so now he's 31.

MAN: So the 10 semifinalists were all brought to Lowood for a week.

The inspiration behind presenting the international organ competition was really to showcase this world-class instrument and to share it with the world.

[Organ playing] It's a giant machine, with not only the 10,010 pipes but some 3,500 electromagnets, thousands upon thousands of valves, and lots of mechanism.

[Nasal notes sounding] MAN: Next.

[Air blowing] There are two blowers powered by electric motors.

One is 60 horsepower, that's the main blower for the organ.

Then there's a 10-horsepower high-pressure blower that boosts the air even higher for the reed stops, the trumpet pipes, and the things that are really loud.

[Organ playing loudly] There's actually nine rooms of pipes, 10,010 pipes, ranging in size from the size of your little finger to 32 feet in height.

It has a full complement of every kind of effect you would want, from the traditional organ sounds to theater sounds to percussion instruments.

There's a cymbal, a drum, castanets, triangle.

And these are all orchestral instruments played from the console.

Everything's enclosed in the percussion box, by the way, which is over there.

[Playing "Jingle Bells"] Totally cool toy.

TOBIAS: The organ at Longwood has all this wealth of sounds.

The percussion instruments.

There's a piano in the organ.

MAN: It's got a sustain button on the left shoe.

Inside the shoe -- you can see there's an indentation on this shoe.

If you hold it in, that's a sustain for the pedal.

All right?

It's available on the pedal as well.

MAN: The piano is actually a real grand piano.

I did not know that was in there.

It's amazing.

[Piano playing] TOBIAS: All these things can be brought to a whole wealth of music that hasn't been heard.

MAN: Yeah, I used the timpani and the bird call.

It's funny, somebody came up to me and said they're sorry a bird got into the ballroom.

They thought it was a real bird.

["Bird" chirps] [Chirp] MAN: The nightingale, which is a bird stop on the organ, is very simple.

It's two pipes that sit in a cup of glycerin.

And you pipe the air through it, and it's like blowing through a soda straw, and it makes bubbles and creates the sound of a chirping bird.

Every organ is different.

What the competitors are going to find at Longwood is an organ console that's almost like the cockpit of an airplane.

With many options comes much risk.

And it is true that with a console brimming with features, it does invite both their abuse and their accidental use.

[Organ playing] MAN: My first impression when I played this organ the first time is, "Oh, my God, I don't know play organ!"

REDMAN: The more important part of it was the role that we can play in developing and nurturing the next generation of professional organist.

TOBIAS: And sure enough, there are so many good young organists.

[Organ playing fugue] AMBROSINO: This sort of competition is actually just as much about their ability to be lyrical on the organ and to demonstrate that it doesn't have to be this large machine, but instead that it can be supple and flowing and graceful.

Well, competitions are sort of a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, they have to perform at the highest level and to prepare to work under such tension is a real challenge.

But if you get to the point where you can do that, where the nerves are somewhat under control, this will stand them well in the future.

MAN: Playing in the competition is not like a concert, because you get very nervous because you are with other competitors, and each competitor like to win the competition, of course.

WARNER: Out of those 10, five were chosen as finalists.

MAN: This decision, given the level of talent and skill, is not an easy one -- never is an easy one.

MAN: I have had several moments, one in particular, at the end of a performance, that I had to leave the ballroom right at the end -- I mean, I waited till the end -- and I went out to the fountain and I started crying.

I mean, I was so moved.

Just the passion in the music and the perfection of every musical nuance.

It was really quite impressive.

And I've had that several times this week.

MAN: I'm looking for the dexterity, the musicality, the ability to use the instrument and actually to have some fun.

I want to smile, I really do.

I want sometimes to laugh with joy for what they've done with these transcriptions.

And I'll keep tally under three columns of "yes," "maybe," and "no."

MAN: All 10 of these young people have taken on some really serious musical tasks and they've crammed this into a very limited preparation time and they've used the organ incredibly creatively.

So, although I think there are a few that will automatically rise to the top, I don't see anybody sinking to the bottom either.

So I'm really curious what's going on in the judges' room right now.

MAN: I speak, I hope, on behalf of every member of the jury to say that it has been an honor to hear all of you.

And what we will do now is, in alphabetical order, I will name the finalists.

[Applause] MAN: To win this competition can be help for meet a concert agent in America and to, I hope, to have in the future many concerts in America.

It can help for my commercial pilot license, because the first prize is very high.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard.

This is your captain speaking.

Flight time today is about 50 minutes.

The weather is cloudy, and please make sure that you fasten seat belts.

I'm also a pilot, and my dream is to have the two activities, pilot and organist.

KIM: All of my family members are Christian.

And my father is now a minister at church.

So that's why I started to play the organ, naturally.

And I believe in God, and music is very important in my life.

My favorite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach.

[Train horn blares] PAJAN: I had the opportunity to study with Dr.

Schwandt in a summer program for a week.

And he said, "Come check out Oklahoma," and I said, "Why Oklahoma?"

And then I left saying, "Why not?"

We're the only university, as far as I know, in the world, with a fully functioning pipe organ shop.

We're at the shop of the American Organ Institute at the University of Oklahoma, and you can see in front of you the Moller Opus 5819, that used to belong in the Philadelphia Municipal Auditorium, that now we are working on rebuilding.

I don't know so much that it's made me play differently but that I have such a greater respect for the fact that these things ever actually function properly because there are so many components to them.

It always kind of amazes me that everything does work.

Had no exposure to woodworking whatsoever and have been trained to the point where our shop foreman can tell me to "make this, make a copy of this," and just hand me something and I actually know how to do it.

Particularly with this competition is the exposure and the possibilities for career growth.

Having concert management and being able to return would be absolutely amazing to help spark your career.

St.

Thomas Church is an Episcopal church right in the heart of New York City, and I've recently just been appointed assistant organist.

Its strong point is the upholding of an Anglican choral tradition.

We have five services a week all sung by the men and boys.

[Singing choral work] SHEEN: 1, 2, 3, 4...off and... I take the Junior Choristers for rehearsal nearly every morning.

WOMAN: Was he tough today?

No.

Not exactly.

Breath after "fa" -- Fa...ther.

Okay?

Just an eighth note on "father."

3, 4, 1... I've been studying for my master's degree at Juilliard School in organ performance.

New York is so vibrant and there's always something going on.

And I think it's so exciting being right in the heart of it.

I think the most valuable thing from a competition is not necessarily winning but more, it's very cheesy to say, taking part.

I first started organ when I was 13 because I'd seen it at school concerts.

There's an amazing organ in the Wellington Town Hall in my hometown.

And, yeah, it was played in many school concerts and I was impressed by, I guess, the volume at that stage.

I've just finished my final practice session here in the Longwood Ballroom.

So we had a two-hour session and a three-hour session, which isn't nearly far enough.

This is a product of the early 20th century, when the organ was coming out of the church and more into the concert scene, and a lot of what it did was play orchestral transcriptions for the crowds.

Organists would transcribe all this music and play these famous orchestral numbers and try and play as many lines as possible.

So sometimes you'll end up playing on four keyboas and with both feet.

I haven't really thought about what it would mean to win very much.

I think it would be an amazing confirmation that other people like what I do, I guess.

But I think you can't get too disappointed at not winning competitions, because at the end of the day, you've done all the work you can.

And if you feel like you've done a good performance, that's the best you can do, and if the judges didn't like that, you know, so be it.

Every judge has different tastes.

RANDALL: Longwood Gardens is one of the premier horticultural institutions of the world.

And it came about in 1700, when a Quaker family named Pierce purchased this land from William Penn's land commissioners.

Of course, William Penn founded Pennsylvania.

And we're about 30 miles west of Philadelphia.

And the Pierces operated as a working farm.

And then in 1798, they started planting trees for ornamental purposes.

And this became one of the first and finest tree parks in America in the 19th century.

In 1906, the property had been sold out of the family.

The trees were going to be cut, and Pierre du Pont from Wilmington, Delaware -- which is about 12 miles away -- heard about it, and he purchased the property to save the trees.

TOBIAS: Longwood Gardens started in 1906 as, I like to think of it as an impulse buy.

My Uncle Pierre du Pont was at lunch and he heard that the Pierce Arboretum had been sold a couple of times and the latest buyer was a logger who was going to chop down all those trees, which I think he knew from growing up in the area.

He said, "This can't be."

Pierre du Pont, without a doubt, was a corporate titan.

He was credited with creating the modern-day corporation.

He was chair of the DuPont company at the same time he was chair of the GM Corporation, which many people do not know.

Longwood was Pierre du Pont's country home.

And so this is where he would come to escape the hustle and bustle of being the leader of two giant corporations, traveling around the world.

This is where he would come and find his refuge.

MAN: He was also fascinated by music, and he played the piano as a child.

Initially, while his father was still alive, his father disapproved of men playing the piano.

Once Pierre was able to practice on his own, he learned to play the piano first by ear and then he learned to play music.

Well, Pierre du Pont had been protected from music by his father.

His father said that music was a distraction.

But his mother played the piano.

So one day he found the piano keyboard was not locked and he opened the keyboard and pushed on one of those little white ivories.

He quickly closed the keyboard and pretended that he had not done this terrible thing.

But it wasn't many years later that he was the piano player for the Tankopanicum Orchestra, the company orchestra of the 1900s.

MAN: He actually joined a local orchestra that would play for bands in concerts.

So when he built Longwood, he built two organs -- the first organ was a relatively small organ.

It was built directly in the conservatory in 1921.

And finally, that was too small for his purposes, so in 1930, he commissioned a much larger Aeolian organ, the one that we still have today, with 10,010 pipes.

[Organ playing] IRENEE: I'm on dangerous ground now because I'm gonna tell it the way I see it.

But Pierre du Pont had a great interest in music of all kinds.

And his kid brother, who was my father, had just built a nice new house in the country and had installed an Aeolian 23 rank pipe organ.

[Organ playing] [Organ playing over indistinct conversation] And Pierre heard it for the first time about 1920.

Well, at that time he was getting ready to build a large pavilion for the gardens.

So he had to have an Aeolian pipe organ, too.

Only, of course, for him, it had to be much bigger than my father's.

[Organ playing dramatic chord] MAN: When the organ was finally finished in 1930, Pierre was so thrilled that he invited the American Guild of Organists to Longwood in June of 1930 -- they were having their ninth annual convention in Philadelphia -- for a concert, dinner, and a photograph which shows Pierre and Mrs.

du Pont surrounded by all the guild members.

All during his lifetime, Longwood was open to the public, and he charged admission on weekends, and all that money went to the local hospitals.

But it wasn't until 1921, when he opened the conservatory, that people started coming by the hundreds of thousands.

So, over the period of his lifetime, he presented about 1,500 organ concerts using Firmin Swinnen, who was the resident organist, who had come from Belgium and was Mr.

du Pont's favorite musician.

I remember walking into church when I was about 5 years old, walking right past the organ, watching the organist play before mass and after mass and just sort of telling my mom, "hey, I want to do that."

[Chorus singing] MAN: I think it's important for me to play at a church.

And I really do enjoy playing for services and helping people.

We're enriching their worship, I guess.

So I'm a confirmed Anglican.

AMBROSINO: People think of the organ as associated with the church, and, of course, it is.

If we think organ, the first place we think of is church.

But when this organ was built in 1929 and '30, the organ was far more commonplace in daily American life.

If you went to the movies, chances are you were going to hear an organ, either accompanying silent film or just playing music before the talkie started.

If you went to a public auditorium, you probably weren't going to hear an orchestra, you were going to hear some one person play a big concert organ.

If you went even to a hotel lobby, there might be an organ.

Some car dealerships even had organ.

[Organ playing dramatic chords] By the time Aeolian came to build this organ, they had built more than 700 organs, most of them for mansions.

Carnegie, Frick, the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers.

A famous example is George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, who had an incredibly large Aeolian organ in his house in Rochester.

And he had the head of the Eastman School of Music Organ Department, Harold Gleason, came to play that instrument every morning at 7 a.m.

while Mr.

Eastman ate his breakfast.

Adam, for example, is the only one, I believe, at this competition who's programmed popular music.

He'll play a piece that was popularized by Ethel Smith, called "Tiko Tiko."

There was one piece of music that was called "Tiko Tiko," and this is from an Esther Williams movie -- "Bathing Beauties" of 1944.

That was super, Miss Smith.

Now let's really get hot!

But in the middle of these "Bathing Beauties" of 1944, a music teacher with a class of young ladies starts playing a Hammond organ.

And she plays a popular piece of the time called "Tiko Tiko."

MAN: It's a South American dance.

I get to use all of the percussion and have fun.

[Thunder] It's never easy to play in the final.

But it's more exciting.

But, when you are in final, you don't have to prove your performance, you just have to play how do you like, the music do you like, and it's just fun.

CONDY: The organ is monumentally loud.

And it was originally designed to speak to the whole conservatory.

So if you pull out every stop, it's deafening.

And I think we had a taste of that yesterday.

One of the candidates pulled out every single stop and it sends you back into your chair.

I got sick after dinner on Thursday night.

I just had a nasty flu bug, which put me out of action for a couple of days.

But I'm feeling a little better now, so... When I came to this process, I said that my one aim was to just get to the final.

And so I've achieved what I wanted to, and now I'm going to ignore the prizes and thinking about winning and I'm just going to play, and whatever happens, happens.

I'm playing the Demessieux Te Deum, to start with.

A piece of Mozart.

A bit of the Elgar organ sonata.

And my own father's transcription of "The Tragic Overture" by Brahms, which it doesn't say on the program.

They missed his name out, yeah, and he knows about it.

[Organ playing over indistinct conversation] Could I set some stops on first touch and some stops on the second touch?

MAN: You can.

So the option is only to have them all on first touch... or all on second touch.

KIM: It is very interesting to play on the Aeolian organ because there are so many sounds I can experiment.

And this is my first time to try transcription pieces, so I'm so excited to play in front of many people there.

[Organ playing] I'm nervous about my playing, but I don't influenced by other people's playing.

[Applause] GAYNOR: To prepare for the finals, we get four hours on the organ, which isn't a lot of time at all.

So I'm not planning on having time to run the pieces on the organ.

I've only got time to choose what stops to use.

And so all of my practice actually running the pieces will be mental practice.

Just sitting on a couch, pretending I'm at the organ pushing the buttons.

I'm glad I sat in on most of the other performances to hear what the organ has to offer, because the five hours' practice we had before was certainly not enough time.

Now I'm getting a little bit used to this organ and the audience and the space.

So I don't think I'll feel so nervous as I did the first round.

[Applause] I think, in some ways, making it to the finals, I think, was the big hurdle, and now there's some validation there that you're good enough to make it in this.

And now I just get to go and do it.

I know I get to play my whole program.

Why not enjoy it?

I've had a little bit of a head start having spent a couple of years studying on a symphonic organ of about the same era.

But even still, every room is different.

Every instrument has its own personality, so you take it on its own terms and do what it wants you to do.

[Applause] [Applause] The day I have a performance where everything goes exactly as I want is the day I retire.

Perfect performances don't exist.

I think, given four hours -- which is a pretty short time given the volume of repertoire and the complexity of the instrument and... the amount of pressure that we're all feeling right now because of everything that's at stake -- it's as well as can be expected.

Of course, the stress of competing under these circumstances is about as high as it gets.

But yes, we write lots of comments and we have different categories here that we can refer to.

The evaluation is a very difficult thing.

It's very difficult because the level is high.

MAN: We all take copious notes and listen critically during the performance, and then we are sequestered in a room and we make a list of each of the competitors and we decide "yes," "maybe," or no.

[Muted conversation] MAN: The judges come with different priorities, things that they're looking for.

And I think the discussion is helpful and it really is necessary.

WOMAN: We explain each decision, why we prefer no, what we prefer yes.

But it's just perhaps for two or three candidates, are you sure, are you not sure, but we explain why, and at the end, it is yes or no.

I'm looking for communication, above all.

Beautiful phrases, a clear articulation.

I'm looking for expressive playing.

The most important thing for me is the musical phrase, to hear a musical phrase sing, as if a singer or an instrumentalist were performing.

MAN: I've heard all five and it's impossible r the judges to decide between these five.

I think, if we had a people's choice award, it might go to Adam.

In particular, Ben Sheen seemed very much at home.

He performed like he's been playing this instrument all his life.

Young man from France was amazing.

Wow!

MAN: I'll be surprised if Tom Gaynor isn't in the finalists.

[Indistinct conversation] [Organ "bird" chirping] EMCEE: So now it is my honor and privilege to welcome our finalists.

Adam Pajan, will you please come out?

Thomas Gaynor.

Jinhee Kim.

Benjamin Sheen.

Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard.

CONDY: It shouldn't matter too much, but it does for these candidates.

And you can see their faces when some of them didn't get through.

It's disappointing.

It's heartbreaking.

Of course it is.

EMCEE: For the Clarence Snyder Prize, which is the third prize, it's my honor to announce that Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard is the Clarence Snyder third prize.

[Applause] MARLE-OUVRARD: I feel very good now because I was very enjoyed, the audience are very good audience.

A lot of people say they love music.

That's a great pleasure for me to play for.

EMCEE: The second prize for the Firmin Swinnen Prize, which is a cash prize of $15,000, goes to Adam Pajan.

Congratulations, Adam.

PAJAN: It's very exciting.

It's great to finally get to this moment after so much anticipation.

And it was a lot of fun.

EMCEE: And, the one that we've been waiting for.

The Pierre S. du Pont Prize, which is a cash prize of $40,000, is the largest cash prize in the world of organ competitions.

The winner of the Pierre S. du Pont Award also will receive a contract with Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, and this person will be invited back to Longwood specifically for a solo performance.

And it's really my honor and pleasure to announce that Benjamin Sheen is the first Pierre S. du Pont Prize.

[Applause] SHEEN: I was standing there, and they announced third, second, and you know that moment that you're either number one or you're four or five.

And I just... my breathing was faltering.

In that moment, you suddenly desperately want to win.

And you convince yourself weeks beforehand that it doesn't matter and it's about participating, and then that moment before, then there's the real -- the adrenaline starts pumping, and I mean it's just, I'm in shock.

[Organ plays] MAN: I've played this organ since 1981, pretty regularly, and he and the organ became one.

TOBIAS: I hoped with the Longwood Organ Competition that we would see something incredible with all these wonderful young organists.

And sure enough, there are so many good young organists!