Abigail Wood has won the Greenville (SC) Chapter 2024 Robert & Nancy Powell Scholarship Competition $4,000 prize.

Abbie is a Junior organ performance major at Syracuse University studying with Dr. Anne Laver. She is also pursuing a minor in Jazz Studies. She enjoys singing with the university choirs and playing clarinet in the University Marching Band. She specializes in creating intricate and developed organ improvisations, and is currently conducting research on the Victorian British organ. Abbie plans to take the Royal College of Organists’ 2024 Summer Course and study with world-renowned professionals in London, making in-person recordings of these instruments for two weeks in July-August. This will be funded through Syracuse University’s SOURCE program. Also funded through this program, Abbie was recently able to assist Dr. Anne Laver in presenting data found on organ programs of the 1915 San Francisco Exposition at the July 2024 AGO National Convention.

Abbie is Organist at University United Methodist Church in Syracuse, NY, and substitutes for various churches during academic breaks. She was a multiple-year recipient of the Yocum and Shenk Organ scholarships, and also received a monetary award in the Quimby Harrisburg Chapter Organ Competition in 2021. In 2023, she won 2nd prize in the George Mathias Memorial Scholarship Competition in Brooklyn, NY, and received 1st place in the Quimby Potomac Chapter Organ Competition. She was a winner of Syracuse University’s 2024 Outstanding Artists Competition and has performed C. M. Widor’s Allegro from Symphony VI with the Syracuse University Orchestra.

We will get an opportunity to hear Abbie perform on Sunday June 1, 2025 4pm at Christ Church Episcopal Church, Greenville. Here is a sneak preview.

"Recognizing the Past While Reaching Towards the Future."

$4,000* Award for 2025

A scholarship fund was established in 2022 to honor Robert Powell, FAGO, organist and composer of hundreds of choral and organ service pieces of published music, along with his wife, Nancy Powell, AAGO, also a consummate organist. They have served the Greenville community for decades as leaders and role models for the organists and church musicians of this community. A $4,000* scholarship will be awarded in July 2024 to an undergraduate student pursuing study in fall 2024 at an American college, conservatory, or university, leading toward a career in organ performance and church music. The winner will also be invited to play a recital in Greenville for the AGO, our sponsors and public.

The application process includes writing a short essay and submitting a recording of two standard organ pieces (Bach and Romantic). Application deadline is June 1, 2025.

Click here for the .doc application form and detail instructions (check your Download area for the .doc). Please email powellscholarshipcompetition@gmail.com the completed application or for any application questions.

*The Greenville AGO Chapter is also pleased to inform scholarship applicants that John Polo is also the Program Director of the Greater Bridgeport AGO Chapter M. Louise Miller – Paul E. Knox Scholarship. Both scholarships have the same criteria and timeline but submitted separately and have separate judges. This is a unique opportunity to win up to $8,000 in scholarships. That application is available at this link.

John Polo
Program Director, Powell Scholarship – Greenville AGO Chapter

Current Judges/Committee

• Dr. Ed Dunbar - Retired Professor Organ, Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC
• Rev. Dr. Jim Parham - Trinity Lutheran, Greenville, SC
• Mr. Donald Duncan - Director of Liturgy & Music, Christ Church, Episcopal, Greenville, SC
• Mr. Robert Glick - Retired Professor Organ, Erskine University/First Presbyterian Church, Greenwood, SC
• Mr. Vance Jenkins - Director of Music & Principal Organist, Buncombe Street Methodist Church, Greenville, SC
• Dr. Brennan Szafron - Organist & Choir Master, Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Tryon, NC
• Dr. Will Thomas Cleveland - Director of Music & Organist, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Greenwood, SC

Scholarship Sponsors – Click here to help us thank the many organizations and individual donors that have helped us create and sustain the Powell Scholarship & Organ Competition. This brings a sense of great pride helping support the careers of future church musicians, giving them a glimpse of our Greenville area, and honoring the legacy of Robert & Nancy Powell.

Become a Powell Scholarship Sponsor or Donor - - the scholarship is designated program within the Greenville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, a 501(c)(3) charitable organizations. Individuals can use the donate link on this website. Checks can made out to the Powell Scholarship Greenville American Guild of Organists, c/o John Polo, Treasurer, 26 Appian Circle, Simpsonville, SC 29681. Thank you in advance for helping us build this scholarship.

Scholarship Kickoff Choral Festival - On June 4, 2023, over 100 singers representing 25 AGO member church choirs from the Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson AGO chapters, along with brass musicians from the Greenville Symphony, kicked off the Powell Scholarship with a Choral Festival of all Powell published composition, at Christ Church Episcopal, Greenville. This was a standing room only audience that also participated in the singing. View this wonderful concert.

For additional information on Robert and Nancy Powell, see this Member Spotlight.

Previous Scholarship winners:

2024	Mr. Jacob Gruss