A Day at The AGO Convention

The national AGO convention takes place every two years. This year it was located in San Francisco and I was lucky enough to be able to attend along with my father. Since there are so many attendees, workshops are very easy to attend and run almost all the time. In addition, there are recitals every day featuring organists such as James Kealey, Anette Richards, and Nicole Keller. All these events and people made for an amazing time, and to give you a taste, I will walk you through a day at the AGO 2024 National Convention.

Monday and Tuesday had the same layout with the earliest class in the morning taking place at 7:30. Most sessions are held in the marriott so you can stop by the cafe downstairs and head straight to your first sessions. It is worth mentioning that during this entire experience, you can track where you should be through the mobile app. The app allows you to see the sessions and concerts you signed up for and provides you with a schedule for your day. It also contains additional handouts and programs as well as general information. On Monday and Tuesday, there were no morning recitals so if you attended a 7:30 session you would probably take a break and attend your next class at 9. There are also 8 am sessions that you can attend (which is what I chose to do) on days with no morning recital. From that time on, you can attend classes at your leisure. Classes run in mostly 45 minute increments and will pause around 12 for lunch. After lunch, I spent some time exploring the city, but there were recitals taking place in the afternoon on Monday and Tuesday. Those evenings, there were also recitals, but because I was jet-lagged I did not attend. These evening recitals consisted of a Faythe Freese concert as well as Shin-Young Lee and Olivier Latry playing with the Berkeley Symphony.

Wednesday and Thursday consisted of slightly different schedules that featured morning recitals and an all day trip to Stanford. Wednesday morning were recitals for competition winners and you could choose between the young organist recital and James Kealey. Since my friend, Abigail Crafton, was playing in the young organist recital I attended that one. I then returned to the hotel and attended some more classes before dinner. After catching dinner, there was a huge concert featuring Janette Fishell. The concert also held a lavish reception with delicious food and desserts. One of the most amazing things about this convention was being surrounded by people with the same passions as yourself. This was especially prominent during the reception when you could see all the organists, regardless of fame, talking to each other and enjoying themselves and the music.

The final day of the convention featured an all day trip to Stanford. I first attended a concert featuring Annette Richards and after lunch we proceeded to Stanford. We were greeted by a carolin concert and then we walked into the chapel. We then attended our final performance with Kimberly Marshall playing both organs in the Stanford chapel beautifully.

We ended the convention with a closing reception. Where we got to say our goodbyes. Overall, I think the convention was an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone that can go.

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