A native of Mia­mi, Ele­na Baque­r­i­zo is pur­su­ing a DMA in organ at Rice Uni­ver­si­ty under Ken Cow­an. She has won prizes in the Albert Schweitzer Organ Fes­ti­val and the AGO/​Quimby RCYO. Solo con­cert appear­ances include St. Patrick’s Cathe­dral (NYC) and Church of the Epiphany (Mia­mi, FL). Cur­rent­ly, she is organ­ist at Queen of Angels Church (Dick­in­son, TX). She received an MM and BM in organ per­for­mance at The Juil­liard School under Paul Jacobs, and an AA in lib­er­al arts from St. Mary’s Col­lege (Saint Marys, KS). In her spare time, she enjoys Gre­go­ri­an chant and mak­ing cham­ber music.

Owen Sam­mons is a Ken­tucky native and cur­rent­ly serves as Organist/​Choirmaster at St. John’s Epis­co­pal Church, Ver­sailles, KY. As a key­board vir­tu­oso, Mr. Sam­mons is gain­ing increas­ing recog­ni­tion for his impro­vi­sa­tion­al skills and his nat­ur­al affin­i­ty for unleash­ing the full son­ic range of the anglo-amer­i­can sym­phon­ic organ, and leads work­shops on organ impro­vi­sa­tion for local AGO chapters.

Mr. Sam­mons is also the cre­ator and host of a doc­u­men­tary series, ​“Organ Explor­er,” high­light­ing notable pipe organs, and is an hon­orary mem­ber of the Black Clas­si­cal Artists of Louisville.

Simon Cou­ture joined Casa­vant Frères in 1992. He stud­ied organ at the Uni­ver­sité Laval in Que­bec City, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Musi­col­o­gy. Simon worked active­ly as a church musi­cian in many church­es in Que­bec City, includ­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty Chapel. His life­long inter­est and pas­sion for the pipe organ and its his­to­ry gives him an ency­clo­pe­dic knowl­edge of old­er instru­ments, in par­tic­u­lar those built by Casa­vant Frères. In devel­op­ing our projects, Simon uses this exten­sive base of knowl­edge to design new pipe organs and to make plans for the restora­tion or refur­bish­ment of exist­ing instruments.

Dr. Michael Dio­rio earned his degrees in organ per­for­mance from West­min­ster Choir Col­lege, the School of Music and the Insti­tute of Sacred Music at Yale Uni­ver­si­ty, and the Col­lege of Fine Arts at Boston Uni­ver­si­ty (sum­ma cum laude).  As a recital­ist and con­duc­tor Michael has per­formed across the Unit­ed States, the U.K., and Europe.  He has appeared as an accom­pa­nist for the Amer­i­can Boy Choir and a fea­tured soloist at the Nation­al Con­ven­tion of the Organ His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety.  His choral com­po­si­tions, edi­tions, and arrange­ments are pub­lished by Carus-Ver­lag, Par­a­clete Press, Church Pub­lish­ing, and GIA Publications.

As an edu­ca­tor Michael has taught at The Ship­ley School; The Lawrenceville School, and at West­min­ster Choir Col­lege, where he is cur­rent­ly an adjunct assis­tant pro­fes­sor of organ.  As a church musi­cian, Michael has served at Wash­ing­ton Memo­r­i­al Chapel, Val­ley Forge PA, and Church of the Redeemer, Bryn Mawr, PA. Michael was recent­ly appoint­ed Organ­ist and Direc­tor of Music at the church of St. John the Evan­ge­list, in Lam­bertville, NJ.

As an active mem­ber of the Organ His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety, Michael has served on the board of direc­tors, the task force for the Kalei­do­scope of Col­ors, and is the chair of the Mem­ber­ship Committee.

Andrew For­rest was appoint­ed Pres­i­dent of Létourneau Pipe Organs in 2022, hav­ing worked for the com­pa­ny in a vari­ety of roles since 1999. While over­see­ing the com­pa­ny, he remains focussed on indi­vid­ual projects, meet­ing reg­u­lar­ly with clients as well as super­vis­ing the design, con­struc­tion, and voic­ing of all instru­ments. He served as Pres­i­dent of the Asso­ci­at­ed Pipe Organ Builders of Amer­i­ca from 2020 through 2022 and he remains active with the Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Organ­builders. Fun fact: Mark Ruhnke was a music teacher at Andrew’s high school in Scar­bor­ough in the ear­ly 1990s and encour­aged Andrew’s bud­ding fas­ci­na­tion with the pipe organ.

Patri­cia Wright is Min­is­ter of Music Emeri­ta of Met­ro­pol­i­tan Unit­ed Church in Toron­to, hav­ing served for 36 years. A grad­u­ate of Carnegie-Mel­lon Uni­ver­si­ty in Pitts­burgh, she holds the Doc­tor of Musi­cal Arts degree from Yale Uni­ver­si­ty and has stud­ied in France with Nadia Boulanger and Jean Langlais. Dr. Wright has been heard in recital in the Unit­ed States, Cana­da and Europe and has been broad­cast on the C.B.C. She a past nation­al pres­i­dent of the Roy­al Cana­di­an Col­lege of Organ­ists, hav­ing received an Hon­orary Fel­low­ship in 1997 and now serves on the Pro­fes­sion­al Sup­port Committee, the Exam­i­na­tions Committee, and the Con­ven­tion Committee. She also was award­ed a Fel­low­ship in the Sum­mer Insti­tute of Church Music, hav­ing par­tic­i­pat­ed on the organ fac­ul­ty for sev­er­al ses­sions. She also has served as an Adjunct Pro­fes­sor of Organ in the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Music and in the Mas­ter of Sacred Music degree pro­gram of Emmanuel College.