RCCO Ottawa Centre CRCO Section d'Ottawa

SHAWN POTTER

Shawn Potter, a Canadian organ student from Nova Scotia, has just graduated from Mount Allison University and will begin working on his M. Mus. degree with John Grew at McGill University in the fall of 2010. He has held a Canadian Merit National Scholarship as well as the Mount Allison Bell Scholarship throughout his four undergraduate years, and has been the Organist and Choir Director of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Sackville, New Brunswick, since 2008. Active in sports and community charitable activities, he has also performed a youth internship in Ghana, and has participated in many university musical activities. He is also an accomplished harpsichord continuo player, singer, trumpeter, and accompanist.

Godfrey Hewitt, C.D.,D.Mus. (Cantuar), FRCO, Hon. ARSCM, died in 2002 at the age of ninety-three. For over seventy years a prominent figure in sacred music in Canada, Dr. Hewitt left a very significant legacy to Canadian music. Born in Yorkshire, England, in 1909, he came to Canada in 1931 after serving as Organist for the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, London, in 1930. He became Organist and Master of the Choristers at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa, in 1931, and remained there for half a century, until his retirement in 1980. In 1973, Dr. Hewitt was awarded the Lambeth Doctorate of Music by the Archbishop of Canterbury; he was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1976. He was famed as performer, teacher, composer, and organ designer.

This scholarship has been established in his name both to honour his memory and to increase the number of highly-trained professional Canadian organists, not only to serve as organists in universities, concert halls, and churches, but also to teach future generations of performers. Previous winners of the scholarship were Craig Humber (2005), Isabelle Demers (2006), Michael Unger (2007), Ryan Jackson (2008), and Matthieu Latreille (2009).

The next annual competition for the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship in organ will close on April 30, 2011. Details may be found on the web site of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, Ottawa Centre: www.rcco-ottawa.ca

Further details may be obtained from:

Frances Macdonnell
613-726-7984