Congratulations to Eastman DMA candidate Andrew Johnson for recently winning the Alaska Pipe Organ Composition Competition, organized by Sitka Lutheran Church in Sitka, Alaska. Students from high schools, colleges, and universities nationwide submitted their works with specified criteria that entries must incorporate the melody Finlandia, by Jean Sibelius. Andrew’s composition, Fantasy on FINLANDIA, was awarded first place along with a $1,000 cash prize. It will be premiered during a celebration concert at Sitka Lutheran on October 16 and performed on the church’s 1844 Kessler pipe organ, the oldest organ west of the Mississippi River. Andrew is from the studio of Professor David Higgs.