Photos: Member Recital & 2nd Annual Beach Breeze Award

A Huge Success

BY Ron Jessee

MEMBER RECITAL

Christ Lutheran Church in Pacific Beach is one of the most uniquely beautiful structures in San Diego County. The chancel of the church is adorned with a mosaic that replaced a solid brick wall. Book-ended pipe work frames the lovely Tree of Life Mosaic. If you haven’t been there, you must make a pilgrimage to the beach. It is well worth the esthetic experience.

This marvelous edifice was the location of our 2025 Member Recital and Beach Breeze Awards. A nearly full house eagerly participated in both events.  

The Member Recital involved a curated group of 5 performers from our chapter. Blake Bundschuh and Jonah Molina, both high school seniors, were two of the featured artists. Blake played Toccata in D Minor by J.S. Bach and Jonah favored us with The Toccata in C Minor by Leon Boellmann. Blake and Jonah are students of Chris Cook and Leslie Wolf Robb respectively.

Richard Deal, Organist at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, rendered an excellent performance of Toccata in E Minor by Johann Pachelbel and Dietrich Buxtehude’s Gigue Fugue. Sarah Amos, newly appointed Music Director and Organist at First United Methodist Church, came to the console with Cat Suite by Denis Bedard, a four-movement musical romp through the world of our feline furry friends. Hysoo Kim, organist at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Coronado, expertly rounded out the program with Prelude and Fugue in C Minor by Felix Mendelssohn.

THE SECOND ANNUAL AGO-SD BEACH BREEZE AWARDS

After a short break, we moved to the Second Annual Beach Breeze Awards.  

The Beach Breeze Awards were developed to create a sense of community, support our fellow organists and express collegial appreciation. We are excited to announce that the 2025 Beach Breeze Awards were a great success. The purpose of the event was to meet and greet around the accomplishments (and trials) of the previous year, and to commemorate the achievements of our fellow professionals through this annual award. Following the awards, a lovely reception ensued with the majority of the attendees remaining to sample the cake and to engage in animated conversation.

The 2025 Awardees are pictured below.

OUTSTANDING STUDENT AWARD

Blake Bundschuh

OUTSTANDING STUDENT AWARD

Jonah Molina

OUTSTANDING ORGAN ADVOCACY AWARD

Catherine Marshall

OUTSTANDING COMPOSER

Jaebon Hwang

EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR

Lea Schmidt-Rogers

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER

Russ Peck

OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD

Dale Sorenson

CLERGY SUPERHERO

Geoff Kohler

CLERGY SUPERHERO

Mark Menacher

OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER AWARD

Hyesoo Kim

HALL OF FAME INDUCTION

Kenneth Herman