West Chester native Luke Staisiunas, a first-year master’s student at the University of Oklahoma, is one of many students and alumni who were caught off guard by the impending closure of the university’s American Organ Institute, writes Bennett Brinkman for OUDaily.
Staisiunas wanted to study the organ since he was a child. He reached out to organists he met at summer programs for their recommendations on a college. Nearly all of them pointed him toward John Schwandt’s organ program at Oklahoma. He took their advice and joined the university, first getting his undergraduate degree and is now working toward his master’s degree in organ performance.
However, organ performance was not his first choice. He had intended to earn his degree in organ technology but was forced to shift after the announced closure at the end of the spring semester. The reason for the closure is lack of steady funding for the program.
Staisiunas was left to figure out what to do with other students in the organ program.
“It’s been a little bit tense, but we’re all sort of in it together,” Staisiunas said.
Read more about the American Organ Institute at OUDaily here.
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