The Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation is pleased to announce that Mr. Alexander Straus-Fausto is the winner of the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation Prize of $8,000 in organ performance.

Known for his virtuosic technique and colourful presentation, Mr. Straus-Fausto gives exhilarating, sensitive, and innovative performances of repertoire ranging from early fifteenth-century keyboard music to contemporary organ music. Straus-Fausto has created more than fifty original transcriptions of major orchestral works, reflecting his passion for the symphonic organ as a virtually unlimited medium for artistic expression. His repertoire also includes the complete works of César Franck, Maurice Duruflé and Johannes Brahms. He has been recognized as a member of the Diapason’s “20 under 30 class of 2023”, a program that recognizes artists under the age of thirty who have made significant contributions to the field of organ performance.

At the age of nineteen, Straus-Fausto was named the Titular Organist of Très-Saint-Nom-de-Jésus in Montréal, home of the sixth largest organ in Canada, and at the age of twenty-one, he released his first album Gothic Expressions. In 2019, the Canada Council funded a summer concert tour in which Straus- Fausto performed in several historic churches and cathedrals throughout the UK.

Straus-Fausto has held church positions across North America and has performed in many distinguished international venues including St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London, La Madeleine in Paris, La Maison symphonique de Montréal, and The Peace Memorial Concert Series in Clearwater, Florida. With the funding of the Centennial Millennium Fund of the New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he co-founded Festiv’Orgue, which introduced new audiences to the historic symphonic organs of several downtown churches in Montréal.

Straus-Fausto holds a Diploma in Performance from the Eastman School of Music, a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, and a Bachelor of Music from McGill University. His teachers include David Higgs, Martin Jean, Hans-Ola Ericsson, James David Christie, Isabelle Demers, Jonathan Oldengarm, Alcée Chriss, Christian Lane, Thomas Bara, Peter Nikiforuk, and Joe Carere.