Pipes on the River Evening Concert: Chase Olson, Organist

Pipes on the River Evening Concert: Chase Olson, Organist

Chase Olson, 20, is a rising Junior at Oberlin College & Conservatory, where he is pursuing a Double Degree in Organ Performance and Economics. He began studying organ with Dr. Angela Kraft Cross on his 13th birthday, and now studies with Christa Rakich at the Oberlin Conservatory. He has performed as an organist in the Junior Bach Festival in Berkeley for five years, and attended the Oregon Bach Festival Organ Institute in July of 2021. Chase was the Organ Scholar at the Congregational Church of San Mateo from 2019 to 2021. He currently serves as the Music Ministry Intern at Lakewood Presbyterian Church in Cleveland. In 2018-19, he played concerts at St Dunstan's Episcopal Church in Carmel, St Paul's Episcopal Church in Salinas, St Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, and Trinity Cathedral Reno. Chase won scholarships from the San Francisco Peninsula Organ Academy in 2018 and 2023 to travel on study trips to France. On those study trips, he took lessons with many famous French organists and shared a recital at Notre-Dame d'Auteuil in Paris in January of 2019. In 2020, Chase was awarded a study scholarship from the SFAGO, and participated in the Vierne Series at St Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. He participated in the Oberlin Summer Organ Academy, as well as the Texas Summer Organ Camp put on by Baylor and Rice Universities. In the first half of 2021, Chase was the interim organist at St. John's Episcopal Church in Ross, California.