The 2026 Old West Organ Society Summer Series commences with a performance by Stefan Donner. This season, we are grateful to First Lutheran Church for hosting the series — featuring its splendid Richards, Fowkes & Co. instrument, Op. 10 — while Old West Church awaits necessary building repairs. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Stefan Donner
Stefan Donner earned his degrees with highest honors from the University of Music Vienna, where he studied organ, piano, and conducting. Additionally, he holds a Master’s degree in organ performance from the Conservatory of Amsterdam and has enriched his training through master classes with eminent organists such as Olivier Latry and Joris Verdin. He was awarded a 2014–15 Fulbright Scholarship to study organ and harpsichord with Edoardo Bellotti at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and is a recipient of the prestigious scholarship from the Richard Wagner Verband Vienna.
Donner is the recipient of numerous awards, including First Prize at the 2010 Franz Schmidt Organ Competition (Austria) and Third Prize at the 2011 Dublin International Organ Competition. Alongside various radio and television recordings, his discography includes several CD releases, most recently J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations recorded on the historic 1745 J. D. Dulcken harpsichord at the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments Vienna.
Maintaining an extensive international concert schedule, Donner has performed widely across Europe, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Israel, Kazakhstan, Russia, Canada, the United States, and Australia. Notable past performances include venues such as St. Stephen's Cathedral, the RadioKulturhaus (Radio Concert Hall) and the Musikverein in Vienna, the Philharmonic Essen, St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London, St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, and the Washington National Cathedral. Upcoming appearances include performances at Musiikkitalo in Helsinki and at Notre-Dame de Paris.
In 2017, he was invited to lecture on J. S. Bach’s organ Trio Sonatas at the Władysław Żeleński Secondary School of Music in Krakow, Poland. As an active educator, he has given master classes worldwide, including sessions at the Conservatory of Almaty in Kazakhstan (2024), the Days of Organ Festival in Belgrade (2025), and in 2026 at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul and for the D.C. chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) in Washington.
His past appointments include musical positions at Klosterneuburg Abbey and the Franz Schmidt-Musikschule Perchtoldsdorf near Vienna. Since 2025, Donner has served as a piano instructor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.