The American Guild of Organists was chartered in 1896 by the Board of Regents, University of the State of New York, to administer a comprehensive series of examinations for professional certification. The AGO currently offers five levels of professional certification:
Service Playing Certification (SPC)
Colleague Certification (CAGO)
Choir Master Certification (ChM)
Associateship Certification (AAGO)
Fellowship Certification (FAGO)
Read the 2024 Certification Challenge from AGO President Dr. Eileen Hunt, AAGO
General Resources for Examinations
Complete 2025 Professional Certification Requirements
Certification Requirements Summary Chart (coming soon)
Webinars for Exam Preparation (scroll down the webinar page to the heading Certification under Past Webinars, Recitals, and Workshops)
Revised Manual of Procedures for All Certification Examinations
The new 2024 Manual of Procedure was completed by the Committee on Professional Certification at their June meeting in New York City after many months of careful consideration of the needs of candidates, coordinators, proctors, and examiners for clear and concise instructions on all parameters of planning, preparation, and administration of exams. Procedures for Service Playing, Colleague, Associateship, Fellowship, and Choir Master examinations are covered in this one document. All candidates, coordinators, proctors, and examiners are expected to read and refer to this manual well in advance of and during the entire examination cycle. Please click HERE to print or download the document.
Revised Hymn Booklet
The new 2023 Hymn Examination booklet is now available. The 2013 Hymn Examination booklet is no longer valid. For a list of the contents (titles and tunes), please click HERE. To download the 2023 Hymn Examination booklet you must contact the Certification Program Administrator to obtain passwords (Email: exams@agohq.org; Tel.: 212-870-2311, ext. 4303). Once you have obtained the passwords, please return to this page and click HERE to access the page with the downloadable files of the 2023 Hymn Examination Booklet.
Exam Locations 2024 (The list of Exam Centers will be available in January, 2025)
New Composer Diversity for 2021 (PDF)
Music Teachers National Association Certification
AGO members may apply for MTNA certification at the MTNA member price. For complete information, click here.
Committee on Professional Certification (CPC)
Click here to view committee members.