Promising Musician to Learn and Perform as Duke Chapel Organ Scholar
A recent graduate of Bard College Conservatory, Sophia Cornicello is the 2026–2027 Organ Scholar at Duke University Chapel.
As this year’s Organ Scholar, Cornicello will perform, rehearse, and accompany choirs and congregations on Duke Chapel’s organs. That includes playing during the Chapel’s Sunday morning services, Choral Evensong services, choir rehearsals, and concerts. Throughout her time at Duke, she will receive coaching and instruction from Chapel Music staff, including Chapel Organist Chad Fothergill, Chapel Music Director Dr. Zebulon Highben, and Dr. Philip Cave, the Chapel’s conductor-in-residence.
A pianist, harpsichordist, and organist, Cornicello earned degrees in piano performance and mathematics at Bard. She performed with the Bard Baroque Ensemble and appeared as both a soloist and chamber musician in programs featuring the music of J. S. Bach alongside works by contemporary composers. A finalist in the 2025 Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition, she previously served as organist of Fair Street Reformed Church in Kingston, New York. She received a scholarship from Early Music America in 2025 and was a continuo organ fellow at the 2026 Emmanuel Bach Institute.
“In addition to her appreciation for early music and gifts as a continuo player, Sophia’s teachers and mentors consistently described her as exceptionally perceptive, curious, and deeply musical,” Fothergill says. “These are qualities that became clear to the Chapel music staff when we first met her. We are delighted that she is here and look forward to a wonderful program year.”
Cornicello’s repertoire spans centuries from Renaissance to contemporary music—a range of musicianship she seeks to expand and deepen at the Chapel.
“The instruments here, the choral program, it's just so much in one place—you don't get this variety of styles of instruments all in one building anywhere else,” she says. “I'm really looking forward to being able to work on all the skills for being a good church musician.”
While Cornicello has wide-ranging musical interests, including the role of hymns in the Protestant Reformation, there is one piece that has been especially influential.
“I decided to study organ because of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, the ‘St. Anne,’” she says. “The scale of it is just amazing. I wouldn't be here without having heard it.”