National Organist Training Program Brings Talented Musician to Duke Chapel

Katherine Johnson, currently a senior at Oberlin College and Conservatory, will be the next organ scholar in the American Guild of Organists Organ Scholar Program at Duke University Chapel.

As an organ scholar, Johnson will play the organ during services in Duke Chapel and at Duke Divinity School, assist with weekly choir rehearsals, and receive regular lessons and coaching in organ playing, accompanying, conducting, composing, and vocal techniques. She begins the ten-month position on August 15.

A double-degree student in English and organ performance at Oberlin, Johnson studies organ with Professor Christa Rakich and also teaches organ lessons at the school. Outside of college, she serves as organist and music director at Church of the Redeemer in Lorain, Ohio. Previously, she has been an organ scholar at Plymouth Church UCC in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greenville, North Carolina, and has also been the Wilson Family Sacred Music Intern at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City.

“I am excited and grateful to have this incredible opportunity,” Johnson said. “I am looking forward to making music with the Duke staff and community in the next academic year.”

The 2023–2024 academic year will be the second consecutive year that the American Guild of Organists (AGO) and Duke Chapel will have collaborated to present the AGO Organ Scholar Program, which offers a promising musician a ten-month, paid internship at a significant music ministry program in the United States.  

At Duke, the program builds on the Chapel’s Organ Scholar Program, which began in 2015 as an initiative to train members of the next generation of church musicians with practical, hands-on skills. The Chapel’s music program comprises three choirs, four organs, a carillon, and a Bosendorfer grand piano, which feature in year-round Sunday morning services, holiday services and academic ceremonies, Evensong and Vespers services, and a robust concert and recital series.

“The rich worship life and music program of Duke Chapel create a fantastic environment for experiential learning,” said Dr. Zebulon Highben, director of Chapel Music and an associate professor of the practice of church music at Duke Divinity School. “We’re thrilled to have Katherine with us, and excited to work with her to immerse herself in all that this community has to offer.”

The AGO is the national professional association serving the organ and choral music fields. The Guild serves approximately 275 chapters and 12,000 members throughout the United States and abroad.

“We at the AGO are so excited Duke will be hosting this important mentoring program again this year,” said Jillian Gardner, councillor for young organists at the AGO. “They have taken the lead and set the bar high for institutions in the future to continue to invest in the skills of our young organist members.”