leaderboard1 -

Duke Chapel Organ Scholars

October 21, 2015

Duke Chapel has begun a new Organ Scholars program. The two-year program includes instruction for two students on service playing and choral accompaniment. The chapel is launching the program along with a new weekly worship service, Choral Evensong, which will take place at 4 p.m. Sundays in the Divinity School’s Goodson Chapel. The two organ scholars will play at the Evensong service and be joined by the Evensong Singers, a new auditioned choir at Duke Chapel. Chapel organist Christopher Jacobson will oversee the instruction of the scholars and conduct the choir during the Evensong services. The service will move into Duke Chapel in the 2016–17 academic year, after restoration work on the building is complete.

The two organ scholars for the 2015–16 academic year are Jordan Prescott and Eric Surber.

Jordan Prescott (left), a native of Greenville, North Carolina, is an undergraduate organ student at East Carolina University. He was the 2014 winner of the VanSciver Church Music Scholarship in Organ from Metropolitan Music Ministries and was also awarded an 2015 E. Power Biggs Fellowship from the Organ Historical Society. He has held music positions at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greenville and First Christian Church in Farmville, North Carolina.

Eric Surber (right) is a senior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, studying journalism and organ. A native of Greensboro, North Carolina, Surber has been playing for evening services and singing in two choirs at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill. In addition to studying organ, he has been a harpsichordist for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Baroque Ensemble.

For information: https://chapel.duke.edu/worship/music/organs#organ_scholars.