Nico Tjoelker is appointed assistant director of music for St. James Episcopal Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois, effective in August. He will assist Canon Director of Music Stephen Buzard in running the cathedral’s multifaceted, intergenerational music program. Tjoelker is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, studying with Kola Owolabi. He currently serves as director of music at Grace United Methodist Church, South Bend.
Tjoelker earned a Master of Music degree in organ from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, in 2023, studying with Martin Jean, Carole Terry, and James O’Donnell. At Yale, he was director of music for Berkeley Divinity School and served as organ scholar at Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green, where he assisted Walden Moore in directing the adult and children’s choirs.
Before Yale, Nico lived in Australia, completing a Bachelor of Music degree in organ at Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2020 under Philip Swanton, graduating with first class honors. His thesis examined early 20th-century paper roll recordings of organ music. He was organ scholar at St. Mark’s Anglican Church (2020–2021) and St. Stephen’s Uniting Church (2017–2021).
An active international performer, Nico studied at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany, in 2018 and 2019 and attended the Haarlem International Organ Festival, the Netherlands, in 2018 and 2022. In 2024 he was one of six organists worldwide selected for the festival’s Excellence Class, where he performed in a showcase recital. He was also among five selected participants in the Lucerne Organ Masterclass, Switzerland, in 2018.
Additional performances include the Australia and New Zealand College of Organists Academy recital, Napier, in 2018; a tour of European historical organs in 2017; and the Cambridge Organ Scholar Experience in 2016. He was guest organist for the New South Wales Youth Orchestra’s inaugural concert in 2015 and won first prize in the Sydney Organ Competition–Intermediate Section in 2013 and first prize in the Sydney Organ Competition–Open Section in 2016.
Tjoelker lives in South Bend with his wife, Alice, a doctoral student in liturgical studies at the University of Notre Dame.
For information: saintjamescathedral.org.
Other recent appointments:
Nathaniel Gumbs to The Riverside Church
Nicholas Halbert to Cathedral of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
