Trinity Church, New York City, Hires New Assistant Organist

The Parish of Trinity Church-St. Paul’s Chapel selected Robert P. Ridgell as the historic parish’s 21st Assistant Organist, effective September 2005.


A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Mr. Ridgell studied organ at the Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington, and Westminster Choir College, Princeton. His organ teachers included David M. Lowry, Marilyn Keiser, and Stefan Engels.


Prior to his appointment at Trinity-St. Paul’s, he was Director of Music at the Cathedral Church of the Saviour in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, where he established neighborhood-outreach concerts, the Cathedral Choir School for Girls, and guided one of the newest Episcopal cathedral foundations in the areas of modern liturgical renewal.


From 1997-2001, he was Associate Director of Music at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City, where he also served as Director of the Eccles Organ Festival and as choral teacher of the Madeleine Choir School, the only co-educational Roman Catholic Choir School in the United States. In addition, he was Founding Director of the Alumnae Cantores, a component of the Princeton Girlchoir.


Mr. Ridgell has performed across the U.S., Europe and South Korea, and remains an active clinician, teacher and improvisateur. In 2004, he was a finalist in the American Guild of Organists’ National Competition in Organ Improvisation. He is in demand as a conductor of youth choirs and has prepared choristers for performances with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Royal School of Church Music in America, the Utah Symphony and several celebrity events, including Robert Redford’s Holiday Party in Sundance, Utah and the 2002 Winter Olympics.


A major focus of Mr. Ridgell’s ministry at Trinity-St. Paul’s is enriching the spiritual, musical, emotional, and social development of the Trinity Choristers, a new community-based youth choir program. The Trinity Choristers has three choirs: a girl choir (ages 7-12); a boy choir (ages 7-12); and a high school choir (ages 13-18). The girls of the high school choir participated in a joint project with the Princeton Girlchoir on December 12, 2005 in the Rockefeller Center atrium, where they sang with EMI recording artist Ricky Fante and met rap sensation Jay-Z.



For more information, go to: www.robertridgell.com.



Contact: Donna Presnell
(212) 602-9672