Biography
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- Katelyn Emerson, who has “taken the organ world by storm” (The Diapason), with her busy concertizing and teaching schedule throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, is known as both a star of the first rank and an ambassador for the organ. Prizewinner of competitions on three continents, Katelyn has garnered acclaim from listeners new to classical music and audiences of organ aficionados and colleagues alike. Katelyn is laureate of numerous international organ competitions, most recently the American Guild of Organists’ 2016 National Young Artists, VIII Musashino International Organ Competition ( Japan), 5th International Organ Competition ‘Pierre de Manchicourt’ (France) and VIII Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition (Russia). She was featured in the May 2015 issue of The Diapason magazine’s inaugural ‘20 under
30’ class of 2015, a group of exceptional sacred musicians showing ‘superior accomplishments… and innovative thinking.’ Katelyn is regularly invited to serve on faculties of organ academies throughout the USA and Europe, and to present workshops at regional conventions of the AGO.
Through a German Academic Exchange Scholarship (DAAD), in 2020 received her Master’s Degree in Organ from the Musikhochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, studying with Ludger Lohmann. Recipient of the prestigious J. William Fulbright Study/Research Grant, she has studied with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement
Régional de Toulouse (France). In May 2015, she graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory (Ohio) with double bachelor’s degrees in organ
performance and French as well as with minors in music history and historical performance
(fortepiano). Katelyn began her organ studies in 2005 through a scholarship of the Young Organist Collaborative (Portsmouth, New Hampshire). She has studied with James David Christie, Olivier Latry, Hans-Ola Ericsson, Marie-Louise Langlais, Ray Cornils, and Dr. Abbey Hallberg-Siegfried. She has also studied organ improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart, Marie-Louise Langlais and Bálint Karosi.
Prior to her studies in Germany, Katelyn was associate organist and choirmaster at the Church of the Advent (Boston), working with the historic Aeolian-Skinner organ and the professional and volunteer choirs. Previous sacred music positions include music director at St Paul Lutheran Church (Amherst, Ohio) and Sacred Music Intern at the Brick Presbyterian Church (New York).
Her interviews and performances can be heard on such radio programs as Radio Russia, American Public Media’s Pipedreams, WXXI-FM's With Heart and Voice, Radio VM's Récit au grand orgue (Québec) and Radio Présence Toulouse (France).
Her two CD recordings on the Pro Organo label, Evocations (2017) and Inspirations (2018), have received a wide international acclaim and show her elegant and sublime music-making.
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