Name Scott Turkington | Role Musical Artist | |
(2 of 7) Sacred Music Documentary
Scott Turkington is the principal organist and choirmaster for Holy Family Catholic Church in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. He is also on the board of the Church Music Association of America and directs one of several Gregorian scholas at the annual CMAA Colloquium on Sacred Music.
Until 2014, he served as organist and choirmaster for the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Charleston, South Carolina. Before his service for the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, he was organist and choirmaster for the Roman Catholic Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist in Stamford, Connecticut, where he conducted a choir in a program of weekly polyphonic Mass settings and Gregorian chant until 2010. Before accepting the position at St. John's in 1998, he was Assistant Organist and Conductor at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. While at the National Shrine, he played for over 500 services each year, and appeared on live national television dozens of times.
He has been the director of the annual workshop in sacred music sponsored by the St. Cecilia Schola Cantorum. He has been Music Director at the Church of the Covenant in Boston; Music Teacher and Organist at St. Paul's Choir School in Harvard Square, under Theodore Marier. A native of Minneapolis, he studied music at the University of Minnesota, the Boston Conservatory of Music and The Catholic University of America. His former teachers include Heinrich Fleischer, Phillip Steinhaus, and George Faxon.
In frequent demand as an organ recitalist, he has played innumerable recitals in the Northeast, having made his New York debut at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He has performed for a national convention of the Organ Historical Society, and is a featured performer on the Organ Historical Society compact disc, Organs of Baltimore. In 1994, his choir performed for Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
He is editor of A Gregorian Chant Masterclass by Theodore Marier, published by the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut. This book and its companion CD feature the Stamford Schola Gregoriana and the nuns of Regina Laudis, both conducted by Turkington.