Organist
Professor

Dr. Timothy Albrecht

Composer and organist Timothy Albrecht teaches and performs around the world, conducting master classes and playing the organs of the globe: St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, the Chinese National Concert Hall in Taipei, Martin Luther’s Stadtkirche in Wittenberg, Germany, St. Sulpice in Paris, and more. He competed as the United States representative at the VI International Johann Sebastian Bach Organ Competition in Leipzig, Germany and is a Visiting Associate Fellow for life at Cambridge University in England. The Darmstädter Beträge zur neuen Musik has called his playing “unforgettable, because inimitable,” and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung proclaims his “heroic contrasts and ever-present artistry and virtuosity.”

Closer to home, Albrecht is University Organist at Emory University, where he also heads the organ masters degree program and is Professor of Church Music at the Candler School of Theology. Albrecht, who received his undergraduate degrees from Oberlin College and Oberlin Music Conservatory and his graduate degree from the Eastman School of Music, relishes his role as teacher. Few occupations, he has noted, allow for such rewarding mentoring relationships.

Albrecht is perhaps best known as a composer for his Grace Notes I-VIII (1987-1999), published by Augsburg Fortress. Albrecht sees his Grace Notes as short musical homilies, usually no longer than the length of most hymns. “However,” Albrecht explains, “unlike a typical hymn introduction that gives the key, tempo, and mood of the hymn, my Grace Note . . . often contains an embedded musical-theological message, giving an often subconscious interpretation of the hymn text or Scripture on which the hymn is based. This approach to hymn introduction composition I have learned from the study of Bach’s organ chorale composition.”

Tim is married to Tamara, with whom he performs duo-organ repertoire. They have one daughter, Esther. His extended family includes numerous Lutheran clergy and with Tim, they can certainly say that they have an organist in the family, too! His compact discs, Grace Notes and Timothy Albrecht Performs Bach Live!, have received outstanding reviews and are available in record stores.