The choir, led by Nico Tjoelker, accompanies both worship services from September through May. Choir Practice is held on Thursday nights at 7:00 pm. If you would like to participate in our Choir, please contact the church office.
MEET NICO
Nico is studying a Doctor of Musical Arts in organ at University of Notre Dame with Professor Kola Owolabi. He recently completed a Master of Music in organ at Yale University with Professor James O’Donnell, former organist and choirmaster of Westminster Abbey, London. At Yale, Nico served as Director of Music at Berkeley Divinity School. He was also the senior organ scholar at Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut, where he served under Director of Music Walden Moore and assisted in the direction of the church’s adult and children’s choirs.
Prior to Yale, Nico lived in Australia. In 2020, he completed a Bachelor of Music in organ at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he studied under Professor Philip Swanton. He graduated with First Class Honors, receiving high distinction on his thesis on the topic of early twentieth-century recordings of organ music on paper rolls. Nico previously served as organ scholar at two Sydney churches: St. Mark’s Anglican Church (2020 – 2021) and St. Stephen’s Uniting Church (2017 – 2021).
Nico enjoys studying and performing internationally. From 2018 – 2019, he completed a semester exchange at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany. He has twice attended the Haarlem International Organ Festival in the Netherlands (2018 and 2022), and was selected to be one of five participants in the Lucerne Organ Masterclass (Switzerland) in August 2018 under the direction of Wolfgang Sieber. Nico played for the Australia and New Zealand College of Organists Academy recital in Napier, New Zealand in 2018. In July 2017, he toured the historical organs of Europe with the Sydney Conservatorium organ department. In July 2016, Nico completed the Organ Scholar Experience course at Cambridge University, UK, and performed five recitals in an international organ recital tour in the UK and the Netherlands. In 2015 he was the guest organist for the New South Wales Youth Orchestra’s inaugural concert. He was awarded first prize in the 2013 Sydney Organ Competition – Intermediate Section, and first prize in the 2016 Sydney Organ Competition – Open Section.
Nico lives in South Bend with his wife Alice, who studies Liturgical Studies at Notre Dame.