Trinity Welcomes a New Organ Scholar!

Trinity Welcomes A New Organ Scholar

A warm welcome to NICO TJOELKER, who begins his tenure as the thirty-third Trinity Organ Scholar with the start of choir camp on August 8. Congratulations also to Manuel Piazza who assumes the post of Senior Organ Scholar this year!

Nico recently completed a Bachelor of Music in organ at Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Australia), where he studied under 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, where he served for one year from August 2020 - 2021, and St. Stephen’s Uniting Church, where he served from 2017 - 2021.

From October 2018 to February 2019, Nico completed a semester exchange at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany. In July 2018, Nico attended the Haarlem International Organ Festival in Holland, where he received instruction from renowned European organists, including Jean-Baptiste Robin, Louis Robilliard, Leo van Doeselaar, and Olivier Latry. He was selected to be one of five participants in the Lucerne Organ Masterclass, Switzerland in August 2018 under the direction of Wolfgang Sieber.

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 July 2017, Nico toured the historical organs of Europe with the Sydney Conservatorium organ department. He played for the Australia and New Zealand College of Organists Academy recital in Napier, New Zealand in 2018, and was the guest organist for the New South Wales Youth Orchestra’s inaugural concert in 2015. He was awarded first prize in the 2013 Sydney Organ Competition – Intermediate Section, and first prize in the 2016 Sydney Organ Competition – Open Section.

In addition to organ, Nico enjoys reading, jazz, bushwalking, learning German, and learning computer programming. He looks forward to commencing a Master of Music in organ at Yale in September 2021, where he will learn from Martin Jean.