Scott Turkington is the organist and choirmaster for Holy Family Catholic Church in

St. Louis Park, Minnesota St. Louis Park is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 50,010 at the 2020 census. It is a first-ring suburb immediately west of Minneapolis. Other adjacent cities include Edina, Golden Valley, Minnetonka, Ply ...

. A native of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...

, he studied music at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, the

Boston Conservatory of Music Boston Conservatory at Berklee (formerly The Boston Conservatory) is a private performing arts conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, music, and theater. Boston Conservatory was founded ...

and The

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U. ...

, his former teachers including Richard Waggoner, Heinrich Fleischer, Phillip Steinhaus, and George Faxon. Until 2014, he served as organist and choirmaster for the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Charleston, South Carolina, and before his service there, was organist and choirmaster for the Roman Catholic Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2 ...

, conducting a professional 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 Music Director at the Church of the Covenant in Boston; Music Teacher and Organist at

St. Paul's Choir School St. Paul's Choir School is a Catholic choir school located at St. Paul’s Church, Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1963, by Theodore Marier, the middle school for boys in third through eighth grades is the only boys' cho ...

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, under Theodore Marier. Before his retirement from the Church Music Association of America in 2018, he conducted many choirs, gave seminars on Gregorian chant, and annual summer courses for the CMAA. As an organ recitalist, he has played innumerable U.S. recitals, having made his New York debut at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and in Washington, D.C., at the Washington National Cathedral. As a conductor of Early Music, he has performed throughout the U.S., including New York’s Morgan Library. 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. As lecturer, he has given talks on Catholic Church Music for many U.S. Catholic dioceses, as well as for St. Thomas, Fifth Avenue’s Choirmasters' Conference, under John Scott. 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.

References

External links

Turkington on organ on Google video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turkington, Scott American classical organists American male organists Living people Musicians from Minneapolis Catholic University of America alumni University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Classical musicians from Minnesota 21st-century organists 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American keyboardists People from St. Louis Park, Minnesota Male classical organists