The Institute of Sacred Music is delighted to announce the appointments of Drs. Bálint Karosi and Richard Webster as lecturers in sacred music for the 2024-25 academic year. As part of the ISM’s substantial expansion of its church music curriculum, Dr. Karosi will offer an advanced course in keyboard harmony and Dr. Webster will teach an advanced course in liturgical music skills.
Dr. Bálint Karosi has been cantor and director of music, classical at Saint Peter’s Church in Midtown Manhattan since 2015. He is known for his interpretation of Bach’s organ music, his Baroque-style improvisations, and his compositions, which include an eclectic reconstruction of J. S. Bach’s St Mark’s Passion BWV 247, five organ concerti, cantatas, choral, orchestral, and various instrumental works. His Toccata in Memory of Bartók was the compulsory work for the 2022 National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP) competition; his Kodály Triptych won the first prize of the Hungarian Philharmonia’s 2022 composition competition; and his organ concerto Syöjätär was awarded the Kaija Saarijaho prize in Helsinki, Finland in 2023. Dr. Karosi earned his D.M.A. in composition at the Yale School of Music in 2017. Read more about Dr. Karosi.
Richard Webster recently completed his tenure as interim director of music at St. Paul’s Choir School and Parish, Harvard Square, Cambridge, having retired in 2022 as director of music and organist at Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston. He also served as organist and choirmaster of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, Illinois from 1974 to 2003 where he directed the Choir of Men and Boys and founded the Girls’ Choir and Schola. His other roles have included directing Chicago’s Bach Week Festival. Dr. Webster has led choir courses across the United States, South Africa, and New Zealand, and is an honorary fellow of the Royal School of Church Music. His commissioned works are published by six different houses, including Advent Press, which publishes his music exclusively. His hymn arrangements for brass, percussion, organ, and congregation are performed across America, Canada, Britain, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and on the BBC and CBC. Dr. Webster’s D.M. degree is from the University of the South at Sewanee. Read more about Dr. Webster.
Please join us in welcoming Drs. Karosi and Webster to the ISM this coming year.