Nathaniel Gumbs to take on new role at Riverside Church

Dr. Nathaniel Gumbs, who has been on staff at the ISM for the last eight years, has accepted a call to be director of music at The Riverside Church in the City of New York. He will leave Yale at the end of this term and will be sorely missed.

A 2011 graduate from the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music (ISM), Gumbs later joined the staff in 2017 as director of chapel music serving Marquand Chapel, Berkeley Divinity School, and the University Church at Yale. He has presided over the music for several thousand liturgies during that time employing virtually every musical style used in Christian worship. He has supervised dozens of organ and choral conducting students and hundreds of Divinity students who have participated in worship either in leadership roles or in the pews. 

Martin Jean, director of the ISM, said, “Nat has made the seemingly impossible possible by bringing together in prayer people from vastly different traditions, practices, and worldviews through music. He has truly been a model for the church and he has left an indelible mark on this Institute which will long be remembered.”

Gumbs’ new role at Riverside will follow other leading lights of American church music, including Virgil Fox, Frederick Swann, David Higgs, John Walker, and many others. He will preside over the famous five-manual Aeolian Skinner organ, direct a choir of forty professional singers, administer a multi-generational program of diverse musical styles, and conduct orchestras and other instrumental ensembles that support this congregation’s worship.

Heartfelt good wishes and congratulations to Dr. Gumbs in this next stage of his career!