J. Melvin Butler, organ

J. Melvin Butler is Canon Organist/Choirmaster of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle. He is also Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington, where he teaches organ improvisation and church music.

From 1972 through 1991 he was Organist/Choirmaster of the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY. During that time he was also Associate Professor of Church Music at the Eastman School of Music, a violist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director and Conductor of the Rochester Bach Festival Chorus. From 1968 to 1972 he was violist with the U. S. Navy String Quartet and Organist of the First Congregational Church in Washington, D.C.

Last season, Butler’s concert venues included Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle; St. John’s Cathedral, Spokane; and Downtown Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY, as well as concerts in Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan. He often presents master classes and lectures on various aspects of church music, choral conducting, hymn playing, and improvisation, and has appeared as a lecturer and recitalist for several American Guild of Organists conventions.

His CDs, on the Loft label, include French on the Flentrop and Out of This World (with the Boston Brass), both recorded at St. Mark’s Cathedral, and Tournemire in Oberlin, recorded on the new C. B. Fisk organ at Oberlin College.

Originally from Burlington, NC, Butler received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying with Garth Peacock, and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Eastman School of Music, studying with David Craighead.

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