Inspiration, purpose through Duke Chapel’s Organ Scholar program

BY JIMMY PATON

At just ten years old in a Wilson, North Carolina, Episcopal church, the organ first captured Katherine Johnson’s imagination. “I wanted to know more,” they remember. “So I started taking lessons and kept going all through high school.”  

Today, that captivated young person is an accomplished musician, prepared for the next step in their career at Yale’s Master of Music program, a path forged during two transformative years as a Duke Chapel Organ Scholar. 

Johnson first encountered Duke’s organs during a high school visit. “I remember sitting down at the Aeolian and having no idea where to go or what to do,” Johnson recalls. “It was completely overwhelming, but also really exciting to see those instruments up close.” Now, they play that same Aeolian organ almost daily, an opportunity provided by the Chapel’s training program. 

Upon arriving at Duke, Johnson discovered an unexpected connection to their alma mater, Oberlin, in the form of “sibling instruments”. “The organ at the back here at Duke is a Flentrop,” they explain. “One of the organs I frequently played at Oberlin was a Flentrop only two or three years apart in age.”  

While this familiarity helped, the experience at Duke went far beyond the instruments themselves. “Before being at Duke, most of my learning was in a more traditional academic environment,” Johnson says. “At Duke, it’s been much more closely linked to the liturgical calendar as a place of worship. It’s the rhythm of Advent and Christmas and Holy Week and Easter that really are the big musical structures of what I’m doing.”  

This liturgical immersion proved so valuable that Johnson chose to extend their tenure in the originally one-year position. “I was nearing grad school applications and felt there was so much more to learn here,” they recall. “It felt like the ideal setup to learn the service planning and church musicianship skills I wanted.”  

The program’s rigor is concrete. Beyond mastering Duke’s five distinct organs, Johnson’s musicianship deepened through a range of demanding experiences. They conducted the Chapel Choir, accompanied the Evensong Singers through works by Renaissance and contemporary composers alike, and played continuo for the Bach Cantata Series, performing complex works like Bach’s Missa in A Major. In a featured solo recital on Holy Saturday, they curated a thoughtful program of Lenten music that featured not only masters like Bach and Brahms but also the significant English composer Ethel Smyth. Each of these experiences has deepened their artistry and confidence, preparing them for the multifaceted life of a professional church musician. 

All this preparation was tested when Johnson joined Duke Chapel’s 10th anniversary Evensong tour to Oxford. For six days, they performed in a different historic chapel each evening, adapting to eight different organs, precisely the kind of demanding schedule that once would have felt overwhelming. “Adapting familiar repertoire to a new acoustic and a different instrument every day was an exciting challenge,” Johnson said of the experience. 

Yet technical mastery tells only part of the story.

“One of the things that I’ve valued the most about the past two years here, along with the instruments…has been my colleagues. I’ve learned so much from their range of experience and expertise.” — Katherine Johnson, 2023–25 Duke Chapel Organ Scholar 

Johnson’s journey from an overwhelmed teenager at the organ console to an accomplished musician ready for a professional career exemplifies why investing in sacred music education matters. The Organ Scholar program provides emerging musicians with the comprehensive training they need to become tomorrow’s leaders in church music. It is made possible by philanthropic partners like the American Guild of Organists, the many Friends of Duke Chapel, and endowments including the Barbara-Jean Ross Jones Music Education Fund, the Chapel Organ Scholars Program Fund, the Marvin Boren and Elvira Lowe Smith Memorial Fund, and the Duke Chapel Choir and Chapel Music Endowment. 

As Johnson prepares to carry their Duke-honed skills to the next stage of their career, their success is a testament to the lasting impact of programs that preserve and advance the sacred music tradition.