Richard Barrick Hoskins

Richard Barrick Hoskins was appointed Director of Music & Organist of St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church, Chicago in January of 1984. He conducts the 16-voice professional choir, a Children's Choir, and a volunteer Parish Choir. He is also the Director of the Music at St. Chrysostom's Concert Series, which he founded in 1985. Since January 1995 he has been Assistant Professor of Organ & Harpsichord at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, teaching Graduate and Undergraduate students. During the 2007-2008 academic year he is the Interim Professor of Organ at Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin. He also directs and teaches piano and organ for St. Chrysostom’s Music Academy. 

     He has played recitals in churches and at universities throughout the Midwest, in Canada, in England at York Minster, in Vienna and in Paris at St. Sulpice and Le Temple du Saint-Esprit. He has appeared as soloist with the Northern Illinois University Philharmonic and the LaPorte County Symphony. He has appeared as Organist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andreas Delffs, Carlos Kalmar, James Paul, and Allen Tinkham, as well as with Music of the Baroque, The William Ferris Chorale, the Asbury Brass Quintet and the Millar Brass Ensemble. During the 2004-2006 seasons he has appeared as Organist for the Chorale on WTTW’s Sunday evening program, 30 Good Minutes. He has been heard on the internationally syndicated radio program Pipedreams, playing the Fisk Organ at St. Chrysostom’s. His faculty recitals at NIU have been broadcast on WNIU. He served as organist for the Choir of Christ Church, Winnetka, under the direction of Richard Clemmitt, for the Choir’s residencies at Wells Cathedral (2003), Durham Cathedral (2005), Lincoln Cathedral (2007, and Grace Cathedral (2008), and with the NIU Chamber Choir, under the direction Dr. Eirc Johnson at Worcester Cathedral (2006).

     He began organ studies in Freeport, Illinois with Velma Wachlin in 1971. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University in 1976. In 1988 he was named the William H. Barnes Scholar at Northwestern and received a $10,000 award for graduate study. His organ study for both Bachelor and Masters degrees was with Dr. Richard Enright. In 1989 he was elected to the honorary music society Pi Kappa Lambda. In 1974 he was the First Place winner of the Young Artists Competition sponsored by the Society of American Musicians and was presented in recital by the Society. In 1979 he was awarded two scholarships by the French government for organ study in France with Daniel Roth, then Organiste-Titulaire of the Basilica du Sacre-Couer, now Organiste-Titulaire of St. Sulpice. While there, he made his Parisian concert debut at the Temple du Saint-Esprit. He also studied with M. Roth at the Summer Academy for Organists in Haarlem, Holland (1977). He attended the Cambridge Choral Studies Seminar in 1990 at Clare College, studying with John Rutter, Mary Berry, Timothy Brown, Peter Le Huray and Percy Young.

     He was Assistant Organist at St. James' Cathedral, Chicago from 1976 to 1979 and was Interim Organist-Choirmaster in 1980. He then served as Organist-Choirmaster at historic Second Presbyterian Church, Chicago, and was recorded there for the Tiffany exhibition at the Field Museum. Other recordings include

In dulci Jubilo - Christmas at St. Chrysostom's, as Organist for the Choir of the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Chicago, and on the most recent Christmas CD Jubilate from Music of the Baroque.