Our Clergy & Staff

Richard was appointed St. Chrysostom’s Director of Music, Organist & Carillonneur in 1984. Under his direction, the church’s professional choir has become well-known for the beauty of its singing and the breadth of its repertoire, including choral music from the 15th century to the present. Richard also serves as Director of Concerts, presenting internationally known organists, period instrument groups, choirs and carillonneurs. The annual series prominently features St. Chrysostom’s Fisk, Opus 123 organ. 

Throughout his career as a concert artist, Richard has appeared as organist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera Chorus, the Chicago Symphony Brass, Music of the Baroque, the Aestas Consort, the William Ferris Chorale, Chicago Choral Artists, St. James’ Chamber Orchestra, Gaudete Brass Quintet, Asbury Brass Quintet and the Millar Brass Ensemble. Notable engagements in Europe have included three recitals at St. Sulpice, Paris, and at York Minster, York, England. He has accompanied choirs for six week-long residencies in England at Wells Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, Worcester Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral, as well as residencies at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, and The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City. 

Richard served as Assistant Professor of Organ & Harpsichord at Northern Illinois University from 1995 until 2008. For several years, he was also College Organist at Carthage College where he taught organ and church music. He has been heard on Pipedreams, the nationally syndicated radio program produced by Minnesota Public Radio. His recordings include live concert recordings at St. Chrysostom’s, with the Music of Baroque, the Choir of the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Chicago, and with St. James Cathedral.  He is the Organist on the DVD of the 2007 Christmas Concert by Music of the Baroque, produced and broadcast by Channel 11 WTTW and national PBS stations.  

He received his Bachelor and Masters of Music degree from Northwestern University in 1976 and 1989 (William H. Barnes Scholar & Pi Kappa Lambda). In 1979 he was awarded two scholarships by the French government for organ study in France with Daniel Roth, then Organiste-Titulaire of the Basilique du Sacre-Couer, now Organiste-Titulaire of St- Sulpice, with whom he also studied at the Summer Academy for Organists in Haarlem, Holland, in 1977. During the summer of 1992, he studied at Clare College, Cambridge, at the Cambridge Choral Studies Seminar.