Music director, Richard webster
Richard Webster, will continue his work as Music Director of Bach in the City after leading Bach Week for 50 years. Webster, who splits his time between residences in Chicago and Boston, is a lecturer on the faculty of Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. He recently completed his tenure as interim director of music at St. Paul’s Choir School and Parish, Cambridge, Massachusetts, having retired in 2022 as director of music and organist at historic Trinity Church on Boston’s Copley Square. Webster is organist and choirmaster emeritus at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, where he served from 1974 to 2003.
As a composer, Richard completes several commissioned works a year. Six houses publish his works, including Advent Press, which publishes his music exclusively.
Webster was appointed Interim Director of Music at St. Paul's Choir School and Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts in July, 2023, and is now entering his third year as a guest lecturer at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He travels extensively to direct hymn festivals and choral workshops, is a regular guest conductor with the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys, and is an honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (FRSCM). Webster holds an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee.
In April, 2023, at Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church, Richard led a Hymn Festival with the Morning Choir, Tower Brass, and organists for the annual American Guild of Organists Endowment Fund concert, where he received the AGO 2023 Distinguished Artist Award.
Richard is Organist and Choirmaster Emeritus of St. Luke’s Church, Evanston, where from 1974 to 2003 he led the Choir of Men and Boys, Girls Choir, Schola, and St. Luke’s Singers in an active program of worship, concerts, tours, and recordings. The restoration of the 1922 E. M. Skinner organ, Opus 327, was completed in 1998 under his leadership. He studied organ with Peter Fyfe, Karel Paukert, and Wolfgang Rübsam and has performed and recorded with the Chicago and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras.
A passionate runner, Richard has completed 45 marathons. He recently completed the Chicago Marathon on October 8 to benefit the 2024 Bach Week Festival.
Additional information on Mr. Webster is available at: www.advent-press.com.