Manuel Piazza is appointed interim assistant director of music at Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts, where he will play the church’s 1926 Skinner organ and assist Colin Lynch in leading and administering the chorister program. Piazza is a graduate of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, New Haven, Connecticut, where he studied organ with Martin Jean, improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart, and choral conducting with Dale Adelmann. He served as senior organ scholar at Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, where he was mentored by Walden Moore, and as an organist for Yale Schola Cantorum, conducted by David Hill.
Piazza developed a passion for sacred music while attending St. Michael’s Choir School as a chorister in Toronto, Canada. He completed his undergraduate studies in organ performance at the University of Toronto, where he studied with John Tuttle. In Toronto, he served as choir director and organist at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, organ scholar at Trinity College (University of Toronto), organ scholar at St. James Anglican Cathedral, and one of five organists of St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica. From September 2019 to July 2020, he was organ scholar at Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, UK, where he played for Evensong three times a week, accompanying choristers under the direction of Christopher Gray. While living in the UK, he also taught theory and organ and performed with ensembles such as the London Sinfonia. After returning to North America, he won first prize in the 2021 Royal Canadian College of Organists National Organ Playing Competition and other awards such as the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship (RCCO), the Mary Baker Scholarship in Organ Accompanying (Yale ISM), the Julia R. Sherman Memorial Prize for excellence in organ playing (Yale ISM), and the Aidan Kavanagh Prize for academic achievement (Yale Divinity School).
For information: trinitychurchboston.org.
Other recent appointments:
Alexander Meszler to Luther College
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