Dear Friends,

We are excited to announce Trinity’s next Associate Director of Music, Joseph Ferguson.  Joseph will begin his work at Trinity at the beginning of July.  He will be joined in Princeton by his wife Stephanie and their cat Mark.

I am grateful to our dedicated search committee, made up of Michael Edwards, Krista Galyon, Emma Levitt, and Tara Sikma who dedicated time and expertise in this search.  In addition, many members of the parish helped with hospitality for various candidates, taking them for meals and showing them around town.  

This search was intensive and garnered applicants from across the country and also from several other countries.  In each stage of the process, Joseph rose to the top of the pack with his consistent thoughtfulness, level of preparation, and evident deep care for the complex nature of music ministry.  We are looking forward to all that he will bring to our community, both musically and personally.  You can find more background on Joseph, as well as a message from him, below.  Please join us in giving him a warm Trinity welcome!

As we welcome Joseph, we also bid a fond and grateful farewell to Connor Fluharty.  Connor has faithfully served Trinity Church for the last eight years.  Connor has been a gift to this church through challenging times, and we are grateful to him for all that he has shared with us.  Connor’s last Sunday will be Choir Sunday, which is on June 2nd this year.  Please join us for the 10:00 service on June 2nd to celebrate Connor and to send him off with our love.

Faithfully,

Meg and Paul

Joseph Ferguson is an organist and pianist from Little Silver, New Jersey. Currently a graduate student of organ at Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music, he maintains keen interests in improvisation and liturgical music. Joseph is currently Organ Scholar at Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan, New York, where he accompanies the adult choir and choristers on the church’s 138-rank Austin organ, performs service music and voluntaries, and conducts regularly. He previously served a sacred music internship at Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Verona, New Jersey.

Beyond university, Joseph has pursued study of sacred music at St. Joseph’s Seminary & College in Yonkers, New York and St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park, California. Previously, Joseph earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano performance from Rutgers University and McGill University respectively, cultivating a passion for the imaginative, idiosyncratic performance practices documented on recordings of the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

Notable performances include Dohnányi’s comic piano concerto “Variations on a Nursery Theme,” Op. 25 with Rutgers Sinfonia as winner of the ensemble’s annual concerto competition; a solo organ recital at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey as part of the Wednesdays at Noon recital series; and Fauré’s Requiem, Op. 48 alongside chamber orchestra at Church of the Heavenly Rest.

From Joseph:

I am incredibly excited to be joining you at Trinity Church. I've had a wonderful experience getting to know some members of the parish already, and I'm so grateful to everyone on the staff and the search committee who has made this possible. I'm looking forward to meeting more of you soon, making music together in service of the community and for the glory of God.