Claudia Dumschat, Music Director
Award-winning organist, music director and conductor, Dr. Claudia Dumschat is the Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of the Transfiguration (“The Little Church Around the Corner”), a national landmark in the heart of New York City with a rich liturgical and musical tradition. There she administers and conducts the professional Choir of Men and Boys (the oldest such choir in the country); the Girls Choir; Cherub Choir; and Camerata.
She is also the Artistic Director of the popular public Concert Series at the church, which features local and international performers in an eclectic mix of recitals, music dramas, operas, and multi-disciplinary works combining music with dance, poetry, and the visual arts.
Claudia has been a professional church organist and conductor since the age of 12, rising through various posts, most notably from Associate Organist at Columbia University’s St. Paul’s Chapel to Acting Director of Music at St. James Church in New York before assuming her current position in 1999. She has given organ recitals nationally and internationally and has also made recordings for radio, television, and CDs.
She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of Music, and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Fred Swann, John Walker, McNeil Robinson, Alec Wyton, and Dennis Keene. She studied conducting with Dennis Keene, Giacomo Bracali, and workshop studies with Margaret Hillis and Gregg Smith.
Claudia’s extensive organ and conducting repertoire ranges from medieval to contemporary music. She has also commissioned and premiered both secular operas and choral works. As a champion of new music, Claudia collaborates with the New York Composers Circle as organist and conductor.
A passionate teacher, Claudia is committed to developing young voices in the classical choral tradition, and her choirs have performed with distinction in liturgical and popular settings, both here and abroad.