Washington National Cathedral

Ronald Stolk is director of music of St. Patrick Catholic Church in downtown Washington, D.C. A native of the Netherlands, he obtained degrees in organ performance and church music from the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. With the Royal Conservatory’s Nicolai Prize and a grant from the ministry of culture he continued his studies in Paris and at the International Summer Academy in Haarlem. He won the J.S. Bach Prize of the City of Wiesbaden (Germany), first prize in the San Anselmo, Ca. Competition, first prize in the American Guild of Organists National Competition in organ improvisation, a Tournemire Medal as finalist in St. Albans (England), and was a finalist in competitions in Haarlem (the Netherlands) and Strasbourg (France).

Since moving to Washington, D.C., in 1986, he has been director of music of St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church and St. James’ Episcopal Church, Capitol Hill, and associate organist of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. He also assists at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. During the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Washington in April 2008, he was organist for the Papal Mass at Nationals Park. He is active as a recitalist and teacher and was guest lecturer in organ improvisation at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore in 2008–2009. He has published in the Dutch musical press and his preludes and settings of hymns from the 1973 Dutch Protestant hymnal have appeared in several collections.

For the Washington, D.C., chapter of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians he serves as board member and organist liaison. A former dean of the American Guild of Organists District of Columbia chapter, he is currently coordinator of the American Guild of Organists National Convention next July in Washington, an event that is expected to bring more than 2,000 organists to the nation’s capital.

Program