Brian Schoettler serves as Minister of Music & Organist at First United Methodist Church in Evanston, Illinois where he directs their Chancel, Handbell, Gospel, and Children’s Choirs and plays their recently restored Austin organs (IV/80, II/15). He is also an organ faculty member at the Music Institute of Chicago. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Organ Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music, his Master of Music degree in Organ Performance and Composition at Westminster Choir College, and his bachelor’s degree in Organ Performance, Church Music, and Instrumental Music Education at Carthage College. An avid composer, Brian has participated in summer composition programs at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music and with the European American Musical Alliance at the Schola Cantorum in Paris.
Brian's compositions include his “Scherzo” for organ, “The Windows” for choir and orchestra, liturgical music including his “Service in B-flat,” and a corpus of sacred music for choir and instrumental ensembles. His cantata, “Passages from Luke,” is available in three versions: for piano four-hands, for string orchestra and organ, and for full orchestra.
Brian has travelled around the world performing in Austria, Belize, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Japan, and Mexico with such groups as the Carthage Choir, the Carthage Wind Orchestra, and the Tremper Golden Strings. As a member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra under the batons of such conductors as Jacques Lacombe, Simon Rattle, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Brian has been featured on American Public Media’s “Pipedreams” and on the CD “O Day of Peace.”
Brian is the recipient of the 2015 Don Marler Church Music Scholarship from West End United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee and winner of the Notre Dame Children’s Choir’s 2016 Hymn Competition. Brian is a board member of the North Shore chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), and a member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts.
For publicity materials, click here.
Brian's compositions include his “Scherzo” for organ, “The Windows” for choir and orchestra, liturgical music including his “Service in B-flat,” and a corpus of sacred music for choir and instrumental ensembles. His cantata, “Passages from Luke,” is available in three versions: for piano four-hands, for string orchestra and organ, and for full orchestra.
Brian has travelled around the world performing in Austria, Belize, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Japan, and Mexico with such groups as the Carthage Choir, the Carthage Wind Orchestra, and the Tremper Golden Strings. As a member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra under the batons of such conductors as Jacques Lacombe, Simon Rattle, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Brian has been featured on American Public Media’s “Pipedreams” and on the CD “O Day of Peace.”
Brian is the recipient of the 2015 Don Marler Church Music Scholarship from West End United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee and winner of the Notre Dame Children’s Choir’s 2016 Hymn Competition. Brian is a board member of the North Shore chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), and a member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts.
For publicity materials, click here.