Organist, Associate Music Director
Dr. Jonathan William Moyer
Contact: jmoyer@covenantweb.org
Jonathan William Moyer is the David S. Boe chair and associate professor of organ at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and is organist of the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, OH. He has also been a visiting-lecturer in organ at the Hochschule für Musik in Lübeck, Germany. He specializes in a vast repertoire from the renaissance to the 21st century, and has performed throughout the United States, and in Europe and Japan. The Baltimore Sun has described his playing as “ever-expressive, stylish, and riveting.”
He has performed with numerous ensembles including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the Oberlin Symphony Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), Quire Cleveland, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and the Handel Choir of Baltimore. Recent concerts include St. Jakobikirche (Lübeck), Ludgerikirche (Norden), Laurenskerk (Alkmaar), the Marktkirchethe (Hannover), the National Convention of the American Organ Historical Society (Rochester, NY), the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington DC), St. Sulpice (Paris), Notre Dame de Bergerac, and J.S. Bach’s complete Clavierübung III at the German Reformed Church in Budapest, Hungary.
His CD “Voices of the Hanse,” recorded on the 1637 Stellwagen organ Lübeck, Germany, was released on Gothic Records in September of 2020 and features music from 17th-century North German sources. His next recording project, “The Organs of Oberlin,” will feature diverse repertoire from the world-renown collection of organs at the Oberlin Conservatory.
At the Church of the Covenant, Dr. Moyer oversees two remarkable pipe organs (E.M. Skinner/Aeolian Skinner/Holtkamp and Richards Fowkes, Op. 19).
Dr. Moyer holds an Artist Diploma in organ from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music as a student of James David Christie and Olivier Latry. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and Graduate Performance Diploma in organ from the Peabody Conservatory of Music (Baltimore) as a student of Donald Sutherland and Gillian Weir, where he also completed a Master’s degree in piano as a student of Ann Schein. He received a bachelor of music degree in piano from Bob Jones University as a student of Laurence Morton. He further studied with organists Susan Landale, Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, and Michael Radulescu. In 2008, he received the second prize in the Sixth International Musashino Organ Competition in Tokyo, Japan, and in 2005 he was a finalist in the St. Albans International Organ Competition. He is represented by WindWerk Artists.
“Moyer revealed the composer’s musical genius as vividly as his spiritual richness, taking full advantage of the cathedral’s organ. …Passages of rapt reflection were shaped with a keen sense of import.” The Baltimore Sun
“Moyer skillfully chose registrations that showed the range of color the instrument can produce and suited them perfectly to the music at hand…It’s delightful to hear an organ recital where everything seems so right and the playing so much in the service of the instrument and the repertoire.” Cleveland Classical.com
Dr. Moyer resides in Shaker Heights, Ohio, along with his wife, organist, Dr. Kaori Hongo, and sons, Christopher Sho and Samuel Kazu.