AAM LEADERSHIP
Patrick Fennig
Executive Director
pfennig@anglicanmusicians.org
Patrick Fennig became the first Executive Director of the Association of Anglican Musicians in November 2021. Supporting the musicians who are both dedicated to the vocation and eager to celebrate the living Episcopal tradition is the cornerstone of his work within the Association. Before joining AAM, Patrick worked as Concert Series and Library Manager at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and was a countertenor in the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys under the direction of John Scott, Daniel Hyde and Jeremy Filsell. As a professional musician, he has appeared regularly with Early Music New York, Musica Sacra, Pomerium, SEM Ensemble, and Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble and is currently a staff countertenor at Christ Church Greenwich, Connecticut. Being a cradle Episcopalian, Patrick grew up as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, and has served on several parish, diocesan, and national committees within The Episcopal Church. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and lives in Norwalk, Connecticut, with his wife, Elizabeth, and sons, Sebastian and Benjamin. When not working with AAM, Patrick spends time with his family, cheers on the Atlanta Braves, and organizes his extensive baseball card collection.
Executive Board Elected Officers
Kyle J. Ritter
President
kyleritter@anglicanmusicians.org
Kyle Ritter has served as Canon for Music at The Cathedral of All Souls in Asheville, North Carolina since 2002. Prior to his appointment at All Souls, Mr. Ritter was Minister of Music at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia, a position he held from 1993-2002. He earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Organ and Church Music from Indiana University, where he was a student of Robert Rayfield and Marilyn Keiser. Mr. Ritter is a past regional officer and Placement Advisor for the Association of Anglican Musicians (AAM), and served for several years on the editorial board for the AAM Journal. He taught in the Episcopal Dioceses of Washington and Virginia for the Leadership Program for Musicians (LPM), and served as chair of the National Board. He has also served the American Guild of Organists in various chapters as dean and treasurer, as well as State Convener for North Carolina.
Michael Kleinschmidt
Vice President
mkleinschmidt@anglicanmusicians.org
Michael Kleinschmidt is the Canon for Cathedral Music of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle. Before assuming this role in March 2015, he held similar positions at Trinity Cathedral, Portland, Oregon; Trinity Church, Boston; and The Parish of All Saints, Ashmont (Boston). Michael’s primary mentor in church music was Gerre Hancock, with whom he worked as Assistant Organist of Saint Thomas Church, New York City, in the early 1990s. Michael holds degrees in organ performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Eastman School of Music. His teachers were Haskell Thomson and Russell Saunders. As a recipient of a Fulbright Grant, he studied contemporary organ literature and improvisation for a year with Peter Planyavsky in Vienna. As a concert organist, Michael has performed in forty States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. As a choral conductor, he has led Royal School of Church Music summer choir courses in several North American cities. In addition to his professional activities, Michael enjoys exploring wilderness areas of the Pacific Northwest on foot and sharing life with his spouse, Marc Aubertin.
Linda Morgan Stowe
Secretary
lstowe@anglicanmusicians.org
Linda Morgan Stowe has been a member of AAM since 1995, serving on the Philadelphia 2012 Conference Executive Committee and a term as Director-at-Large on the AAM board. She was appointed Chair of Fine Arts and Organist/Choir Director at Saint James School, Hagerstown, Maryland in 2012. Previously, she also taught at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas and St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. For a number of years, she worked in small Lutheran and Episcopal parishes in Madison, Wisconsin, was active in ALCM and taught for the Leadership for Parish Musicians certification program. Married to John Chappell Stowe, they are the proud grandparents of two boys, one now a chorister at St. Thomas Choir School, and enjoy family cycling trips.
Joe Galema, D.M.A.
Treasurer
jgalema@anglicanmusicians.org
Joseph Galema currently serves as Principal Organist at First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, one of the largest and most active congregations in the city. He has also been the organ instructor at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music since 2008. He retired in July 2014 as Music Director and Academy Organist at the United States Air Force Academy, having served there for almost 32 years. Joe holds Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in organ performance from The University of Michigan, and is a Past AAM Treasurer (2015–2018).
Damin Spritzer, D.M.A.
Director-at-Large
dspritzer@anglicanmusicians.org
Damin Spritzer is Area Chair and Associate Professor of Organ at the University of Oklahoma and continues to work with the Cathedral Church of Saint Matthew in Dallas as Artist-in-Residence for Cathedral Arts. For the Association of Anglican Musicians, she has previously served on the committee for the Gerre Hancock Internship and is currently serving on the Editorial Board for the JAAM. Formerly an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas, she received her doctorate from the University of North Texas, her Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music, and her Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory. In addition to her deep commitment to teaching, she has performed at historic churches and instruments in Iceland, Germany, France, Brazil, Italy, Israel, England, Norway, and Belgium. She has performed and lectured for the Organ Historical Society, the American Guild of Organists, and the Association of Anglican Musicians. Her research and performances focusheavily on underrepresented composers and diversity.
Jared Johnson, D.M.A.
Director-at-Large
jaredjohnson@anglicanmusicians.org
Jared Johnson is the Canon Director of Music at Grace Cathedral, where he leads the Cathedral Choir and oversees the music program. A native of Ohio, he is a graduate of Oberlin College and Yale University. Prior to his appointment in San Francisco, he was Director of Music at Trinity Cathedral in Columbia, South Carolina, where he founded both a boys’ choir and a girls’ choir, and he taught on the music faculty of the University of South Carolina. A frequent guest conductor, he recently served as music director for the Saint Thomas Girl Chorister Course and the Royal School of Church Music Course at Duke University. As an organ recitalist, he has appeared in major venues throughout North America, Great Britain, and Australia, and his recordings appear on the Pro Organo and JAV labels. He previously served on the staff of Trinity Church, Boston; Memorial Church at Harvard; and Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut.
Appointed Officers
Alan C. Reed
Archivist
areed@anglicanmusicians.org
A member of AAM since 1984, Alan C. Reed served two terms as Treasurer (1999–2002, 2007–2011) before becoming AAM’s second Archivist in 2011. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, he has served Episcopal churches in the dioceses of New Jersey, West Tennessee, North Carolina, and the Central Gulf Coast. Since 2003 he has served as the Organist and Master of the Choirs at St. John’s Church in Charlotte. He and his wife Tracy founded the Gulf Coast RSCM course in 2002 and have managed the Charlotte RSCM course since 2004.
Alan attended every AAM conference from 1986 to 1998. Together he and Tracy have attended each conference since 1999, except for the 2000 conference during which Tracy gave birth to their son Drayton.
Jefferson McConnaughey
Chancellor (outgoing)
chancellor@anglicanmusicians.org
Jefferson McConnaughey, a native of Virginia, has been playing the organ in churches for the past 54 years. He was graduated cum laude from Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, North Carolina, in 1974 with a Bachelor of Music in Performance degree, majoring in organ. While at Mars Hill, Mr. McConnaughey studied organ with Donna N. Robertson and Dr. Marilyn Keiser. He served as an Assistant Organist and Choirmaster for Evensong at All Saints Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia and, for 15 years, was organist for Northside Drive Baptist Church. He moved to Columbus, Ohio with his wife, Kathryn, after retiring. In addition to musical pursuits, Jeff is also a graduate of the University of North Carolina’s School of Law, licensed in Georgia and North Carolina, and admitted to the bar in 1978. He practiced law until his retirement in 2018.
Trevor Carolan
Chancellor (incoming)
chancellor@anglicanmusicians.org
Trevor W. Carolan, J.D., Dallas, Texas, is an appellate attorney at Bowman and Brooke LLP, where he represents Fortune 500 companies in the automotive, medical device and pharmaceutical industries in state and federal jurisdictions throughout the country. He is licensed to practice law in Texas, Arizona, Minnesota, and several federal appellate courts throughout the country including the United States Supreme Court. He is also an organist and baritone staff singer at the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, where he served as Interim Associate Director of Music and Organist in 2023. He has been a member of AAM since 2019, and served as Hotel Liaison for the 2023 Dallas Convention.
An Iowa native, he earned his bachelor’s degree from Wartburg College. At Wartburg, he was a four-year-member of the Wartburg Choir, studied organ with Dr. Karen Black, and served as Student Body President his senior year. He earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. While in the Twin Cities, he was the bass section leader of the 100-member cathedral choir at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.
Prior to moving to Dallas in 2022, Carolan spent seven years in federal service as an attorney for the United States Judiciary in Minneapolis and Phoenix, Arizona. In Phoenix, he also served as Associate Director of Music and Organist at All Saints’ Episcopal Church & Day School, including a year as Interim Director of Music.
The Right Reverend Brian Lee Cole
Chaplain
chaplain@anglicanmusicians.org
The Rt. Rev. Brian Lee Cole was ordained and consecrated fifth bishop of the Diocese of East Tennessee on December 2, 2017. A southeast Missouri native, Bishop Cole graduated from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 1989. In 1992, he earned a Master of Divinity at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, with additional studies in Anglican Church History at The University of the South School of Theology, Sewanee, in 2001. He also pursued studies in Art and Prayer at General Theological Seminary (GTS), New York City, in 2006, and studied liturgics In Asheville, N.C., from 2002 to 2005.
Robert W. Lehman
Journal Editor
editor@anglicanmusicians.org
Robert Lehman, conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and composer, has served on the staff of several distinguished churches, including the Washington National Cathedral (of which he is a Fellow), the Princeton University Chapel, and Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York City. For fourteen years he served as organist and choirmaster of historic Christ Church in New Haven, Connecticut where, under his leadership, the choir and music program gained an international reputation for excellence. He served The Church of St. Michael & St. George in St. Louis, Missouri as Organist and Choirmaster from 2008 to 2021. Maintaining an active career as a performer, Lehman appears as a conductor and solo recitalist both in this country and abroad. His compositions are published by several publishers and have been sung and recorded by leading choirs around the globe.
Colin MacKnight, D.M.A.
Placement Advisor
placement@anglicanmusicians.org
Colin MacKnight is Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock, AR. At Trinity, he oversees a vibrant music program which includes among its offerings weekly choral evensongs, a concert series, and chorister and choral scholar programs. Prior to Trinity, Colin was Associate Organist at Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, Long Island; Assistant Organist and Music Theory Teacher at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, NYC; and Assistant Organist at Church of the Resurrection, NYC.
Colin received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Doctorate of Musical Arts from The Juilliard School, studying organ performance with Paul Jacobs. For his doctoral dissertation, “Ex Uno Plures: A Proposed Completion of Bach’s Art of Fugue,” Colin received the Richard F. French Doctoral Prize. A frequent competition prize-winner, Colin has received the Fellow and Choirmaster Certifications from the AGO, receiving the prize for that year’s top Choirmaster score.
For more information, media, and a calendar of performances, please visit colinmacknight.com. Colin MacKnight is represented in North America by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.
Daniel J. Fortune
Web Producer
webmaster@anglicanmusicians.org
Daniel Fortune is the organist-choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron, Ohio. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Houghton College in Houghton, New York where he studied organ with Dr. Susan Klotzbach, and the Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Russell Saunders.
Daniel previously served as as AAM’s Publicist for four years (2009–2013) and began his work as Web Producer in August 2018. He is a former dean of the Akron Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.