2025—2026 AAM Gerre Hancock Internship to be hosted by St. John the Divine, Houston, TX
Applications now open to host 2026—2027 Internship
March 10, 2024 — The Association of Anglican Musicians (AAM)is pleased to announce The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX, as the host of its 2025–2026 Gerre Hancock Internship. The Gerre Hancock Internship program was established to create full-time mentoring opportunities for extraordinary young church musicians who demonstrate a strong interest in the music and worship of the Episcopal Church. This annual internship is jointly funded by AAM and the host institution and offers the intern ten months of practical experience through intense and intentionally formative work as part of an outstanding music program. The 2025–2026 Intern will be mentored by Mr. Steven Newberry, Director of Music and Worship at St. John the Divine. The Rev’d Dr. R. Leigh Spruill, Rector of St. John the Divine writes, “The Church of St. John the Divine is highly honored being selected by the Association of Anglican Musicians to host the Gerre Hancock Internship in 2025. Our mission at St. John’s is to be a light for the city of Houston, and highly important in our goals for the future is to be a center of Christian mentoring for tomorrow’s church leaders. Our parish is blessed with an outstanding Anglican choral tradition with growing participation among all ages. We anticipate great mutual blessings from this esteemed internship.”
Applications are now open (through November 15) to host the 2026–2027 Gerre Hancock Internship. Host institution guidelines and application can be found below.
Applications for potential 2025–2026 interns will open on November 18th and are due by February 1, 2025.
St. John the Divine, Houston, TX
Prospective Interns
Applications for the 2025–2026 Gerre Hancock Internship will open on November 18th, 2024 and close on February 1, 2025.
Upon submission of an application, persons identified as references should receive an email with a special link to the reference form, but we also provide a generic online form. Reference Form
Prospective Mentoring Institutions
Applications are currently open to host the 2026–2027 Internship and close after November 15th.
To complete the Institution Application, we also require a statement from the designated Principal Mentor, and a statement from a member of the clergy.
Ezechiel Daos — St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta, GA (2024–2025)
Ezechiel Daos graduated in 2022 from Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri with bachelor’s degrees in vocal performance and music education. Ezechiel studied voice with Dr. Susan Quigley-Duggan, piano with Dr. Melissa Simons, and organ with Jonie Loehnig. Currently a graduate student at the University of North Texas, he is pursuing a master’s degree in organ performance, with a related field in harpsichord. At UNT, he studies organ with Dr. Jesse Eschbach and harpsichord/continuo with Dr. Brad Bennight. This past November, in collaboration with First Presbyterian Church–Denton and their GriefShare, Ezechiel gave the North Texas premiere of Eric Whitacre and Tony Silvestri’s The Sacred Veil. During the summer, Ezechiel serves as the Associate Cantor, Paul Bouman Endowed Chapel Choir Chair, and instructor of organ at Lutheran Summer Music at Valparaiso University. It is at Lutheran Summer Music where he combines his passions for teaching and liturgy. Ezechiel currently serves as organist at First Presbyterian Church in Denton, Texas. In his free time, he enjoys baking bread, jogging, and going to bookstores.
Abraham Wallace — St. George’s Episcopal Church, Nashville, TN (2023–2024)
Abraham Wallace graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2018 with degrees in music (piano) and geophysics. He completed a master’s degree in pipe organ performance from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. While at Yale, Abe served as Organ Scholar at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on the Green (Norwalk, CT) and as Director of Music for Trinity Lutheran Church (Milford, CT). He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Sacred Music at the University of Michigan, studying pipe organ with Professor Peter Sykes. Some musical highlights from the last few years include commissioning and performing an organ suite by Ethan Haman as a part of the 2021 American Guild of Organists Student Commissioning Project, curating a virtual evensong service in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and playing harpsichord in continuo ensembles for various early music projects in both Michigan and Ohio. Before joining St. George’s, Nashville as the 2023–2024 Gerre Hancock Intern, Wallace was the organ scholar at St. John’s Episcopal Church (Detroit, MI) under the direction of Dr. Huw Lewis. In his spare time, he enjoys baking bread and making coffee.
Christopher Pharo — Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA (2022–2023)
Christopher Pharo began formal organ study under Ms. Carolyn Crossland in his hometown of Kinston, NC; and later under Mr. Andrew Scanlon and Dr. David Arcus at East Carolina University where he received his undergraduate degree in Sacred Music. Mr. Pharo has served as Organ Scholar for the Royal School of Church Music Carolina Course (2011) based in Raleigh, NC, and continues to work as a proctor (2012–present) for the RSCM Charlotte Course. Mr. Pharo has been featured on numerous concert programs in North Carolina and in 2021 was invited to be the inaugural Featured Organ Scholar for the Nantucket Community Music Center’s Annual Organ Crawl in Nantucket, MA. Before arriving in San Francisco, Mr. Pharo was the Organist and Choirmaster for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Goldsboro, NC.
Isaac Drewes — St. James Cathedral, Chicago, IL (2019–2020)
Isaac Drewes is a masters candidate at Eastman School of Music, where he studies organ with Prof. David Higgs, and holds the George Utech Hymnody Fellowship. He is Organist and Choir Director at Penfield United Methodist Church, and sings in the Christ Church Schola Cantorum. A graduate of St. Olaf College, he completed his undergraduate studies with with Dr. Catherine Rodland, and held the position of Organ Scholar at St. Louis, King of France Catholic Church in St. Paul, MN.
Isaac’s performances have been heard around United States and Canada, including at St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montréal, Old West Church in Boston, and St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle. He earned first prize in the 2018 Lynnwood Farnam Competition, and was a semi-finalist in the 2018 National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance. In 2016 and 2017, he performed for Organ Historical Society conventions held in Philadelphia and the Twin Cities respectively. He is also the winner of the 2016 Twin Cities AGO Student Competition, and a recipient of the Pogorzelski-Yankee and Paul Manz Scholarships. When not at the organ bench, Isaac enjoys bicycling and hiking in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.
David Heinze — St. Mark’s Church, Philadelphia, PA (2018–2019)
David Heinze earned a Master of Music degree from the University of Cambridge where he was Graduate Organ Scholar at Selwyn College under Sarah MacDonald as well as Organist for St. John’s Voices at St. John’s College. A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, he is an alumnus of Interlochen Arts Academy and Hope College and has studied with Thomas Bara, Huw Lewis, Margaret Phillips, and Jeremy Tarrant. David won First Prize and Audience Prize in the L. Cameron Johnson Young Organists Competition and First Prize in the Annamae Rotman Organ Competition. During his time at Hope, he served as Organ Scholar at Trinity United Methodist Church in Grand Rapids and then as Edwards Organ Scholar at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Detroit. As a recitalist and accompanist, he has performed throughout the US, UK and Europe, and holds the Associate Diploma of the Royal College of Organists. In January 2022, David won First Prize in The National Competition for Organ Accompaniment, co-sponsored by Schoenstein & Co. Organ Builders and the American Guild of Organists, Washington, D.C. Chapter, and held at St. Paul’s, K Street in Washington, D.C.
Thomas Heidenreich — Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Columbia, SC (2017–2018)
Thomas Heidenreich serves as the Organist in Residence at Nashotah House Theological Seminary where he plays for eight weekly chapel services. He is a 2022 Doctor of Musical Arts graduate from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music where he studied with Dr. Michael Unger. He was recognized as one of The Diapason’s 2021 class of “20 under 30” for young organists.
Thomas was the 2017-2018 Association of Anglican Musicians Gerre Hancock Organ Fellow at Trinity Cathedral in Columbia, South Carolina, where he worked with Canon Organist and Director of Music Dr. Jared Johnson and the other Cathedral staff in all aspects of music making and choir training. In recognition of his time as AAM fellow, Thomas played in a recital for the 2019 Association of Anglican Musicians national conference in Boston at the Harvard Memorial Chapel.
Previously, he studied with Alan Morrison at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, where he completed his Master of Music in Organ Performance, with distinction, August 2017 and his Bachelor’s, summa cum laude, also in Organ Performance, August 2016. He was the 2016 winner of the Joan Lippincott Competition for Excellence in Organ Performance at Westminster Choir College. While in Princeton, Thomas served as organ scholar at Trinity Church and, for three years, as Co-Director of Music for The Episcopal Church at Princeton, a student ministry of Princeton University.
George Fergus — Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C. (2016–2017)
George Fergus serves as as the Director of Music at Christ Church in Savannah, Georgia. Prior to arriving in Georgia, George was the Associate Director of Music and Chorister Program Director at Washington National Cathedral. He maintains an active schedule of rehearsals and services in the cathedral’s music program, as well as appearing on the cathedral’s online stream of worship services and recitals, including the annual Christmas Day, Easter Day, and Independence Day concerts. He accompanied the Cathedral Choirs on domestic and international concert tours, and has appeared on concerts with Washington Choral Arts Society, Washington Bach Consort, and the American University Chorus. During his tenure at the National Cathedral, he has played for the memorial services of several notable public figures, including Liu Xiaobo and President George H. W. Bush. His performances have been featured on Pipedreams from Minnesota Public Radio and NPR’s 1A.
George earned the Master of Music degree in organ performance and Certificate in Church Music Studies from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and a Bachelor of Music degree from St. Olaf College. Upon graduation from Yale in 2016, George was awarded the Gerre Hancock Fellowship in Church Music by the Association of Anglican Musicians, which he served at Washington National Cathedral before being appointed to the full-time music staff there. Prior to his appointment in Washington, he served as Organ Scholar at Grace Church in New York, and Choirmaster and Organist of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.
Adam Detzner — Trinity Church Boston, MA (2014–2015)
Adam Detzner is an organist and church musician based in the Washington, DC area. He was recently appointed Minister of Music and Organist at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Annandale, Virginia. He has a special interest in the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries and predecessors. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the Eastman School of Music: his major organ teachers were Robert Huw Morgan and David Higgs, and he studied harpsichord with Elaine Thornburgh. Between college and graduate school Adam was the inaugural recipient of the Association of Anglican Musicians Gerre Hancock Internship, working as Organ Scholar at Trinity Church, Copley Square, in Boston. Adam has performed at national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the National Pastoral Musicians Association (NPM), and the Association of Anglican Musicians (AAM). In the summer of 2022, he will travel to the Netherlands to compete in the International Schnitger Organ Competition in Alkmaar as the only American admitted this cycle. Adam is a member of AAM and the AGO, and has worked as a faculty member at four AGO Pipe Organ Encounters. Adam lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, not far from where he grew up. In his spare time he enjoys browsing local record stores for vintage vinyl, lifting weights, and solving crossword puzzles—his average solving time for the New York Times Saturday puzzle is 13:00.