Audio file playing is Eric Birk performing Psalm-Prelude, Set Two, No. 3 by Herbert Howells recorded live at an evensong concert at Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York City on October 26, 2014.
Eric Birk, organist
Eric Birk is a frequent substitute at New York City churches. As part of the Birk and Hoke Duo (with his wife, Bernadette Hoke), he has performed at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, St. Paul’s Chapel in lower Manhattan, the 2011 Baylor University Midwinter Organ Conference in Waco, Texas, and at Brick Presbyterian Church (NYC). He has served as guest organist at several notable Manhattan churches, including Brick Presbyterian Church, Church of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal), Church of the Transfiguration (The “Little Church Around the Corner”), St. Luke-in-the-Fields, and First Baptist Church in the City of New York.
He most recently served as organist and choir director of the Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church from 1994 until January, 2012, where he founded a graded youth choir program and conducted the semi-professional chancel choir. He supervised the refurbishing of the church’s 1966 Austin organ, completed in 2004. A native of Texas, he is a graduate of from Baylor University (B.Mus. magna cum laude) and Manhattan School of Music (M.Mus.) with degrees in piano performance. His organ teachers included Joyce Jones and Walter Hilse, and he is a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists (F.A.G.O.). While organist and choir director at First Baptist Church of New York City from 1990 to 1994, he led the FBC Chancel Choir to make significant contributions to the musical life of Manhattan’s Upper West Side with performances of major works such as Fauré Requiem, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, the Vivaldi Gloria, and Handel’s Messiah.
Eric has served on boards of the New York City and Brooklyn chapters of the American Guild of Organists, the NYC Chapter of Choristers Guild, and the Associated Music Teachers League (as President, 2008-2011).
He most recently served as organist and choir director of the Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church from 1994 until January, 2012, where he founded a graded youth choir program and conducted the semi-professional chancel choir. He supervised the refurbishing of the church’s 1966 Austin organ, completed in 2004. A native of Texas, he is a graduate of from Baylor University (B.Mus. magna cum laude) and Manhattan School of Music (M.Mus.) with degrees in piano performance. His organ teachers included Joyce Jones and Walter Hilse, and he is a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists (F.A.G.O.). While organist and choir director at First Baptist Church of New York City from 1990 to 1994, he led the FBC Chancel Choir to make significant contributions to the musical life of Manhattan’s Upper West Side with performances of major works such as Fauré Requiem, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, the Vivaldi Gloria, and Handel’s Messiah.
Eric has served on boards of the New York City and Brooklyn chapters of the American Guild of Organists, the NYC Chapter of Choristers Guild, and the Associated Music Teachers League (as President, 2008-2011).
From "Why the Organ?" - a concert at First Baptist Church in the City of New York, October 16, 2016
Improvisation on Divinum Mysterium by Eric Birk
Improvisation on Divinum Mysterium by Eric Birk