Recognized as both an organist and conductor, Kyler Brown is the newly appointed Choir Director and Organist and Director of Cathedral Arts at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Des Moines, Iowa.  

 

Previously, he served as Director of Sacred Music and Organist at Blessed Sacrament Church, New Rochelle, NY where he was responsible for five weekend liturgies in both English and Spanish; Music Director and Organist at St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village, NYC, where he oversaw a professional choir and established a concert series featuring the newly installed organ built by Orgues Létourneau Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec;  and for two decades he served as Director of Music Ministries and Organist at the Church of St. Jean Baptiste, New York City, where he conducted a multi-choir program of children and adult volunteers and a professional octet, as Music Director and Organist at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York City, he established an international concert series and served as the consultant for the restoration and completion of the church's historic Æolian-Skinner Organ.  

 

In addition, he is Founder and Artistic Director/Conductor of The Virgin Consort, an 8-voice professional ensemble specializing in early music and contemporary compositions.

 

His recently released recording of the Suite in G Major by Ottorino Respighi (Naxos) with the Chamber Orchestra of New York has received rave reviews. Additional recordings include the Great Organs of New York City (Bischof & Vitacco Records) and Masterpieces from the Church of St. Mary the Virgin (Gothic Records) which have been hailed by critics: “Brown is a virtuoso and his ability to bring out the grandeur of the music is impressive.” (The Diapason); and “The performances are so consistently top-rung that singling out Kyler Brown’s rendition of Dupre’s G-Minor Prelude and Fugue at St. Mary the Virgin hardly seems fair.” (The New Yorker).  Early Music America wrote “The Virgin Consort’s recording of the Messe de Minuit pour Noël [Gothic Records] is a stylish recreation of a Christmas service at Saint-Chapelle.  Under the direction of Kyler Brown, the Consort presents the Mass with all the chant propers, making it quite an authentic experience.  Brown’s organ playing is delicate and, when necessary, suitably grand, while the ensemble is topnotch.  There exists no better recording of this work.”  

 

Mr. Brown made his TV conducting debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert directing the Choir of St. Jean Baptiste performing a special arrangement of Joy to the World by Three Dog Night, made his Lincoln Center debut conducting in a performance of Handel's Messiah and has presented recitals throughout the United States and Italy. He has introduced and conducted the American premieres of choral works by Lee Hoiby, Virgil Thomson, James Primosch, Kamala Sankaram, Jeff Klitz and Jackson Hill.

 

A native of Keokuk, Iowa, his fist organ lessons in high school were with Delbert Disselhorst at the University of Iowa and his first visits to Des Moines were to attend high school organ camps held at Drake University. On scholarship he entered Drake as a student of Carl Staplin and was appointed Assistant Organist at First Methodist Church. In his pursuit to get to the East coast he moved to New York and graduated from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College -- State University of New York, receiving a BFA degree with a major in Organ Performance with Honors.  After university, he did graduate work in music in Pistoia, Italy, and at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he was awarded the Master of Music degree in Organ Performance.