Dr. Joby Bell 
University Organist
Assistant Professor
Organ and Sacred Music Studies
Music Director, Appalachian Chorale
Room 420, Broyhill Music Center
Phone (828) 262-6467
belljr@appstate.edu
www.jobybell.org

Biography/Resume:

JOBY BELL garnered the Audience Prize and Second Prize in the 2000 American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance. He maintains an active schedule of solo performances and various collaborative projects. He has played numerous times at the invitation of the Victoria Bach Festival, Houston Masterworks Chorus, and individual chapters of the American Guild of Organists. He has performed at AGO conventions in Atlanta (National Pedagogy Conference, 1992), Seattle (National Competition, 2000) and Houston (Region VII, 2001).

In August 2003, Joby served as visiting organist for weekend Masses at the churches of St-Jean-Baptiste-de-la-Salle and St-Sulpice (Paris) at the invitation of Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin. He was a featured recitalist in the 2005 Summer Festival Series at the Washington National Cathedral. His concertizing throughout the United States has met with high acclaim while his performances abroad have been enthusiastically received in Paris, Chartres, London, and throughout Scotland, Romania, and Hungary. His service playing is consistently hailed as sensitive, supportive, thrilling, and fitting.

Joby was born in 1968 in Statesville, NC. At age 15, he won a scholarship to the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied piano with Marian Hahn and Robert McDonald. He subsequently earned the Bachelor of Music degree in Organ and Piano Performance from Appalachian State University (Boone, NC) and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Organ from Rice University (Houston, TX). His teachers include H. Max Smith and Clyde Holloway, organ, and Rodney Reynerson and Allen Kindt, piano. His dissertation, “The Grand Organs of Notre-Dame and Saint-Sulpice, Paris: The Magna Opera of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and a Critical Comparison of Their Alterations,” takes a new look at these important instruments’ tonal relationships and the subsequent changes made to them.

Joby served as Associate Director of Music at the Church of St. John the Divine and as Organist at St. Philip Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian Church, all in Houston, Tex. He also served for several years as a vocal coach/accompanist at St. Agnes Academy, Strake Jesuit Preparatory School and Houston Baptist University.

Since 2004, Joby has served on the faculty of the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University, where he teaches organ, harpsichord, and sacred music studies and conducts the Appalachian Chorale. His teaching specializes in memorization techniques, practice techniques, service playing, choral accompanying and directing, maintaining grace under pressure, and recruiting.

Education:

Doctor of Musical Arts, Organ Performance, Rice University, 2002
Master of Music, Organ Performance, Rice University, 1997
Bachelor of Music, Organ and Piano Performance, Appalachian State University, 1990
Diploma, North Carolina School of the Arts, 1986

Positions:

Organist, First Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX, 1997-2005
Organist, St. Philip Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX 1995-1997
Interim Organist/Choirmaster, Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, Houston, TX 1995
Associate Organist/Choirmaster, Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, TX 1990-1994
Organist, Boone United Methodist Church, Boone, NC 1989-1990
Organist/Choirmaster, Crossnore Presbyterian Church, Crossnore, NC 1988-1989