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Claudia Dumschat

Claudia Dumschat is Organist and Choirmaster at Church of the Transfiguration, a ­national landmark also known as “The Little Church Around The Corner,” in Manhattan. The church hosts an active ­concert series and a ­professional choir of men and boys, the oldest such choir not affiliated with a school in the city. She is also Co-Artistic Director and Conductor of neXus Arts, which combines classical music with dance, poetry, and the visual arts. She was awarded the B.M., M.M. and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. While there she was twice awarded the Claire Coci Award for Excellence in Organ Performance. Her teachers included Fred Swann, John Walker, McNeil Robinson, Alec Wyton, and Dennis Keene, with whom she studied both organ and conducting. She has been an organist/choir director continuously since the age of 12, when she became the Music Director of her hometown church in Livingston, New Jersey. Dr. Dumschat has worked for a number of churches in Manhattan. She was Associate Organist at St. James Episcopal Church, an Organ Fellow at Christ and St. Stephens Episcopal Church, and for seven years she worked at two neighboring churches: Broadway United Church of Christ and Trinity Evangelical Lutheran, where she was Artistic Director of the One Hundredth Street Concert Association (OSCA). She was also Conductor of the Cornerstone Chorale and Associate Organist at Columbia University. Dr. Dumschat has performed extensively in New York and throughout the USA and Europe. The New York Times described one of her live performances as “brilliantly assertive.”