MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS — The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is getting a new musical director - an organist with the New York Philharmonic and radio host.
Kent Tritle, the music director at St. Ignatius Loyola on the Upper West Side expects to take the post at the famed Morningside Heights cathedral on Sept. 1.
“It is with great joy that I accept the position of Director of Cathedral Music at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine,” Tritle said in a statement. “I have always loved the Cathedral; its place, its mission, and its musical legacy, and I am thrilled to embark with the Cathedral staff on an adventure to take the music program to even greater heights."
He will replace outgoing music director Bruce Neswick, who is taking a position at Indiana University, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Tritle is currently an organist for the New York Philharmonic and host of the "The Choral Mix" radio program on WQXR.
Tritle spent 22 years at St. Ignatius, overseeing more than 400 services annually. He also developed a 45-voice volunteer parish choir while at the church.
Tritle told the Journal that he is hoping to add new music initiatives and new concert series by launching a new fundraising effort called Friends of Cathedral Music.
In his farewell letter to the St. Ignatius parish he wrote of his decision to leave the parish after more than two decades.
"As I reach fifty years of age, I realize that I have spent almost all of my professional life here at St. Ignatius. If I am ever to undertake another challenge, to begin another great adventure, to take a risk and try something new – now is the time to seize the moment, to shake up my life a bit, to resist growing complacent or too comfortable," he wrote.
Tritle wrote that was approached by St. John the Divine during a consulting session when St. Ignatius embarked on locating a new music director to replace the departing Neswick.
