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Present Music Staff
Keith Shafer, Director of Music
& Organist
A
native of Connecticut where he grew up on a farm, Keith Shafer was
educated at the Hartt College of Music at the University of Hartford;
the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati; and
the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas, Texas, where he was an organ student of Richard Fowler, John
Holtz, and the renowned American concert artists Gerre Hancock and
Robert Anderson. A finalist in all the major American organ playing
competitions, Mr. Shafer has appeared in concert throughout the
country. Since 1983 he has been Director of Music and Organist of
historic Saint Paul's Church in Augusta, Georgia, where the music
program is recognized as one of the most innovative in the Episcopal
Church with frequent standing-room-only audiences for Tuesday's Music Live,
the largest luncheon concert series in America. Mr. Shafer has spent
residencies in a number of British cathedrals, including Worcester,
York Minster, St. Mary's Cathedral (Edinburgh), and St. Paul's
Cathedral, London. The Saint Paul's Choir has sung services at the
cathedrals in Salisbury, Wells, Durham, York Minster, Saint Paul's
Cathedral, London, and Canterbury Cathedral. The choir has also sung at
the Anglican cathedrals in Quebec, Montreal, and Bermuda and their 2007
tour found them in Scotland, singing at cathedrals in Inverness and
Edinburgh. Mr. Shafer has served as Georgia Convenor of the American
Guild of Organists and as Dean and Treasurer of the Augusta Chapter. He
has been a member of the faculty of the Sewanee Church Music Conference
held annually at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee,
directs the conference on a regular basis, and is a member of the Board
of Trustees. He served on the Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal
Diocese of Georgia, and has made a number of recordings that have been
heard throughout the country on National Public Radio's Pipedreams,
Georgia Public Radio's Performance Showcase, and South Carolina Public
Radio. In 2001 he formed a company, Church Music Services, Inc., which
encompasses organ consulting work as well as music publishing endeavors
including his six-volume edition of “Psalms Made
Singable,”
now being used throughout the Episcopal Church.
Click here to contact
Keith Shafer.
Sarah Pritchard, Music Associate
A native of
Augusta, Sarah
Pritchard joined the staff of Saint Paul’s Church in 1986
after a
25-year career as the Organist and Choirmaster of Christ Episcopal
Church in the Harrisburg neighborhood. Miss Pritchard studied piano
with Mildred Marston, Artemesia Thevaos, and organ with Emily
Remington, Dr. Preston Rockholt, and Keith Shafer, and earned the
degree, Bachelor of Music, at Augusta College (now
Augusta
State University). Her responsibilities at Saint Paul’s
Church
include administrative duties, organ playing, and directing the Saint
Nicholas Choir.
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