Nico Tjoelker

DMA - Organ

Nico Tjoelker is an award-winning Australian-American organist known for Baroque interpretation and is trained in the Anglican sacred music tradition. In 2023, he completed a Master of Music in organ at Yale University with James O’Donnell and served as Director of Music at Berkeley Divinity School. He also served as senior organ scholar at Trinity on the Green, New Haven.

In 2020, he completed a Bachelor of Music in organ at Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Philip Swanton. He graduated with First Class Honors, receiving high distinction on his thesis on the topic of early twentieth-century recordings of organ music on paper rolls. In Sydney, Nico served as organ scholar at St. Stephen’s Uniting Church and St. Mark’s Anglican Church.

Nico studies and performs internationally. He has studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, participated in the Haarlem International Organ Festival, the Lucerne Organ Masterclass, and masterclasses at Cambridge University, UK. In 2017, he toured historical organs of Europe with the Sydney Conservatorium organ department. He was awarded first prize in the 2013 Sydney Organ Competition – Intermediate Section, and first prize in the 2016 Sydney Organ Competition – Open Section.