Choral Evensong

The Very Rev. Bernard J. Owens

The Dean's Blog

The Very Reverend Bernard J. “BJ” Owens, IV was called as dean of Trinity Cathedral in fall 2018. He is the Cathedral’s 12^th dean since its founding.

In his first years at Trinity Cathedral, Dean Owens has worked to build on Trinity’s long history of transcendent worship, wholehearted inclusion, and committed service to the city of Cleveland, while celebrating and supporting the ministry of the many churches of Diocese of Ohio. Dean Owens has led the process of strategic visioning that identified Trinity’s vocation to be A Sacred Place for All People, and has guided the revitalizing of Trinity’s ministry structure to help achieve that vision. He is also a graduate of the 2022 class of Leadership Cleveland.

Prior to his appointment at Trinity, he served as rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Greensboro, North Carolina for eight years. There, he led a growing church, with new members among both young families and mature parishioners. Before St. Andrew’s, he was the Associate Rector for Children’s & Family Ministries at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cary, North Carolina.

Dean Owens attended UNC-Chapel Hill and Yale Divinity School. Between his undergraduate and graduate studies, he worked in film production in New York City. He loves to hike, cycle, and do just about anything outdoors; he and his wife, the Rev. Jo Nygard Owens, live in Shaker Heights with their two children.

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The Rev. Adrienne Koch

The Rev. Adrienne Koch joined the Trinity staff in the fall of 2019 where she oversees adult formation, outreach, and campus ministry. Recently a published author, she contributed to the 2020 Church Publishing book Belovedness: Finding God (and Self) on Campus.

Originally from Cleveland, she was formerly the Young Adult Missioner and Campus Minister for the Raleigh Area in the Episcopal Diocese of NC and Adjunct Faculty at Duke Divinity School. Her previous work was as a chaplain and educator at the Durham VA Medical Center, and as the Administrative Assistant to the Dean and Communications Specialist at Duke University Chapel.

She received her BA in Liberal Arts from Malone College in 2004, with concentrations in Theology, Psychology, and Communications, and her M.Div. from Duke University in 2011 with a certificate of studies in Gender, Theology, and Ministry. She completed her Anglican coursework at Sewanee and is trained in the Narrative Enneagram. Adrienne has been working with and teaching the Enneagram in academic and church settings since 2012 and was certified as a spiritual director in 2021.

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The Rt. Rev. Anne B. Jolly

Todd Wilson

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Wilson, one of America’s leading concert organists, has been Trinity’s organist and artist-in-residence since late 2009. A native Ohioan, he was director of music and organist at The Church of the Covenant in Cleveland for nineteen years, and continues as head of the organ department at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Having grown up in the men and boys choir of Trinity Church in Toledo, the choirs and music of the Anglican tradition have been an influential part of Wilson’s musical life. During graduate school, he served as organist and choirmaster at Calvary Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. During 1978-79 he served as a visiting assistant in music at Canterbury Cathedral in England under Dr. Allan Wicks. At the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation on Long Island, Wilson directed one of the longest-running choirs of men and boys in continuous existence in the United States. He frequently presents workshops on Anglican choral and organ music, and on service playing. He has been organ clinician at the Evergreen Episcopal Church Musicians Conference, the Montreat Conference on Worship and Music, the Interlochen National Music Camp, the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, and the Sewanee National Church Music Conference.
Wilson is also organ curator of the recently restored Norton Memorial Organ (E. M. Skinner, 1931) in Severance Hall, and is house organist at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, where he plays the restored 1915 Aeolian organ.

He has been heard in concert in many major cities throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, including concerts at Symphony Hall (Birmingham, UK), Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Dallas’ Meyerson Symphony Center, and Uihlein Hall in Milwaukee.

Wilson received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and completed further study at The Eastman School of Music. He has won numerous competitions, including the prestigious French Grand Prix de Chartres, the Fort Wayne Competition, the Strader National Scholarship Competition and the national competition sponsored by the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.

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