Holbrook Organ Series | Chris Oelkers

About this event

Holbrook Organ Series

Friday, November 20, 2026 at 7:30 pm

Wine reception at the Interval

Chris Oelkers Director of Music, The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Austin

Arts on Alexander 2111 Alexander Ave Austin, TX 78702

Holbrook Organ Series concerts are free and open to the public. Contributions are encouraged.

Chris Oelkers was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A recipient of numerous scholarships and awards, he studied organ and church music at the University of Manitoba, the Toronto Conservatory of Music, and the University of Kansas, where he studied with Michael Bauer and James Higdon. He was Cathedral Organist at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Winnipeg, and later, Director of Music for the First Congregational Church of Topeka, KS, and organist for the Village Presbyterian Church, Kansas City.

In August of 2005, he joined the ministry team at St. Louis King of France Catholic Church in Austin, Texas, and from 2009 – 2016 served as Director of Music for that parish. In 2016, Chris answered a call to serve as Director of Music and Organist for the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, where he oversees a thriving music ministry in a fast-growing parish.

Chris is active as a recitalist and has given many performances in the United States, Canada, and Europe, most notably at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, and St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. He was a semifinalist and finalist in the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation. Chris was featured on the Great Organ Series at the University of Texas, and was Guest Artist on KMFA 89.5 FM radio’s weekly broadcast of Pipeworks. When not occupied as a church musician, he directs the Austin Sängerrunde, a German choir representing the oldest ethnic society in Austin, dating to 1879. Chris and his family live in Austin.