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Our Music Department
 Douglas Keilitz came to Saint Ignatius of Antioch in July 2003 and since that time, he has enhanced our
music programs, increasing our professional choir’s repertoire and providing new editions of
unpublished and rarely performed works, establising our vibrant Concert Series, and expanding our Ensemble-in-Residence program.
A native of Long Island, his earliest studies were with Robert Arnold and Robert K. Kennedy. Mr. Keilitz studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where his teachers included William Whitehead and Richard Westenburg. Mr Keilitz has also studied with Stephen Hamilton in New York City. Over his thirty-five year career and before arriving at Saint Ignatius, he has held various church positions throughout New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Mr. Keilitz has been active as a recitalist, performing concerts in many of New York’s landmark churches, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, St. Mary the Virgin, the Church of the Transfiguration, and St. Paul’s Chapel. He has performed in master classes with renown French organists Marie-Claire Alain (which was filmed by the American Guild of Organists as part of its “Masters Series” DVD collection) and Olivier Latry, organist of Notre Dame de Paris. More recently, he has performed in master classes with American organists James David Christie, Charles Callahan, and Martin Jean. His experience as a choral director has resulted in the formation of several community choruses, and he is a former director of the reorganized Greater Trenton Choral Society. He is also active as an accompanist and vocal coach, and is the Rehearsal Assistant and Accompanist for the Richmond (Staten Island) Choral Society, and Organist at Anshe Emeth Memorial Synagogue in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Mr. Keilitz serves as a member of the Executive Board of the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists in the capacity of Archivist, and is a member of the St. Wilfrid Club, New York City’s organists ‘fraternity’. He is also a member of the Anglican Association of Musicians and the Gregorian Society. In addition to his musical career, Mr. Keilitz has also been active as a pipe organ builder, restorer, technician, and curator. He is also skilled at cabinet and furniture-grade woodworking, and is an enthusiastic motorcyclist.
David Holkeboer, Associate Organist David Holkeboer graduated from Calvin College in Michigan, where he studied with Ruth Rus. As a student of John Wustman, he received a Master of Music in Vocal Coaching and Accompanying from the University of Illinois. In New York City he maintains a coaching studio and collaborates with singers in recitals. Mr Holkeboer has worked with the Chamber Opera Theatre of New York, the First American Music Theatre Festival in Philadelphia, the O’Neill Theatre Center in Connecticut, the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee, and Opera Lirica in Orvieto, Italy. He has performed in over forty Community Concerts across the country with soprano Alba Quezada and has recorded a recital program with Mark S. Doss at the Sirius Satellite Radio studios for broadcast. He has appeared as pianist in performance with Ariel Bybee, Phillip Cokorinos, Susan Dunn, Faith Esham, Scott Hendricks, Ruby Hinds, James McCracken, Erika Sunnegardh, and Sandra Warfield. Mr Holkeboer is a longtime member of the parish, currently serves as a Church Warden, and is very active in our Soup Kitchen program.
The young American musician Christopher Houlihan is widely acknowledged as one of the brightest stars in the new generation of American organists, and was booked to perform from coast to coast during his debut season under professional representation. During his senior year of college he made his orchestral debut (with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, sharing the soloist spotlight with violinist Joshua Bell) and recorded his second commercial CD (his debut CD having been recorded after his sophomore year). He spent his junior year studying in France where he earned the “Prix de Perfectionnement” (equivalent to a university artist diploma in the US) from the French National Regional Conservatory in Versailles, performed widely, and served as assistant musician at the American Cathedral in Paris where he had the honor of performing for the then President and First Lady of the United States, Mr. And Mrs. George W. Bush. He is a graduate with honors from Trinity College in Connecticut where he studied with John Rose, his organ teacher from the age of twelve. Late in his freshman year a group of friends formed the “Houli Fans,” a club aimed mostly at gathering fellow students to attend Christopher’s organ recitals. When he performed with the Hartford Symphony during his senior year they chartered buses to take throngs of students to the orchestra hall where they rained down loud cheers from the balcony. Christopher did his graduate degree work at The Juilliard School in New York where he studied with the Grammy Award winning organist Paul Jacobs. In 2011 he was named Artist-in-Residence at St. Ignatius of Antioch (Episcopal), New York. During concert season 2010-2011 he was a featured performer at two regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists, made another European tour, and inaugurated the newly installed pipe organ at the Sondheim Performing Arts Center in Iowa. During the summer of 2012 Christopher Houlihan will perform the six organ symphonies of Louis Vierne in marathon sessions in six major north American cities—New York, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles and Montreal. For more details visit: www.vierne2012.com
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