Tate, Galen

Church and/or Role
Saint Thomas More RC Church, Darien, CT; Sacred Heart University; University of Bridgeport

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Galen Tate is Organist and Director of Music at St. Thomas More Church (Darien), a position he has held since 1990. Holding a Master of Music in organ performance from the University of Tennessee, he serves on the music faculty of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, where he teaches in the classroom, is organ instructor and accompanies numerous ensembles. As a conductor there, Galen founded the SHUpermen male ensemble and the university’s first women’s choir. He is also collaborative accompanist for Cappella Cantorum and Connecticut Chamber Choir.

As an organ recitalist, Galen has recently performed at Trinity Church on the Green (New Haven) with the Yale Academy Sinfonietta, the Church of the Transfiguration (New York City), First Congregational Church (Fairfield), the Cathedral of Saint Mary (San Francisco), and in the More Music Concert Series, which he directs.

As an accompanist, he has performed with the United Chorale, Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut, Stamford Chorale, Rockland County Chorale, the Lumina String Quartet, Sax in the City, and the Fairfield County Chorale Summer Sings. He also served as the assistant director and accompanist for the New Haven Chorale, regularly performing on the historic Newberry Memorial Organ at Woolsey Hall at Yale.

The diversity of his keyboard talents has led him to work with popular and classical artists including Joe Utterback, José Feliciano, Frank Patterson, Metropolitan Opera soprano Betty Jones, and Broadway tenors David Gaschen and Frank Mastrone. His conducting and accompanying performances have taken him to prestigious venues across the Northeast—including New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, D.C.—as well as abroad to England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Spain, and Ireland.

Galen has been a featured artist for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians conventions and frequently performs for the annual memorial events hosted by the Voices Center for Resilience in New York City. He has served on the music faculties of the University of Bridgeport, Norwalk Community College, Gateway Community College, Fairfield University, and The Hartt School, and he continues to support middle and high school music programs throughout Fairfield County. Galen is a board member and scholarship adjudicator for the Greater Bridgeport Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and is an FAA-licensed private pilot.