Music Professor Robert Knupp Embarks on Organ Tour to New York City

Robert Knupp

Mississippi College music professor Robert Knupp will soon make the organ come alive in New York City and Newark, New Jersey to add to his list of recitals around the nation this spring.

The Clinton resident will make a return concert engagement at Saint Thomas Church, in the heart of Manhattan on April 28. The church in New York is renowned for its residential choir school program with the facility modeled after the cathedrals of Great Britain.

The St. Thomas Church mission is to “serve our Lord Jesus Christ through the Anglican tradition and unique choral heritage.”

The huge church in the Big Apple is part of the growing parish of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

A well-known organist in metro Jackson, Dr. Knupp’s primary area of teaching at Mississippi College’s Department of Music is applied organ. But he’s also an instructor in music theory and music technology on the Clinton campus.

A native of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Knupp serves as the organist at Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church in Jackson. On Sundays at the church, he’s accompanied such works as Mozart’s “Requiem” and Clausen’s “A New Creation.”

A master of the pipe organ, the professor has performed with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra. During his career, he’s done organ recitals in 19 states and in Europe.

Other concert tours over the years have taken the Mississippi College educator to Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Memphis, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas and Boston. His recitals have included venues like the Washington National Cathedral, King’s Chapel in Boston and St. Mary’s Church in New York.

On May 1, he will visit Newark, the biggest city in New Jersey, for a performance at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Sacred Heart at 89 Ridge Street.

Featuring French Gothic architecture, the cathedral is the fifth largest in North America. The cathedral is the seat of the Archdiocese of Newark and houses an organ built by the Schantz Organ Company.

Taking the two-day concert tour to New York and New Jersey is quite a notable achievement for the talented Mississippi College music professor.

“It’s an honor to play a recital at a church where every famous organist has performed,” Knupp said of his upcoming journey to New York City.

And to perform at a magnificent cathedral like the one in Newark “is always rewarding,” he said. “To sit where all the great organists have sat is a humbling experience.”

Knupp received his bachelor’s degree in music from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania in 1992, a master’s at East Carolina University and a doctorate in music from the University of Alabama in 2001.

His talent and gifts as a teacher have rubbed off on his students. His students have landed church positions in a dozen states. In addition, they have performed in 28 states and across Europe.