Timothy AlbrechtProfessor Emeritus of Music

• DMAEastman School of Music1978
• BMOberlin Music Conservatory1973
• BAOberlin College1973

Timothy Albrecht is Professor of Music Emeritus at Emory University in Atlanta. For 40 years as Emory University Organist, he performed organ recitals throughout the United States and in Europe. At Emory he headed the two graduate organ degree programs, also teaching summers in Vienna.

Ambidextrous and possessing perfect pitch, Albrecht first studied piano with East-European Eugenia Prekosh. Timothy Albrecht graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Oberlin College (German) and Pi Kappa Lambda from Oberlin Music Conservatory (Organ). Before graduate study he taught as a sabbatical replacement at Middlebury College in Vermont. The Eastman School of Music awarded him the Performer’s Certificate and his earned doctorate DMA. His dissertation was entitled Musical Rhetoric in Selected Organ Works of Johann Sebastian Bach (1978). 

He represented the United States in the VIth International Bach Organ Competition in Leipzig. New York’s American Organist hailed Timothy Albrecht for his "creative, fertile imagination … electric performances ... Lisztian virtuosity.” Recitals spanned Alaska to the Andes, Texas to Taiwan. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung cited his “ever-present artistry and virtuosity.” “Unforgettable, because inimitable," wrote the Darmstädter Beiträge zur neuen Musik. Nobel Peace Prize Winner Desmond Tutu wrote him about an upcoming performance, “I am so looking forward to that… knowing you will play as if your life depended on it!” In addition, he performed organ music of Olivier Messiaen before the Dalai Lama. 

Albrecht has taught Bach masterclasses at the Brevard Music Institute, the International Oundle Summer Academy in England, the Juilliard School and lectured at the Italian Bach Society in Turin. Pipedreams has broadcast many of his performances and Augsburg Fortress has published his twelve volumes of organ hymn preludes entitled Grace Notes I-XII. He has recorded nine compact discs and over 200 videos on his YouTube channel Good, Better, Bach. Cambridge University (Clare Hall) has conferred on him Life Membership. Sabbatical research leaves took place at Cambridge University, at the Mozarteum Library in Salzburg, and in Vienna.

Since retirement in 2022 Albrecht has authored and self-published seven books: 

• Exploring the Magic of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier I and II (2022) 
• Exploring the Magic: Short Notes on the Bach-Busoni Chaconne(2022)
• More J.S. Bach Magic! Exploring the Chromatic Fantasy & FugueBWV 903 (2023)
• Bach’s Keyboard Partitas: Not His First Rodeo (2024) 
• Hearing with Your Eyes: A Musician Reflects on Twelve Favorite Paintings (2025)
• Mining for Gold: Bach’s Goldberg Variations (2025)
• Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier II: Keyboard Reflections (2026)