The session conferred the honorific Organist Emeritus in April 2021. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and a Graduate Diploma in violoncello from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. Susan has a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from St. Prior to this, she served three churches over a ten-year period in Atlanta while pursuing a career as a cellist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Susan Reim has served First Presbyterian Church as organist since July of 1979. Schmelter has served as Artist in Residence at Trinity Episcopal Church in Bay City, Michigan, and St. He has been a church musician since the age of sixteen and has studied philosophy and theology at Saint John’s University (in seminary residence at Immaculate Conception Center, Douglaston, Queens). Nicholas is a frequent recitalist, offering performances throughout Michigan as well as in Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, London and Toronto, Canada, and other regions. He was awarded honors at CMU including a Graduate Fellowship, the Centralis Scholar Award, the School of Music Performance Scholarship, and the Presser Foundation Award.
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Nicholas Schmelter graduated in 2006 with a Master of Music degree in organ performance from Central Michigan University. He has served congregations in Michigan and Minnesota, and has instructed among the contingent faculty members at Saginaw Valley State University.
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Nicholas Schmelter was appointed Director of Worship and Congregational Life at First Presbyterian Church in October 2016. Nicholas Schmelter, Director of Worship and Congregational Life