Joey Fala

Biography

Organist and church musician Joseph Fala is the Director of Music at University Presbyterian Church on the UNC Chapel Hill campus where he oversees an intergenerational program comprising four choral ensembles, a newly established concert series and growing collaborations with the university, including a choral scholar initiative and sacred music resident program. Joey is a graduate of Yale University where he studied organ with Martin Jean and Thomas Murray and subsequently undertook a two-year residency as organ scholar at Duke University Chapel where he also held the position of Chapel Carillonneur. He formerly served at the Episcopal Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, NC and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Norwalk, CT. His teachers include Joseph Causby, Katherine Crosier, Alfred Fedak, Christopher Jacobson and Christian Lane.

A recipient of the American Guild of Organists Pogorzelski-Yankee Memorial Scholarship and the Institute of Sacred Music Robert Baker Scholarship, Joey was named one of “20 under 30” by The Diapason, and was a featured artist at the 2019 AGO West Convention and the 2015 Organ Historical Society Convention. He has competed and won prizes in the Arthur Poister, Albert Schweizer and AGO Young Organist Competitions and has had the opportunity to perform in inspiring spaces including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine NYC, St. Patrick’s Cathedral NYC, Trinity Church Boston, Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral LA, Harvard University’s Busch Hall, and the Washington National Cathedral. Joey is originally from Honolulu and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture and lighting engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.