Church Staff: Minister of Music
Dennis Elwell, Minister of Music
Dennis Elwell has led the music program at Overbrook Presbyterian Church since 1973.
He has appeared as organ recitalist or guest organist with orchestras, choral ensembles, and instrumental ensembles in concert halls, churches, and synagogues in the United States and Europe for more than forty years. His lengthy list of solo recitals has included many organ dedications in addition to a ten-year tenure from 1971-81 as a Staff Organist at the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ at Lord & Taylor in Philadelphia, the largest pipe organ in the world, where he performed hundreds of recitals. Since January 2011, he has served on the Board of the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ. In 1968, Mr. Elwell was the First Prize recipient of the Alfred Hollins Organ Playing Competition, and he became the first Philadelphia-based organist to be included in the 1989 First Edition of American Keyboard Artists, published in Chicago. As a well sought-after organ accompanist, he has performed nearly one hundred oratorios and cantatas, often utilizing his own transcriptions or arrangements of orchestral or instrumental accompaniments.
At Overbrook Presbyterian Church, Mr. Elwell coordinates a music program which includes three choirs and a yearly music series, which presets concerts and recitals by Overbrook Choirs, the professional Overbrook Quartet, and local, national, and international ensembles and artists. He directs the Overbrook Choir, the Overbrook Quartet—many of whom have achieved national and international status—and the Overbrook Westminster Handbell Choir.
A past Dean of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he has had the honor of serving as Convention Coordinator in Philadelphia for the Guild’s 1989 Region II Convention, and the Guild’s 46th National Convention in 2002, an event which was attended by over 2,500 organists and guests from five continents. Currently, Mr. Elwell serves on the AGO's National Council as Councillor for Conventions. In 1977, he performed at the Third International Congress of Organists, an event sponsored by the American Guild of Organists, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Royal College of Organists of Great Britain.
Mr. Elwell has served on the faculties of Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, and Temple University Center City in Philadelphia, and has taught on the faculties of a half dozen Pipe Organ Encounters for Young People sponsored by the AGO. He enjoys leading workshops and seminars on a variety of topics related to the organ and the sacred music fields, as well as serving as an Organ Consultant for religious institutions and organizations.
