our chancel choir director

philip_olsen Mr. Philip Olsen

On August 1, 2004, Second Presbyterian Church welcomed Philip Olsen as our director of music. In addition to overseeing all music programs at Second, Philip serves as our primary organist and adult choir director. Philip has also serves as the pianist for Taizé services on Wednesday evenings.

Philip's parents were staunch Lutherans who raised him at Trinity Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, New York. His mother was a trained singer and became his choir director at Trinity. As a boy soprano, Philip developed a deep love of sacred music and found true meaning in the music. One of his earliest convictions was the resolve to not skip hymn verses - they all have meaning! All of his childhood friendships grew from his life in the church as he sang in the youth choir and learned to sight sing. At eight years of age, Philip began piano lessons. However, he was quickly drawn to the majesty and drama of the pipe organ. Unfortunately, he had to wait until he was tall enough to reach the organ pedals (at age 15) to begin organ lessons. In one short year, by the age of 16, he was playing the organ for worship services on his own.

His working class neighborhood led him to Brooklyn Technical High School (similar to our Baltimore Polytechnic) where he concentrated in metallurgy. But the call of the musician remained strong in his heart, leading to appointments as the school organist, and a student in choral conducting. A small band of English teachers at Brooklyn Tech had taken on a mission to expose high potential students to learn about the arts by sponsoring trips to concerts and museums. They quickly spotted Philip and made him one of their mentees. An engineer he was not to be! Philip noticed a flyer at the school advertising organ scholarships at De Pauw University in Greenscastle, Indiana. One trip to the campus sold the entire family, and off he went to earn a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance. Philip was then recruited by Joseph Flummerfelt (a nationally renowned scholar and musician) to begin graduate studies at Florida State University. After a short interruption of alternative military service, Philip studied choral conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, music history and music theory at Florida State, and earned a Master of Music in Conducting with Choral Emphasis from FSU. Throughout his graduate studies, he returned many times to serve his home church as both organist and choir director. During and after his graduate studies, he has held positions as choral director, music director, organist, and assistant professor with groups such as the Masterworks Laboratory Theater, The Euterpean Choral Ensemble, and Hofstra University in New York City, as well as The Bainbridge College Choir in Bainbridge, Georgia. Philip has also served several Protestant churches in the Baltimore area, most recently Milford Mill United Methodist Church.

For the past 16 years, Philip has served McDonogh School as a teacher of music theory and music history, as well as choral arranging and choral conducting. Philip also directs five choral ensembles in the Upper School. The most elite of these groups, The McDonogh Concert Choir, has performed under Philip's direction on international tours every other year for the past nine years.

Philip lives with his wife Barbara, also a singer, and two daughters Meredith and Emily in Lutherville. He also plays competitive tennis regularly.

We look forward to a long and productive journey as we carry forth the strong musical tradition of Second Church praising God in song for God's glory.