Organ Institute
One-Week Summer Program
The MPulse Organ Institute is a one-week intensive for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students seeking to sharpen, expand, and reinvigorate their musical and technical skills at the organ. Participants will have access to a variety of pipe organs, including the Silbermann-inspired Fisk mechanical action organ at the Music building and the iconic Aeolian-Skinner at Hill Auditorium. Students will participate in group private lessons, masterclasses, workshops on topics such as service playing, improvisation, audition preparation, and organ maintenance. All sessions will be led by University of Michigan Organ faculty and guest clinicians. The Institute will conclude with two student recitals on Friday at the School of Music and on the 2022 Richards Fowkes organ at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.
Dates: July 20 – 26, 2025
Tuition (including room & board): $1,950
Application Status: OPEN
Non-Refundable Application Fee: $75
Fill out this form through Acceptd Support if an application fee waiver code is needed due to financial need.
Priority Application Deadline: February 1, 2025*
Priority Admissions Notification: March 1, 2025
*Applications will remain open until the program is full. Rolling application submissions will be reviewed on a monthly basis. Please check the application status above to see if we are still accepting applications on a rolling basis.
Faculty
Nicole Keller
Associate Professor of Music, Institute Co-Director
Nicole Keller is in demand as a concert artist, adjudicator, and clinician. She has concertized in the States and abroad in venues such as St. Patrick Cathedral, New York; Cathédrale Notre-Dame, Paris; Dom St. Stephan, Passau; St. Patrick Cathedral, Armagh, Northern Ireland; and The Kazakh National University for the Arts, Astana, Kazakhstan. Ms. Keller specializes in eclectic programs suited to instrument and audience with a desire to expand the listener’s horizons, pairing familiar sounds and genres with less familiar ones. Her performances with orchestras includes concertos, works for small chamber orchestra, and large works involving organ, harpsichord, and piano. She has extensive experience as a chamber musician and as a continuo player, including many performances of Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John Passions, the Christmas Oratorio, and the Mass in B minor in addition to a host of cantatas and baroque chamber music.
As a teacher, Ms. Keller strives to foster and model a commitment to excellence in performance, scholarship and self-growth as students deepen their love of music and their instrument. Her students have been accepted into and attended prestigious graduate schools throughout the country and enjoy successful musical careers in a variety of settings.
Ms. Keller’s work as a church musician includes work with volunteer and professional choirs and instrumental ensembles devoted to the highest level of music for worship. She has created organ and choral scholar programs at small and mid-size parishes, developed successful children’s choir programs, and has led choirs on tour in the states and abroad including choral residencies at Bristol Cathedral, U.K. and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.
Ms. Keller received the Performer’s Certificate and the Master of Music Degree in Organ Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York under the tutelage of David Higgs. While at Eastman, she studied continuo with Arthur Haas and improvisation with Gerre Hancock. She received the Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio, where she studied piano with George Cherry and Jean Stell and organ with Margaret Scharf.
Caroline Robinson
Assistant Professor of Music, Institute Co-Director
Dr. Caroline Robinson joined the Department of Organ as an assistant professor in the fall of 2024. Robinson is an organist, pedagogue, church musician, and music collaborator who has been featured in performance across the United States.
In addition to her numerous US performances, Robinson has performed internationally in England, Denmark, France, and Germany. Her playing has been broadcast multiple times on American Public Media’s Pipedreams, Pipedreams LIVE!, and Philadelphia-based public radio station WRTI’s Wanamaker Organ Hour. She has been a featured performer at conventions of the Organ Historical Society, the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival, and the American Guild of Organists (AGO). She performed on the closing concert at the 2022 National AGO Convention in Seattle, collaborating with Seattle Pro Musica on choral and organ works including James MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados. Her performances in 2024-2025 will take her to the Gulangyu Organ Museum in Gulangyu, China; the West Point Cadet Chapel; the Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, OR; and St. Paul’s Cathedral, Pittsburgh. She will give masterclasses in Haddonfield, NJ and Seattle, WA.
Robinson is a laureate of the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP), held as part of the 2018 AGO convention in Kansas City. She holds first prize from the 11th annual Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival in 2008 and from the 10th annual West Chester University Organ Competition in 2010. She was a semifinalist in the 2014 Dublin International Organ Competition. In 2016, she was chosen as one of The Diapason’s “20 Under 30” promising young organists in the United States.
Previously, Robinson held the post of organist and associate choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. She is an active continuo player with early music ensembles, having performed at the Rochester Early Music Festival, San Francisco’s American Bach Soloists Academy, and most recently with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. She is represented as a solo recitalist in North America by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.
Robinson completed her undergraduate work at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Alan Morrison. Aided by a grant from the J. William Fulbright fellowship fund, she studied at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen (organ) and Yasuko Bouvard (harpsichord). Robinson holds the doctor of musical arts and the master of music in organ performance and literature degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with David Higgs. Robinson also received the performer’s certificate and the advanced teaching certificate in theory pedagogy from Eastman.
Program Sample Schedule
The MPulse Organ Institute is brand new to MPulse in 2025! View a sample program schedule. While schedules vary year-to-year, this will provide insight into the programming provided.
Eligibility & Audition Requirements
Eligibility
MPulse Organ is open to high school and college age students. MPulse Organ accepts applications from students ages 15-26. Minors aged 15-17 are required to stay in residence halls on campus. Students who are 18 and over (by the start of the session) may choose to reside in on-campus adult housing or off-campus housing secured by the student. Please note if you choose to reside off campus, you will not have access to a meal plan and your tuition cost would be reduced.
Audition Video
Applicants must submit video recordings of two (2) contrasting pieces that demonstrate current level of musical and technical ability (for high school students: at least one piece must incorporate pedal). The video must include both pedals and manuals clearly in the frame at all times.
Applicants must also submit the following:
- Complete repertoire list of pieces you have played and/or performed
- Resumé
- One (1) letter of recommendation from a teacher (artistic teacher or mentor preferred, academic teacher or other non-relative acceptable).
MPulse Scholarships
Application Fee Waivers
Those who qualify may reach out to the Acceptd Support team to request a waiver code to waive the $75 application fee. Please view this page on how to apply for a waiver and the documentation you will need to provide. Fill out this fee waiver form to request a code.
Merit Awards
A limited number of scholarships are available for extremely talented students based on Faculty discretion. Consideration for these scholarships is automatic for applications received by the priority application deadline.
Need-Based Awards
A limited number of need-based scholarships are available to families with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $120,000 or under in the previous calendar year, or with special circumstances due to the pandemic. To be considered you must upload your financial aid materials by the application deadline as part of your application. This includes:
- Monthly Expenses
- Previous Year’s Tax Return
- Statement of Need
Watson Scholarship (For Michigan Residents Only)
In the spirit of the life of a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School (1942) and Michigan physician, the Watson A. Young Scholarship promotes academic excellence and college aspiration among students with financial need. These need-based scholarships support middle and high school students’ participation in summer opportunities at U-M that seek to develop students’ interests and abilities in academic disciplines and expose students to the experiences and possibilities provided by higher education.
- Information about the Watson Scholarship can be found at: ceo.umich.edu/youthhub
- The Watson Scholarship Application opens in February.
Questions?
MPulse Summer Performing Arts Institutes
Office of Engagement & Outreach-Youth & Adult Programs
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Stearns Building │ 2005 Baits Drive │ Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Phone: (734) 936-2660
Email: [email protected]