One of the east coast’s finest young concert organists and inspiring church musicians, Tyler A. Canonico is the Minister of Music and Organist at Market Square Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he leads an expansive music program. The program includes a children’s choir, two bell choirs, the Sanctuary Choir, a Choral Scholars Program, and the Market Square Singers (a touring choir comprised of volunteers, both amateur and professional, from the church and greater Central Pennsylvania community), and he is the Artistic Director for Arts on the Square. Tyler is also an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Lebanon Valley College where he conducts the seventy-plus member College Choir. In addition to his work, he is the organist for the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, and the founder and conductor of The Harrisburg Camerata. Tyler is the Dean for the Harrisburg Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and is a member of the AGO National Committee for Pipe Organ Encounters. Recently, Tyler took the Market Square Singers on a concert tour of Canada and the group is currently preparing for its 2023 tour to Scotland. Previously, Tyler was the Organist and Assistant Music Director at Christ Episcopal Church and the Accompanist for the Alabama Choir School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He was the Assistant Organist at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham, Alabama, and before moving to Alabama, he was the Director of Music and Organist at First United Methodist Church in Palmyra, Pennsylvania.
In 2011, Tyler was awarded first place in the American Guild of Organist/Quimby Region III Competition for Young Organists. He has performed Samuel Barber’s Toccata Festiva with the Lebanon Valley College Symphony Orchestra and has performed numerous works with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. He is a frequent concert artist and guest conductor throughout the country. Tyler has performed for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the National Association of Schools of Music, and has performed at both national and regional AGO conventions. At the 2012 national convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Tyler’s performance of “This Little Light of Mine” by Connecticut jazz composer, Dr. Joe Utterback, thrilled the audience and especially the composer. This performance inspired Dr. Utterback to compose an organ arrangement of the well-known spiritual, “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho,” which he dedicated to Tyler.
Tyler is a graduate of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he received a Master of Music in Organ Performance and studied under Dr. Faythe Freese. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Music with a concentration in Organ Performance and Sacred Music from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. He studied organ and piano with Dr. Shelly Moorman-Stahlman and orchestral conducting with Dr. Johannes Dietrich. Tyler has also studied organ with Dr. Jason Kissel, and piano and organ with Ms. Kathie Metz.
Feel free to visit www.tylercanonico.com for a list of upcoming concerts, as well as video and audio recordings of live performances. Tyler is exclusively represented by Concert Artists Cooperative.
Tyler A. Canonico 