Jared Ostermann
 

Cathedral Music Director Jared Ostermann earned his doctorate at the University of Kansas, where he studied organ with James Higdon, Church Music with Michael Bauer, and conducting with Paul Tucker.  He received his Master of Sacred Music degree in 2009 from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied with Craig Cramer.  His Bachelor of Music in Church Music is from the University of Kansas (2007), where he studied organ, harpsichord, and choral conducting with Michael Bauer.  As an organ scholar with the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center music program at the University of Kansas, he studied improvisation and liturgical playing with Wolfgang Reisinger.  He also studied for one year with Peter Planyavsky at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria.  He has played in master classes for such renowned organists as Peter Van Dyke, Harald Vogel, Olivier Latry, Martin Jean, Lynne Davis, Karel Paukert, Paul Tegels and Marie Claire Alain.

As a concert organist, Jared has been awarded prizes at a number of prestigious competitions, including the Miami International Organ Competition, the John R. Rodland Scholarship Competition, the San Marino Organ Competition, and the Augustana/Reuter National Undergraduate Competition.  In 2011 he was one of 16 finalists selected from around the world to compete at the Canadian International Organ Competition in Montreal, Quebec.  At this competition he advanced to the final round and was awarded the Royal Canadian College of Organists prize for the best performance of a work by a Canadian composer.  Earlier in 2011, he advanced to the semifinal round of the Dublin International Organ Competition.  As a result of his prizes in Miami and Montreal, his playing has been featured on the nationally syndicated radio program Pipedreams. 

Jared began work as a church musician at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas, from 2005 – 2007 as Chapel Organist.  During his year of study in Vienna, Jared was the organist and music director for Vienna’s English Speaking Catholic Community.  During his time at Notre Dame, Jared worked with Alexander Blachly as the graduate conducting assistant with the Notre Dame Chorale. During his doctoral studies Jared served as Director of Music at St. Ann Church in Prairie Village, KS. In 2010 he founded Sursum Corda, a Kansas City-area choir specializing in Renaissance Polyphony.  Under his guidance, this choir became an active presence in northeast Kansas, bringing liturgical music and sacred concerts to parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Kansas City.  In August of 2012 Jared began work as the Director of Liturgical Music at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 

Jared and his wife Barbara have two children, Sophia and Dominic.

John Thuringer
 

Assistant Organist John A. Thuringer, 42, is the son of the Margaret and the late John E. Thuringer of Eden, South Dakota.  John started piano lessons at the age of seven with his second grade teacher Mrs. Lisa Morris.  From 1979 to 1987 he took private piano lessons from Mr. Rich Herrick in Webster, SD.  John's love of the organ began in 1981, by playing the 1955 two-manual Allen organ at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Eden under the guidance of Msgr. Clarence Trautner.  He was very active in band, playing percussion, and accompanying various choirs at Roslyn High School, where he graduated with honors in 1988.  At South Dakota State University in Brookings, John played organ and piano for both the Catholic Campus Parish and St. Thomas More.  John had the privilege of recording two albums with the St. Thomas More Children's choir under the direction of Ms. Veronica Alcock.  He received his Bachelor of Arts in Rural Sociology and a minor in Journalism from SDSU in December 1992.