Jerome Lenk

Music & Liturgy

JEROME LENK currently serves as Director of Music and Liturgy, as well as Principal Organist for Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco. His duties include administration of a music program of two choirs, providing musical support for regular weekend liturgies and all major feasts, coordinating and developing cantors, and conducting the Basilica Choir in major concerts each year, as well as coordinating the yearly Basilica guest concert series.  He is active as a recitalist and accompanist and maintains a private coaching studio. He has performed recitals and conducted the outstanding Basilica Choir in California, Mexico, and Italy. His extensive experience as an accompanist includes appearances with the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Western Opera Theatre, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Mateo Masterworks Chorale, San Jose Symphony, Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, San Francisco Concert Chorale, San Francisco Lyric Chorus, The Choral Project of San Jose, and the Valley Concert Chorale. He has also collaborated with Robert Shaw, Eugene Butler and Jörg Demus.

Mr. Lenk began his musical studies on piano at the age of seven and on the organ at age nine. He holds the Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance with an organ minor from Central Methodist University, Fayette, Missouri, and the Master of Fine Arts degree in performance from the University of Iowa. His principal teachers have included Groff Bittner, Thomas Yancey, John Ditto, John Simms and Delores Bruch.

Mr. Lenk is also experienced as a vocal coach and assistant conductor. His credits include the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Opera San Jose, the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute, San Jose/Cleveland Ballet, San Jose State University Opera Workshop, and The University of Iowa.

Mr. Lenk is a published composer with his arrangement of Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley released through GIA Publications in Chicago. He actively composes and arranges primarily liturgical music for the Basilica and has written several psalm and mass settings.

In 2013 Mr. Lenk was featured as organist in his own transcription of the Verdi Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony and Opera Choruses at the Oakland Cathedral of Christ the Light.

Mr. Lenk can be heard on recording with the Basilica Choir, the San Francisco Concert Chorale, the San Francisco Lyric Chorus, The Choral Project of San Jose, and on a solo recording of organ music recorded at Mission Dolores.

Mr. Lenk’s professional memberships include the American Guild of Organists, the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity.

Mr. Lenk is also experienced as a vocal coach and assistant conductor. His credits include Opera San Jose, the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute, San Jose/Cleveland Ballet, San Jose State University Opera Workshop, and The University of Iowa.

Mr. Lenk can be heard on recording with the Basilica Choir, the San Francisco Concert Chorale, The Choral Project of San Jose, and on a solo recording of organ music recorded at Mission Dolores.

Mr. Lenk’s professional memberships include the American Guild of Organists, the American Federation of Musicians, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity.