Since 1999, Benjamin Kolodziej has served as music coordinator for weddings at Perkins Chapel, one of the most popular wedding venues in Dallas. His primary role is either to play organ or to assign an organist for a wedding, depending on scheduling; regardless, he is the contact person for all wedding music at the chapel.
Biography:
Benjamin Kolodziej is Organist/Choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Dallas as well as organist at Perkins Chapel, SMU. Enjoying a multifaceted career, he has performed concerts, hymn festivals, and silent movies throughout the USA, the UK, Norway, Germany, Austria, and Italy, including at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Our Lady of Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles, Washington National Cathedral, and the Cathedral of St Mary in San Francisco, among others. His choir has sung choral evensongs and choral eucharists in the UK in 2019 and 2024, performing at St. Albans, Gloucester, Bristol, Chichester, Southwark, Wells, and Lichfield cathedrals.
As a composer, his music is published by GIA, Concordia Publishing House, Northwestern Publishing House and Augsburg Fortress. He maintains scholarly interest in theological, liturgical, and historical topics, and has written for The American Organist, The Diapason, The Chorister, Methodist History, Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, The Tracker, Theatre Organ, and The Lutheran Witness amongst many others. Active in the Lutheran Church, he has written for the Lutheran Service Book Hymnal Companion, and was appointed the Carl Schalk Scholar in Church Music at Concordia University Chicago for 2018-2020. He has served as dean of the Dallas Chapter–American Guild of Organists and has lectured on musical topics for churches, universities, and AGO chapters throughout the USA. His book, Joyful Singing: A Story of Lutheran Sacred Music in Texas, the first book dedicated to the topic of Missouri Synod sacred music in the state, was published in 2022 by Fortress Press and received the 2023 Award of Commendation from the Concordia Historical Institute, while his album, Tune My Heart to Sing Thy Praise: Music of Faith and Hope, a collection of hymn arrangements for organ, was released in 2022. His book, Music from the Hilltop: Organs and Organists at SMU, exploring the history of the teachers, pedagogy, and organs at SMU, was published by the University of North Texas Press in 2023. In 2025, Concordia Publishing House is releasing his Portraits in American Lutheran Sacred Music: 1847-1947, a book dedicated to recounting the people, music, and pedagogy of the first century of Lutheran music in America.
As a hobby, he enjoys accompanying silent movies (particularly the comedies of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd) in an authentic, 1920s, manner.
Mr Kolodziej is a member of Faith Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Plano, TX.
Perkins Chapel Wedding Music 