Chad WinterfeldtFaculty and Staff

Chad Winterfeldt serves the Gustavus community as Cantor of Christ Chapel. In that role, he works with both the Chaplain's Office and the Department of Music to plan, lead and facilitate the musical and liturgical aspects of worship in the chapel.  He teaches courses in church music and music theory, guides an active organ studio and directs the campus handbell ensembles.  In 2017 and 2022 he was Artist Director of Christmas in Christ Chapel.  He is the 2015 recipient of the Swenson-Bunn Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence, a recognition by which nominations and selections are administered wholly by Gustavus students.

Dr. Winterfeldt earned his DMA from the University of Nebraska, where he studied with George Ritchie and Quentin Faulkner.  His doctoral thesis is an analysis of three compositions for organ by Pamela Decker, a teacher, composer and performer active in Arizona.  He received his bachelor's degree at Concordia College, Moorhead and his master's degree at Yale University where he studied with Thomas Murray and Charles Krigbaum. While at Yale, he won the Charles Ives Prize for an outstanding major in organ playing in 1994 and the Julia R. Sherman Prize for excellence in organ playing in 1995. Other teachers include Clyde Holloway at Rice University and Peter Nygaard at Concordia College.  

Career highlights include the solo performance in 2002 on the Bach organ (built in 1746 by Zacharias Hildebrandt) at Wenzelskirche in Naumburg, Germany. In recent years, Dr. Winterfeldt performed the complete La Nativite du Seigneur (The Birth of Our Lord), a set of nine meditations for organ by Olivier Messiaen at Christ Chapel, The Hildegard Organ Cycle, a multi-movement set by American Frank Ferko, and the Great Eighteen organ chorales by J. S. Bach. In 2019 Dr. Winterfeldt travelled with the Gustavus Choir to Vienna, Prague, Leipzig, Berlin, and Stockholm.  On that tour he performed a noontime solo recital at the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, Germany - the church where J.S. Bach is buried.  Later in 2019 he performed a solo recital feature music by women in the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Wittenberg, Germany.  In 2023, he accompanied the Gustavus Choir on a tour of Spain, France, and Italy, with a notable performance on the organ of 15,800 pipes in the Milan Duomo.  

Prior to his work as Cantor at Gustavus, Chad served First Lutheran Church, Saint Peter, as Director of Music for 10 years. He is active in the American Guild of Organists, Handbell Musicians of America, and the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. He is married to Beth Winterfeldt, a social worker; and is parent to three children: Quentin, Eleanor, and Cecily.

Courses Taught