Ariana Corbin’s Vision for a Diverse and Inclusive Music Ministry

Ariana Corbin

The journey to becoming a church musician is rarely a straight path, and for organist Ariana Corbin, it was anything but conventional. Growing up in evangelical churches without a pipe organ or formal choral tradition, she initially envisioned a future as a concert pianist. However, through a series of unexpected events—starting with a single credit of secondary organ lessons—she discovered a new passion that led her to pursue a Ph.D. in organ studies. Now serving as the Organ Scholar at Washington National Cathedral, Ariana is deeply committed to using music as a tool for outreach, education, and ministry. In this interview, she shares her remarkable transition from piano to organ, her aspirations for sacred music, and how she hopes to inspire the next generation of church musicians.

What inspired you to become an organist and church musician? 

Like most organists, I grew up with a piano in the house, which I was always very fascinated by. My family isn’t particularly musical, but my parents recognized that music was something that I was interested in from a very early age, and I began taking piano lessons at age five. Throughout my childhood and up until I started grad school, I was convinced that I wanted to be a pianist. I never considered other keyboard instruments as even being an option, because I was never exposed to anything other than a piano. Unlike most organists, I did not grow up in a church that had a pipe organ and a substantial music program. I grew up in evangelical churches that primarily used pianos and praise bands, with modern choruses mixed in with evangelical hymnody. That was the only church music I knew. I had a vague idea that some other churches had pipe organs, but I didn’t know anything about the music of that tradition. 

I never saw a pipe organ in real life until I started my undergrad at the University of Michigan, where I studied piano. One of my friends happened to be an organ student, and he invited me to come to his junior recital. I had no idea what to expect from an organ recital, and I was completely blown away by the level of virtuosity and complexity that that instrument was able to achieve. I thought it was only pianists that had flashy concert pieces, and I had no idea that organists could do that too! It was very intriguing to me, and I made sure to go to all of his other organ performances while we were students there. That was how I was first introduced to the instrument, but in my mind I still had this idea that I was supposed to be a pianist. 

Ariana at the organ console

I had held onto that vision of becoming a concert pianist since my early childhood, and it was almost impossible to imagine myself doing anything else, despite the fact that I wasn’t tangibly realizing that goal. In the piano world, one of the most important building blocks of your career as a performer is competitions. I was led to believe that if I didn’t win any competitions, then I wouldn’t be able to have a stable career as a soloist. And even though I made sure to enter every competition I could and practice more than all of my friends, somehow I never won any prizes. That was a very discouraging experience for me, and throughout my undergrad I struggled with tendonitis, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and depression as a result of practicing an unhealthy amount and constantly worrying about whether I would be able to have a career if I didn’t win any prizes. 

This pattern continued into grad school, when I started a master’s in piano performance at Florida State. I lasted for about one semester before my depression hit me full blast. I got to a point where I could barely practice the piano at all. Every time I would try to practice I just sat on the bench and cried—or worse, felt nothing at all, just an empty numbness. It was terrifying to see myself losing something that I had been holding on to for so long, something that had once been a place of comfort and inspiration that had turned into a place of darkness and pain. I was so afraid that I would get to the point where I would lose music altogether, and I was desperate for something that could fill the gaping hole within me that the piano could no longer fill. 

I happened to have a free credit in my class schedule for my second semester, and as a last-ditch attempt to find some way to hold on to music making, I decided to take one credit of secondary organ lessons. Everything about that instrument was very disorienting at first. To untrained hands, the keys of an organ feel so wooden and lifeless when you’re used to an immediate response from a piano action. It was jarring at the beginning, but I soon realized that that seeming lack of response from the instrument was actually somewhat of an antidote for the hypersensitive world of the piano that I had lived in for so many years. I found that I was able to sit down and have a decent practice session at the organ on a regular basis, when my practice sessions at the piano were still very uncomfortable and unstable. 

Ariana and Dr. Quinn

It wasn’t long before I was spending more time on the organ than on the piano. My organ teacher Dr. Quinn wasn’t fully aware of what I was going through in my piano studies, but he noticed that I was enjoying the lessons and doing pretty well at the organ, and he encouraged me to keep taking lessons with him for the remainder of my degree. As time went on, I got more and more comfortable with my hands and feet on the organ and slowly built my way up to more difficult repertoire, and he eventually asked if I would consider staying on for a master’s degree in organ. Even though I had very little joy in my piano playing at that time, it was still a shock for me to consider the thought of changing my career path entirely, and leaving that instrument behind for good. 

I debated that idea with myself for months without reaching a firm conclusion, until Dr. Quinn mentioned to me that if I became an organist, I could seek out a career as a church musician. The idea that I could have a happy, healthy, and fulfilling career in a field that didn’t involve winning competitions was a revelation to me. Although I didn’t grow up with what most people would consider to be “good music” in church, church and church music has always been very important to me as a Christian, and somehow it had never occurred to me that I could focus my musical energy in the church instead of the concert stage. That idea from Dr. Quinn sealed the deal for me, and I made the decision to stay at FSU for a master’s in organ after completing my master’s in piano. Once I allowed myself to view the organ as a serious option for myself as a musician, my relationship with the instrument began to blossom, and I knew that I wanted more. Two years of a master’s degree weren’t nearly enough to satisfy my curiosity about the organ and sacred repertoire, and I knew that staying at FSU for a doctorate in organ was the right thing for me.

Ever since then I have been so blessed to have wonderful opportunities to develop myself as an organist and a church musician, and that has all culminated in this incredible opportunity at the National Cathedral. I never could have imagined that crying in the piano practice rooms and taking one credit of secondary organ lessons would lead to all this, but I am so deeply grateful that God has granted me this opportunity to serve Him as the Organ Scholar. 

Washington National Cathedral

How do you envision using music for outreach, ministry, and education during your time at the Washington National Cathedral?

WNC is such an incredible place with so many resources and opportunities to invest in the surrounding community, and music plays a huge role in that. As the Organ Scholar, a big part of my responsibilities includes accompanying both the Boy Choristers and the Girl Choristers in a variety of settings, whether it be Sunday morning services, Evensong services that happen each evening throughout the week, and also voice recitals that the choristers periodically put on. It is so amazing to me that we’re able to give these kids an opportunity to sing at the Cathedral on a near daily basis. Most musicians dream of performing at the National Cathedral just once in their lives, but these kids get a chance to do it every day. And I think even that one aspect of my job will encompass outreach, ministry, and education in a multitude of ways. By accompanying and coaching these choristers for their services and concerts, I will be able to minister to the choristers themselves in both my playing and my coaching, and through the services and concerts I will be able to minister to the congregation and surrounding community through music of deep spiritual relevance, and all of that together allows for outreach to all the many visitors that stop by the Cathedral for Evensong, Sunday mornings, and other concerts and events. 

There are so many vital skills that church organists need in order to be effective music leaders within their congregations. There are practical keyboard skills like improvising and hymn playing, leadership skills like conducting and rehearsal leading, administrative skills such as planning and coordinating music and musicians for so many services and concerts throughout the year, and pedagogical skills when you’re dealing with choristers at a variety of ages from elementary school up through high school. During my time at WNC I will have countless opportunities to develop these skills in a very hands-on way, and I’m greatly looking forward to learning from Tom, Julie, and the rest of the music staff as I prepare for my future career as a church organist.

How do you plan to integrate musical diversity into your repertoire and programs at the Cathedral? 

Musical diversity is so important for all musicians, but especially for organists. We are so blessed to have a repertoire that spans centuries and even millennia of sacred music and keyboard repertoire, and it is vital that we are able to pull together all of those different facets of our repertoire into meaningful services and concert programs. The National Cathedral is very unique in its music program in that it encompasses a balance of traditional Anglican music and contemporary worship music. It’s not one of those churches that sticks to just one thing—they have multiple choirs and the organ of course, but they also have a contemporary ensemble and even a gospel ensemble that are regularly featured during their services, and that’s not including all of the guest choirs and artists that perform during services and concerts throughout the year. Since they are in such a unique position with having so many visitors from around the country and around the world constantly coming in and out, they’ve been very wise to prioritize a diverse experience that welcomes everyone to engage with the music during services, regardless of what background they may come from. 

For my own organ repertoire, I have been researching and performing the organ works of David Hurd for my doctoral treatise at FSU, and I hope to be able to perform his music during services and concerts at WNC. Dr. Hurd has been such a powerful figure in the Episcopal Church for several decades now, and it is a privilege to be able to use my research and performance to highlight one of the most inspiring voices within this field. 

St. Thomas 5th Avenue

Could you share more about your experience working with the Girl Chorister Course at Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue?

The Girl Chorister Course is one of the finest opportunities for young female singers in the country, and it is so wonderful to see their continued commitment to supporting female musicians, especially in these current times when many other cathedrals are no longer funding their female choirs. As the Organ Scholar, I will be mentoring the girls throughout the week in their dorms, classes, and services, and I’ll also have an opportunity to do some accompanying for the services as well. It’s a wonderful opportunity for me as a keyboardist to get a better glimpse into the world of vocal training, especially as that will be a big part of what I’ll be doing in D.C. I certainly hope that I can be some inspiration to the girls as a female church musician who’s managed to secure a notable Cathedral position, and I hope that many of them will continue to work in the sacred music space as they grow older.

What are some of the most memorable performances or projects you’ve been involved in so far? 

One of my favorite things that I was able to do at my previous church job in Tallahassee was a full performance of the wonderful Passiontide oratorio The Crucifixion by John Stainer, with all the hymns and solos and everything! It was a tremendous effort to try to pull that entire work together with only a dozen or so singers and a two-manual digital organ, but I was very proud of all the work my choir poured into those rehearsals, and it was so meaningful to be able to perform it on Good Friday. It ended up being a wonderful outreach opportunity to the surrounding community, and we had a good turnout that included many people who had never been to that church before. It was a very moving experience to be able to perform that piece in a small church with a modest music program, just as Stainer intended when he wrote it, and I felt very blessed to be able to give such a wonderful opportunity for musical and spiritual reflection to my congregation.

As you know, administering a music program is much more than just playing organ and directing the choir. As an organist, what are the challenges and rewards of accompanying chorister programs? 

I think most church organists are typically used to working with trained singers, or at least adult singers, in their music programs. Not every church has the means to be able to sustain a long-term chorister program for children, and it takes so much effort to be able to create a meaningful educational experience that will give those kids the self-discipline, team building, and problem-solving skills they will need to take with them into adulthood, regardless of whether or not they choose to remain in the music industry. The younger kids need to be helped with every aspect of their music making, from learning how to read music in the first place, to learning how to sing Anglican chant, to understanding the deeper spiritual purpose behind the music they’re singing in the service. And you have to invest so much time and effort into those kids in order to ensure that they’re learning those skills and understanding those concepts properly.

I’ll be very interested to see how my keyboard brain engages with all of this vocal training that I’ll end up doing, and I think those kids will probably teach me as much as I’ll teach them! It will be so wonderful to have an opportunity to invest into children that are developing themselves as church musicians, just like I am. I never had anything like that as a kid, so it will be pretty amazing for me to be able to take part in that as an adult. 

What are your long-term goals as a church musician and how do you plan to achieve them? How do you balance your aspirations for personal growth with your commitment to community outreach and education through music?

The job I have at the National Cathedral is meant to prepare me with the skills, knowledge, experience, and tools I will need to be able to lead a church music program of my own someday, and I hope and pray that that ends up happening! I’m especially excited to get some hands-on experience with the chorister programs. As someone who never had such an opportunity as a child, children’s music education in a sacred setting is something that is very important to me, and I hope that I will be able to implement the skills I will learn at WNC in a way that will allow me to create similar educational opportunities for children at whatever church I end up going to next. 

For me, personal growth, community, education, and music are all very much intertwined. We cannot grow as musicians unless we also grow as people, and community involvement is perhaps the best way to expand our understanding of ourselves and others. In a similar vein, teaching and learning always have to happen concurrently, and I think the more we teach, the more we will learn; and the more we grow, the more we are able to give back to our communities. 
In the future, I hope to be able to foster synergy between education and community outreach by creating a children’s music program that exposes young musicians in the community to a wide variety of music traditions and instruments, including vocal training, piano, organ, and even harpsichord if I have that available. As someone who grew up only having one instrument available to me, it is so important to me to expose my future students to as many different instruments as they can get their hands on, and through that to give them as many different musical outlets and sources of inspiration as I possibly can. 

Ariana Corbin’s journey is a testament to the transformative power of music and the unexpected paths that can lead to a fulfilling career in sacred music. From overcoming the pressures of the concert pianist world to embracing a calling in church music, she brings a unique perspective to her role as Organ Scholar at Washington National Cathedral. With a deep commitment to mentorship, musical diversity, and community engagement, Ariana is not only shaping her own future but also inspiring the next generation of church musicians. As she continues to develop her skills and share her passion, it’s clear that her impact on the field of sacred music will be both profound and lasting.