About

Recently awarded Third Prize in the 2026 National Competition in Organ Improvisation, Dr. John Joseph “JJ” Mitchell is a musician with passion for organ, choral, and sacred music. He is the Director of Choral Arts at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. where he conducts the school choirs and teaches piano and organ students. He accompanies liturgies on the Kilgen organ at the historic St. Aloysius Church on Gonzaga’s campus for school liturgies and events. On the weekends, he is in demand as a substitute organist in the region.

An in-demand musician in the DC metropolitan area, JJ earned a Doctorate in Musical Arts in Organ Performance with a minor in Arts Leadership from the University of Houston on a full-ride Graduate Tuition Fellowship in May 2023 at the age of twenty-eight. Previously, JJ graduated Summa Cum Laude from Westminster Choir College with a bachelor’s degree in Sacred Music. He then earned his Master of Sacred Music degree in Organ Performance from the University of Notre Dame, where he attended on another full-tuition scholarship. He also studied at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse (France).

JJ has served as organist on the music staff of churches such as Christ Church Cathedral (Houston, TX), the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Notre Dame, IN), and the Cathedral of St. Thomas More (Arlington, VA). He has performed concerts in these churches as well as at Longwood Gardens, the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and various other churches across the United States, Canada, France, England, and Australia. The following is a review from his 2024 concert in Sydney:

“Whilst the Puget [organ] is unmistakenly 19th century and French to boot, the eclectic nature of this carefully programmed concert spanning four centuries was most successful. Dr. Mitchell’s performance exuded an at oneness with the Puget he had travelled so far to play. An audience in excess of 100 was treated to an informative lecture and performance by a most knowledgeable organist and scholar.”

‍ ‍Pastor de Lasala, Sydney Organ Journal

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JJ was awarded Second Prize in the Hall Pipe Organ Competition in March 2022. He is the winner of the Nanovic Grant for European Study for Professional Development and was a finalist for the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant. In September 2020, he was a guest on the "Sounds from the Spires" SiriusXM Radio program in which his organ recordings were broadcast. He has also played live for internationally televised liturgies and concerts streamed on the networks EWTN and Salt + Life Media. JJ has collaborated with the Grammy nominated ensemble Ars Lyrica Houston on continuo organ and harpsichord.

In addition to his musical craft, JJ is also an accomplished scholar whose writing has received international recognition. In Spring 2024, he won the covetedGruenstein Award from The Diapason, which recognizes excellence in scholarship by an author under age 35. His winning submission profiled the Puget family, a dynasty of organ builders from Toulouse, France where JJ studied from 2019-2020. This essay, a cut of his dissertation, was published in two installments by The Diapason in May and July 2024. Another portion of his doctoral research was featured in the Winter 2024 issue of TheSydney Organ Journal. JJ’s dissertation on the Puget family was the first of its kind to be written in English and was also the first major research on this topic produced at an academic institution in thirty-seven years. In addition, JJ was twenty-four years old when a separate research of his on the musical influences of César Franck was published in the Vox Humana Organ Journal. In 2021, JJ was inducted into The Diapason magazine’s Class of 20 Under 30.

JJ is a member of the American Guild of Organists, where he serves as Treasurer of the Northern Virginia Chapter. He also is a member of L’Association Jean-Claude Guidarini and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM), the latter from which he has received several scholarships. Previously, he served on NPM’s National Publications Committee. JJ’s career goal is to teach sacred music to the next generation.