Ken Cowan, Palmer’s Artist-in-Residence and Organist, is Associate Professor and head of the organ program at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He has also served on the organ faculty of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey.
Ken has recorded on the Pro Organo, JAV, and Etheral recording labels, and many of his recordings and live performances have been featured on NPR. He received a Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven, Connecticut, and his Bachelor of Music degree from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a church musician, he has held posts as Artist-in-Residence and Organist at Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York City and as Assistant Organist at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.
The Rev. Neil Alan Willard has been the Rector of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, since 2014. In the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, he has twice served as a member of the Board of the Episcopal Health Foundation. Previously he was the Rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Edina, Minnesota, for seven years and Associate Rector at Bruton Parish Episcopal Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, for six years. Before that he lived in South Carolina, serving congregations on Hilton Head Island and in Surfside Beach. He has also worked as Bishop’s Clerk for the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia in Richmond.
Neil is a native of North Carolina, where he was baptized and raised in the Moravian Church. He is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Yale Divinity School. Neil is married to Carrie, and they have two kids, three rescue dogs, and one rescue cat.