John Walthausen has served churches as a musician since he was a teenager and has been Director of Music Ministry at The First Presbyterian Church in Germantown since 2021. John directs the Chancel Choir and the Oratorio Choir, and he also works with children and youth for the annual Christmas Pageant. On Sunday mornings, he loves leading the congregation in hymns from “the Germantown Giant,” the largest church organ in Philadelphia.
Accomplished as a recitalist, John Walthausen has been heard in concert throughout Europe in Paris, Chartres, Poitiers, Toulouse, Hamburg, Milan, Treviso, Innsbruck, Basel, and Zurich. From 2015 to 2016, he served as Organist in Residence at Sapporo Concert Hall in Hokkaido, where he performed and recorded on the Hall’s four-manual organ by Alfred Kern and in cities across Japan. Recent projects have taken him to New York, Boston, Washington D.C., New Orleans, Victoria (British Columbia), Cincinnati, and Bogotá.
In 2019, he co-founded the ensemble Filament, a Philadelphia based ensemble dedicated to exploring the rich chamber music repertoire of 17th century Northern Europe, with violinist Evan Few and viola da gamba player Elena Smith. In 2024, he served as Artistic Director for the Philadelphia Organ Festival.