ANIEL TUCKER is a Catholic church musician with more than a decade of experience as a professional conductor, organist, and singer. He currently serves as the Director of Liturgical Music & Organist at the Cathedral of St. Matthew, the co-cathedral of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
After being raised in northeast Ohio, he earned Bachelor’s degrees in choral music education and comparative religion from Western Michigan University, where he also studied piano, organ, and harpsichord. Upon graduating, he was awarded Western Michigan University’s Presidential Scholar Award, the highest honor that the university can bestow on an undergraduate, for his work in comparative religion.
Mr. Tucker went on to Yale University, from which he graduated in May 2020 with a Master’s degree in choral conducting and a certificate from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He was the first choral conductor in the history of the Yale School of Music to be honored with the Presser Foundation’s Graduate Music Award. While at Yale, he served as an assistant choirmaster, organist, and cantor at St. Ambrose (North Branford, CT) and St. Mary (New Haven, CT) parishes, where he instructed youth and adult choirs in English and Latin plainchant and polyphony for the Ordinary Form of the Mass. Before coming to the Cathedral, he also served for two years as Director of Sacred Music & Liturgy at St. Thérèse Little Flower parish in South Bend, IN.
Mr. Tucker’s scholarly interest focuses on the utilization of chant in modern American Catholic liturgy. He is proud to be an active member of the Church Music Association of America and the American Guild of Organists (from whom he holds the Certificate in Service Playing). Outside of his musical pursuits, Mr. Tucker enjoys cooking, learning about food science, and watching Catholic Answers Live.
