Dr. Lara L. West

Organist, Acting Director of Music and the Arts

Dr. Lara West

A lifelong Lutheran, Lara West is passionate about church music, especially congregational song. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Luther College, and master’s and doctoral degrees in church music (organ concentration) from the University of Kansas, where she studied organ with Michael Bauer and James Higdon. Her lecture-recital focused on compositional techniques in the organ music of Hugo Distler. She spent a year studying at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik (Church Music Conservatory) in Rottenburg, Germany, and worked for a year as Cantor for the Protestant congregation in Burgsteinfurt, Germany. An active member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM), she is the Region Three At-Large Officer and the music review editor for the ALCM journal, CrossAccent. She is also an active member of the American Guild of Organists and The Hymn Society. In addition to her position at Trinity, West is currently an adjunct instructor in the music department at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.