Christoph Bull

The Cathedral is delighted to welcome Christoph Bull as Guest Organist on Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 1:00pm.  Christoph first performed at the Cathedral back in 2002 followed by a full-length evening recital in 2006.

Christoph improvised his first melodies on the piano at the age of five and gave his first organ recitals and rock concerts with a band at the age of twelve.

He has concertized around the world, including Europe, Russia, India, Taiwan, China, Japan, El Salvador and many U.S. states. He’s performed at national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society.

Christoph Bull recorded the first solo album featuring the organ at
Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, entitled First & Grand. His most recent album is Patrick Cassidy's The Mass, released by Supertrain Records, which he performed on and co-produced during the quarantine at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, joining forces with the vocal ensemble Laude and Director David Harris.

His song "Peace" was included on the compilation album 2 Unite All which also includes tracks by Peter Gabriel, Stewart Copeland, Ricky Kej, Lili Haydn and others.

He's worked with conductors including James Conlon, Carl St. Clair,        
Grant Gershon and Edo de Waart and with ensembles including the Bundesjugendorchester (National Youth Orchestra of Germany), L.A. Master Chorale, Pacific Symphony, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Southeast Symphony and Southwest Chamber Music.

His music has been broadcast on KCRW, on Classical KUSC and the Minnesota Public Radio program Pipedreams.

He recorded the pipe organ parts for Ghostbusters and Transformers at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. He also worked as organ consultant on Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report and recorded for Robin Williams’ last TV Show The Crazy Ones. He has performed with George Clinton and recorded with Bootsy Collins (both Parliament Funkadelic). Together with Lili Haydn and Satnam Ramgotra, he opened up for Cindy Lauper, and he worked with Harry Connick Jr. on his first Christmas album. Discovery and Science Channels featured him in the first episode of How to build... everything.

Venues Dr Bull has performed at include The National Concert Hall in Taipei, Shanghai Conservatory, the Shumei Temple in Misono (Japan), Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Lincoln Center in New York City, Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, the Cathedrals of Moscow, Los Angeles, Saint-Denis and Salzburg as well as rock clubs like The Viper Room, The Roxy and The Whisky in Los Angeles.

He studied at University of Sacred Music in Heidelberg, Musikhochschule Freiburg, Berklee College of Music in Boston, American Conservatory of Music and University of Southern California. His organ teachers were Cherry Rhodes, Hermann Schäffer, Ludwig Dörr, Samuel Swartz, Christoph Schöner and Paul Jordan. He also participated in master courses with Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Craig Cramer and Rudi Lutz.

Christoph Bull is university organist and organ professor at UCLA as well as organist-in-residence at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, regularly playing one of the largest pipe organs in the world.

Outside of music, Christoph is interested in politics, theology, cinema and sports. He’s read the whole Bible, Koran, Bhagavad Gita and Tao Te Ching, watched every Seinfeld episode and all Star Wars movies in a row in the chronological order of the storyline. He’s run the L.A. Marathon several times and won the National German Youth Championship in Baseball with his team BC Tornados Mannheim.