Princeton Seminary Donor Leaves Legacy of Musical Ministry

A Fritts Opus 21 pipe organ engraved with seahorses and seashells resides in the Gambrell Room in Scheide Hall, a gift from legendary organist Joan Lippincott and longtime friend of Princeton Theological Seminary. The instrument arrived on campus from Lippincott’s Cape Cod home in late 2019, just before two unexpected events changed daily worship services for the next year and a half.

At the start of 2020, a pipe burst and flooded the Seminary Chapel, displacing daily worship services to various locations across campus every day. Many Wednesday services took place in Scheide Hall and were accompanied by Lippincott’s pipe organ, bringing a familiar rhythm to daily worship, particularly for the Chapel Choir. Several weeks later, as the world began to shut down for the Covid-19 pandemic, the choir hastily recorded dozens of hymns with the organ.

“We used these recordings for the rest of the semester until we figured out how to worship together online,” said C.F. Seabrook Director of Music Dr. Martin Tel.

The Gambrell Room organ is one of the many ways Lippincott’s spirit of generosity and enduring impact on sacred music will continue to be felt at the Seminary. Upon her passing in May 2025, Lippincott made a planned gift to the Princeton Theological Seminary Chapel Music Program, supporting the musical ministry of current and future students.

As one of America’s preeminent concert organists, Lippincott performed in more than 600 solo recitals throughout the United States and abroad and released over 20 recordings. As a teacher, she shaped generations of performers and church musicians — affectionately known as “Lippincott kids” — including the Seminary’s late music director David A. Weadon, who served from 1982-95. She was particularly known for her interpretation of the works of J.S. Bach. Fortuitously, the new home for her beloved Opus 21 organ Scheide Hall, was named after Princeton Seminary trustee and benefactor William H. Scheide and his wife, Gertrude. Scheide was a world-renowned Bach scholar and owned one of the world’s largest collections of Bach manuscripts.

Lippincott’s connection to the Seminary dates back to the 1960s when she would play the Chapel organ for worship services. Unconventionally, the pipes of the organ at the time were located in the basement of the Seminary Chapel. Lippincott once remarked to Tel that after the congregation began to sing, she “could have turned the organ off and walked away and nobody would have noticed” because the sound was so muffled.

Tel was first introduced to Lippincott when he became the Seminary’s music director in 1996; she was working as the principal organist for neighboring Princeton University. When Tel joined the staff, the Seminary was in the midst of planning a renovation of the Chapel, which included the installation of a new organ, and the construction of Scheide Hall. As plans moved forward for Paul Fritts and Co. Organ Builders of Tacoma, Washington, to create what would become the Joe R. Engle Organ, doubts from some who preferred traditional East Coast organ builders emerged. Tel knew exactly who could dispel their worries.

“Joan was the most respected organ teacher and performer in the Northeast,” said Tel. “She told me to have any skeptics call her. Several did, and she convinced them that the organ project would be a lasting legacy for the Seminary and for the entire town. She proved herself to be right. She did, I believe, save the project.”

Lippincott recognized the new organ’s personal, communal, and historic significance. “It will be a leader in worship that moves people. My life has been about music and worship, and I’ve been waiting for such a moment as this when such a great instrument would arrive in Princeton,” she said in a 2001 edition of inSpire magazine.
After the renovation project was completed, Lippincott played the inaugural recital on the Joe R. Engle Organ, an Opus 20 pipe organ and sibling instrument to her
Gambrell Room organ.

Lippincott remained connected to Princeton Seminary after retiring in 2000, attending performances and services, visiting campus during maintenance appointments with organ builder Paul Fritts, and recording four albums on the Joe R. Engle Organ. One of her recordings was even used as the hold music on Seminary phones for many years. Today, Tel conducts choir practices alongside her gift of the Gambrell Room organ, while students use the instrument to practice before weekday services. Coordinator of Worship and Music Mina Choi, MDiv ’16, even played the organ during a memorial concert at the Seminary hosted by the American Guild of Organists (Central New Jersey Chapter) in Lippincott’s honor last fall.

Lippincott’s presence has been interwoven with the musical history of Princeton Seminary in ways both big and small. Thanks to her tireless work during her life and the generosity of her gift to the Seminary, generations of students and members of the Seminary community can play the instruments she once did and discern their own musical calling, embracing the gift of song and its influence on people and prayer.