A native of Toronto, Canada, Kola Owolabi is University organist and assistant professor of music at Syracuse University. There he teaches courses in organ, improvisation, continuo playing, and music theory; plays for weekly chapel services and special events; and coordinates the Malmgren Concert Series at Hendricks Chapel. He is also the sub dean for the Syracuse chapter of the American Guild of Organists and is responsible for planning chapter events.

Dr. Owolabi holds degrees from McGill University, Montreal, (B.Mus, organ performance), Yale University (M.M. organ performance and choral conducting), and Eastman School of Music (D.M.A., organ performance). His former teachers have included Bruce Wheatcroft, John Grew, Martin Jean, Thomas Murray, Hans Davidsson, and William Porter.

Dr. Owolabi has held positions as assistant organist at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto and at the Church of St. Andrew & St. Paul in Montreal. While studying at Yale, he was organist at the University Chapel and directed the chapel choir at the Yale Divinity School. He is a published composer and has received commissions from the Royal Canadian College of Organists and the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. In 2002 he was awarded second prize and audience prize at the American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance. As a recitalist, he has performed across Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Jamaica, including at such venues as St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York, Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Massachusetts, Cornell University, and the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.