Joshua Zentner-Barrett holds the Master of Sacred Music in Organ Performance, summa cum laude, from Southern Methodist University, the Master of Arts in Theology from Saint Paul University, and the Honours Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a PhD candidate in Theology and Liturgy at Saint Paul University. His organ teachers have included Stefan Engels, Wesley Warren, Marlin Nagtegaal, and Christopher Anderson. He has also studied harpsichord with James Richman, conducting with Pamela Elrod-Huffman, Jessica Kun, and Donald Krehbiel, and improvisation with Glenn Buhr and Gerard Yun. 

A dedicated church musician, Josh is deeply committed to global music in the context of the church community. He has worked for churches and seminaries in Canada and the United States, and currently serves as Director of Music for the Anglican Studies Program at Saint Paul University, in Ottawa, ON. Studies with Debbie Lou Ludolph and C. Michael Hawn have shaped his leadership approach, which fuses ancient and modern hymnody with innovative performance techniques. As a musical enlivener, Josh uses music to respond to the call to witness, engaging the congregation in a full experience of the sacred. This is the core of Josh's teaching, serving to bridge the gap between diverse expressions of faith. You may read more about his philosophy of sacred music here. 

Josh is involved with Then Let Us Sing, the new music resource from The United Church of Canada, the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and the Royal Canada College of Organists, from which he holds the Associateship diploma. Notable honours and awards include the Wayne C. Vance and Willan Scholarships (2018), the Barrie Cabena Music Scholarship (2016), and the Lilian Forsyth Scholarship in Church Music (2015). While at Southern Methodist University he held the Perkins School of Theology International Student Scholarship and was awarded the Roger Deschner and Master of Sacred Music prizes for excellence. At Saint Paul University, he is funded by a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and a Doctoral Fellowship from the Louisville Institute.