Joel Bacon is the Stewart and Sheron Golden Chair of Organ and Liturgical Studies and the Fr. Don Willette Chair of Catholic Studies at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. 

As a concert organist he has been heard throughout Europe and North America, with recent projects focusing on music by J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, and Herman Berlinski (including the world premiere in 2019 of Berlinski’s organ concerto, “The Tetragrammaton”). He has played with celebrated orchestras and chamber groups, including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Borromeo String Quartet, and the Canadian Brass.  

In addition to organ, his research and teaching interests include topics related to Catholicism and the creative arts, especially Gregorian chant. From 2008 to 2020 he conducted the St. John XXIII Schola Cantorum, a choir specializing in Gregorian chant. Since 2021 he has been organist and artist in residence at First United Methodist Church, Fort Collins.