Organ Performance · Amir Zaheri

An accomplished organist, Amir Zaheri continues the legacy of improvisation within the organ tradition, offering spontaneous responses in both liturgical and concert settings, grounded in interpretation, embodiment, and invitation.

As University Organist at The University of Alabama and Carillonneur of the Historic Denny Chimes, he performs across recital, festival, and worship contexts. Beyond the university, he serves as Director of Music & Worship Arts and Organist at First United Methodist Church of Tuscaloosa, where he shapes the creative and intentional design of liturgy and leads the congregation's music.

Amir Zaheri taking a bow as organ soloist with orchestra — Taking a bow as organ soloist with orchestra (Saint-Saëns)

University Organist

The Mighty Holtkamp Organ

In the Concert Hall of the Frank M. Moody Music Building.

As University Organist at The University of Alabama, Amir Zaheri performs on the Mighty Holtkamp Organ in the Concert Hall of the Frank M. Moody Music Building, in recital, in concert, and in spontaneous improvisation.

Built by the Holtkamp Organ Company of Cleveland in 1988, the instrument rises three stories behind the stage of the 1,000-seat hall, modeled on the Musikverein in Vienna, speaking through more than five thousand pipes across four manuals, with a mechanical, tracker key action.

1988

Built

4

Manuals

86

Ranks

5,000+

Pipes

For the Healing of the Nations, below, is a 45-minute, unrehearsed improvisation captured on the instrument, a living meditation on compassion, hope, and sound itself as prayer, where silence completes the music.

Amir Zaheri, organ (improvisation). Recorded November 2, 2025, University of Alabama Concert Hall.

Director of Music & Worship Arts

First United Methodist Church Tuscaloosa

The sanctuary organ: an instrument of worship.

As Director of Music & Worship Arts and Organist at First United Methodist Church Tuscaloosa, Amir Zaheri leads the congregation's musical life and presides at the sanctuary organ, supporting congregational song, choirs and soloists, and the full sweep of the Christian year.

Built by Randall Dyer & Associates of Jefferson City, Tennessee, and installed in 2015, the instrument was conceived not as a concert organ but as an instrument of worship. Its thousands of pipes (some only inches long, others more than thirty feet) speak through air alone, an entire family of voices shaped, stop by stop, to the moment at hand.

2015

Installed

3

Manuals

30+ ft

Tallest pipe

Explore Music & Worship Arts First United Methodist Church

Carillon

Carillonneur of Denny Chimes

The sound of The University of Alabama since 1929.

Denny Chimes at golden hour with a rainbow, The University of Alabama — Denny Chimes, The University of Alabama

For more than a decade, Amir Zaheri has brought Denny Chimes to life as a playable musical instrument, sustaining one of the University's most distinctive traditions through performances, special events, and dedicated stewardship.

Rising at the heart of the Quad, the tower has been the voice of the campus since 1929, its twenty-five bronze bells marking the hours and ringing the alma mater at noon.

1929

Sounding since

25

Bronze bells

115 ft

Tower height

Visit Denny Chimes Hear the chimes