Sep 19, 2025 By Brad Hundt 3 min read

Plato once remarked that music is the medicine of the soul, and Chris Keenan knows a thing or two about both music and medicine.

The organist and music director at Mt. Lebanon United Lutheran Church, Keenan is juggling his work as a musician with studies at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. Keenan, who will be 35 later this month, hopes to be an emergency room doctor once he completes work on his medical degree.

“I’ve always been into emergency response,” Keenan explained. In an emergency room, he pointed out, “you’re responding to everything.”

But even though that high-pressure environment is looming over the horizon, Keenan is keeping a foot in the music world and will be offering a recital Sunday in the much quieter environs of the Galbreath Chapel at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Upper St. Clair. Starting at 2:30 p.m., Keenan will be offering selections from Bach, Vivaldi and others to mark the 10th anniversary of the chapel’s Taylor and Boody pipe organ.

Before coming to Pittsburgh so he could study at Pitt, Keenan had lived all over the country. He was born in Sacramento, Calif., lived for a year in Ireland, and then his family settled in a suburb of Nashville, Tenn. Since Keenan’s father was a singer-songwriter, his mother was a drummer and he was living near the capital of country music, developing an interest in music was natural.

“You’re surrounded by music,” Keenan said. He began studying organ at age 14 even while his own musical tastes tended toward Def Leppard and AC/DC. After graduating from high school in 2008, he received a bachelor’s degree from the Peabody Institute, the conservatory at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and then a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. Keenan has participated in high-profile organ competitions, played in such prestigious American venues as the Princeton University Chapel and St. Thomas Church in New York and given recitals in Germany and Britain.

“I felt like I was doing well with it in high school,” Keenan said. “I felt I had the most natural talent doing that. I loved music.”

Amid all this, he developed an interest in medicine. While working as the director of music and broadcasting at a church in Charleston, S.C., he became a firefighter and emergency medical technician in nearby Summerville. From there, he applied to Pitt.

Once he completes his degree, Keenan would like to continue playing music as much as the demands of his new career will allow.

“I would love to if I can,” he said.

For information on the recital at Westminster Presbyterian Church, go online to westminster-church.org.