Our founding music director was Genevieve Cox Collins (1912-2008). Genevieve grew up in Lecompte, Louisiana, and completed her initial organ studies at LSU as the first organ major in the music department. In the 1930s Genevieve and her husband Frank Collins, Jr. (1902-68), also an organist, moved to Paris to continue their organ studies. Genevieve studied under the famous titular organist at Notre Dame, Louis Vierne (1870-1937). Vierne, a virtuoso who was blind from birth, was also a renowned teacher whose students included Nadia Boulanger and Maurice Duruflé. Frank studied with famed organ virtuoso and composer Marcel Dupré (1886-1971). In 1939, Dupré chose Frank to perform the premiere of one of his new organ works. Upon returning to Baton Rouge, the Collins’ would become founding members of the first congregation of Trinity in 1947. They also helped found the Baton Rouge chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
Photographs
Top: Genevieve Collins (served 1947-87) at the console, ca. 1994 (photo by Bill Feig)
Bottom: Elvia Hammett Parsons (served 1987-2023) at the console, ca. 2013
Gallery, left to right: Current organist Sam Kohler at the console in 2025; Frank Collins, Jr. at the console ca. 1960s; the Eberhart Organ under construction at the Casavant factory in 1958; the pipe chamber.


