Kraig Windschitl ('00)
Kraig Windschitl graduated from SJU in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in liturgical music and organ performance. In 2002, Windschitl got his Master of Music degree in organ performance with a cognate in sacred music from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University.
Windschitl started working at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis in 2005. Mount Olivet is the largest Lutheran congregation in North America. He worked as principal organist/music associate at Mount Olivet, which was his dream job.
In 2007, Windschitl began to work towards monastic vocation. That same year, he came back to SJU to fill in for the organ professor, who was on sabbatical.On September 14, 2011, Theophane (Kraig) Windschitl professed his simple vows as a Benedictine monk during the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Following his vows, Windschitl was a novice at the Abbey and taught music theory at SJU, sang in the Abbey schola, was the Abbey organist, and assisted in the oblate office. Windschitl left the Abbey in 2012.
Windschitl is now the organist and director of handbells at the St. Phillip the Deacon Lutheran Church in Plymouth. He has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Pipedreams” and has published essays in The Diapason, which is a monthly publication for organists.