Assisting Staff

Christian and Ashley graduated from Palm Beach Atlantic University, both with degrees in entrepreneurial leadership. They were married here at the Chapel and have 3 children, Grant, Hudson, and Luke.

In the Fall of 2012, desiring to become involved at the Chapel with their expressive love for God and appealing heart for youth, Christian and Ashley became instrumental in their leadership and facilitation of the Chapel’s attractive and most popular “Friday Night Live” ministry to an ever expanding number of middle school students. They established the Chapel’s Great Lawn and Seagull Cottage as the place to be on Friday nights.

We are grateful to God that they are here, available, and wanting to join the Chapel staff. Together, Christian and Ashley, with a great team of teachers and youth leaders, will continue with our support and encouragement to grow an attractive, exciting and enriching ministry to children and youth here at the Royal Poinciana Chapel.

Hailed as “an absolute organ prodigy” by National Public Radio and “one of the most talented organists in the world” by the Chicago Tribune, concert organist Adam J. Brakel is a preeminent artist “with the technique and virtuosity that most concert pianists could only dream of.” (NPR)

Adam’s celebrated performances span the globe—from coast to coast in the United States to across Europe and Asia. Brakel has one of the largest and most diverse performing repertoires in the world. His expansive list includes the entire spectrum of styles featuring the complete organ works of Bach, Bruhns, Buxtehude, Couperin, Liszt, de Grigny, Franck, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Duruflé.

Brakel’s performance highlights include the complete works of César Franck, and, most notably, the fiendishly difficult Six Etudes of Jeanne Demessieux, of which Adam is one of the few organists in the world to have performed and recorded in its entirety. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory and Duquesne University, Adam has a rich and decorated musical pedigree, having studied with Donald Sutherland and Dame Gillian Weir. He has taken top prizes in the Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition, the Gruenstein Memorial Organ Competition, the John Rodland Memorial Scholarship Competition, the French Organ Music Seminar Competition, and the Carlene Neihart International Organ Competition. He has also earned the André Marchal Award for Excellence in Performance as well as the Oundle Award, among other honors.

Adam J. Brakel is represented by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.