Patrick Hawkins is the Organ Instructor at the University of South Carolina School of Music and is the full-time Organist at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Columbia, South Carolina. At St. Joseph Church he is currently overseeing the installation of the first pipe organ built in the United States by the Italian firm of Mascioni (installation expected in 2029). Hawkins holds degrees in organ performance from the Peabody Conservatory at The Johns Hopkins University, East Carolina University, and Arizona State University. His former teachers include Peggy Haas Howell, Donald Sutherland, Janette Fishell, Kimberly Marshall, Carole Terry, and Cherry Rhodes. In Europe he coached under Lorenzo Ghielmi (Italy) and Jeanne Joulain (France). Following his study of Mme. Joulain’s music and with the composer’s permission, he authored an article on the corrections of her published organ scores.  

In 1993 Dr. Hawkins made his European debut at St. Catherine’s College at the Cambridge Summer Recitals in the United Kingdom. Since then, he has regularly returned to Europe to perform in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain at such venues at the Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont (Paris), upon the historic organ at the Abbey of Valloires (Somme, Picardy, France), the Church of Saint-Maurice (Lille, France; there playing the European premiere of ""Chantasy for Two Organs"" by James Hopkins with the American composer at the choir organ), and the Basilica of St. John the Baptist (Saarbrücken, Germany). In 2013 he was invited to lecture at the 2nd International Conference on Early Keyboard Music at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; he was a featured lecturer at the International Muzio Clementi Conference in Lucca, Italy in 2015 as well as organist in residence during the summer of 2015 at Wells Cathedral (England, UK) and St. David’s Cathedral (Wales, UK); he was a featured recitalist and lecturer at the International Muzio Clementi Conference at the University of Barcelona, Spain in 2016, and in 2023 he received a performance diploma for the first summer course of L'Arte dei Suoni - the Accademia d'organo della Valcuvia in Italy.  

Dr. Hawkins has appeared in the United States as soloist at four regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists and premiered ""Collage for Organ"" by the late American composer Benjamin Lees at the Far-West AGO Convention in Phoenix, Arizona. In the United States he has appeared as an organ recitalist as such venues as Trinity Church Copley Square and King’s Chapel (Boston), St. Thomas 5th Avenue (New York City), the Cathedral of Mary our Queen (Baltimore), The National Cathedral (Washington, DC), River Road Baptist Church (Richmond), St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church (Durham, NC), Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption (San Francisco), St. James Episcopal Church (Los Angeles), Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (Phoenix) and he performed the entire Orgelbüchlein of Johann Sebastian Bach in a series of two concerts at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (Columbia, SC). He has recorded upon both the organ and the fortepiano for Arkay (Bach in Brentwood), Navona Records (Haydn and the English Lady) and Golden Square labels (Sonatas of Giovanni Matielli) and has been featured on National Public Radio's Pipedreams performing music by Johann Sebastian Bach. He co-authored the first exhibition catalogue for the Sigal Music Museum in Greenville, South Carolina, which was published by Clemson University Press. Patrick Hawkins is a former Dean of the Greater Columbia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. An active member of the AGO, he recently presented recitals and workshops for chapters in Lynchburg, Virginia and Greenville, South Carolina in 2025 and has 2026 engagements for recitals and masterclasses in Beaufort, South Carolina and a solo recital at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, Georgia.