Until 2014, he served as organist and choirmaster for the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Charleston, South Carolina, and before his service there, was organist and choirmaster for the Roman Catholic Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist in Stamford, Connecticut, conducting a professional choir in a program of weekly polyphonic Mass settings and Gregorian chant[2] until 2010.
Before accepting the position at St. John's in 1998, he was Assistant Organist and Conductor at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
Before his retirement from the Church Music Association of America in 2018, he conducted many choirs, gave seminars on Gregorian chant, and annual summer courses for the CMAA.
He is editor of A Gregorian Chant Masterclass by Theodore Marier, published by the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut.
This book and its companion CD feature the Stamford Schola Gregoriana and the nuns of Regina Laudis, both conducted by Turkington.