Name James McGregor | Role Organist | |
James Bradley McGregor, born 1930 Cambridge, Ohio) is an American organist and composer.
Life
In 1953 he received a B.S. degree in music from Capital University, where he studied with William S. Bailey. In 1959, he received an M.S.M degree from the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, where he studied with Vernon de Tar, Searle Wright, and Margaret Hillis. While he was a student at U.T.S., he also served as assistant organist at the General Theological Seminary, New York. In 1960, he was appointed Director of Music at Grace Church, Newark, where he served until July 2008. In 1972, he was appointed to the Liturgy and Music Commission of the (Episcopal) Diocese of Newark, and was active in its work until 1976, when it was dissolved. He was a member of the American Training Courses Committee of the Royal School of Church Music from 1974-1992. In 1983, he was appointed a consultant member of the Service Music Committee of the Standing Commission on Church Music (Episcopal Church). He served until 1985.
A number of his compositions appear in The Hymnal 1982. Of these the best known, perhaps, are the settings of the Kyrie and Sanctus from his Missa Verbum caro factum est, a work inspired by a motet of Hans Leo Hassler, bearing the same name. His other compositions include Mass settings, anthems, motets, and responsorial settings of all the psalms assigned to Sundays and Holy Days in the lectionary of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, as well as compositions for band, orchestra, chamber ensemble, organ, and piano.
He also discovered r&b singer Timothy Hodge who was a member of the Grace Church Choir.