MORGAN, JOHN G. (b. 1942)

Dr. John G. Morgan, born Nov. 26, 1942, in Beaumont, Texas, graduated from Beaumont High School in 1960. A veteran college professor, performer, composer and church musician, Dr. Morgan has a D.M.A. degree (with honors) from the University of Southern California; his M.M. and B.M.E. are from Baylor University. Besides presentations/performances at four national conventions, articles published in The Choral Journal and the Music Educators Journal, Dr. Morgan also has served on the faculties of the University of Colorado (Denver), William Carey College, Mississippi (as Dean of the School of Music), Berry and Mercer University (Atlanta), prior to more recent affiliations with Emory University and Reinhardt College as Adjunct Professor of Music.

 

He has served churches small and large, including First Presbyterian Churches of Hollywood (Summer Guest Director) and Anaheim, California; Grace United Methodist and Rivercliff Lutheran, Atlanta; Holy Trinity Lutheran, Marietta, Georgia.

 

He was a bass-baritone soloist under Robert Shaw, toured with Mr. Shaw and the ASO Chorus to Europe, also with combined college choirs to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. He has served as choral clinician/guest conductor/adjudicator for national, regional, area/county festival and honor choruses, state Singing Churchmen, and area conductors/music teachers.

 

More recently, besides composer, he has been a studio voice instructor, coach, and consultant. He and his wife Shirley, a former teacher, have a married daughter Denise living and working in Biloxi, Mississippi, and a married son living/working in Georgetown/Washington, D.C.

 

As a young orchestrator of a Christmas cantata for varied instruments in my very first church, then as a lifetime director/composer of church music, he has constantly sought, composed and arranged fresh "practical" music for worship in the church, usually for specific occasions/lessons/themes, etc., and for designated ensembles at hand—children, youth, adults, vocal and/or instrumental. A salient ecumenicism in content reflects his unique experience/positions in Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic (as well as Episcopal, Baptist and Christian) churches large and small.

 

As a professor/dean of church music, including graduate degrees (heavy emphasis in performance, arranging and composing), he has conducted and composed for trained voices and instruments on the college and university

level.

 

Having studied choral arranging/composition with Halsey Stevens and Charles Eakin, having received commissions, including performing his own work for GMTA Conference, plus winning hymn and settings competitions, Dr. Morgan's compositions have been published by Boosey & Hawkes, Bourne, Mark Foster, Broadman, (currently) Alliance Publications, Inc. and Choristers Guild; also in The Hymn. They have been performed at ACDA and Episcopal national conventions, at regional conferences, by honor choirs, universities/colleges, schools and churches, and over area radio/television.

 

His works encompass mostly vocal/choral genres: Passion, opera, musical theater, choir with varied accompaniments, vocal solos, hymns, responses, children's songs, but also piano variations, and settings with orchestra to solo and chamber ensemble.