James Abbington, Associate Professor of Church Music and Worship at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, was named at Fellow of The Hymn Society at the annual meeting yesterday afternoon.
Abbington’s research interests include music and worship in the Christian church, African American sacred folk music, organ, choral music, and ethnomusicology. He serves as executive editor of the African American Church Music Series by GIA Publications (Chicago). He served as co-director of music for the Hampton University Ministers’ and Musicians’ Conference. In 2010, Hampton’s Choir Directors’-Organists’ Guild honored Abbington by naming their Church Music Academy after him. He has also served as the national director of music for both the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the NAACP.
The Hymn Society described the honor as follows:
Recognizing a person as a Fellow of the Hymn Society is the highest honor The Hymn Society can confer. Honorees may include authors of hymns, composers of hymn tunes, editors of hymn books, and recognized scholars in the field of hymnology. Honorees are selected by the Executive Committee and are announced at the Annual Meeting.
Past-named fellows of The Hymn Society since 1942 are found here.
And no one plays those keys like Jimmy! Here he is goin’ to town on “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” (melody below).
Please leave a reply.