E. Byron (aka Ron) Anderson
Although I often stood near the organist to watch (as well as listen to) the postlude on Sunday mornings when I was a child, I only began studying organ in junior high school. By that point I had begun accompanying Sunday School hymn-singing—but breaking my thumb and having my left hand in a splint provided a quick prompt to learning basic pedaling.
As an undergraduate, I studied organ with William Roth (and a semester with Maggie Kemper) at Carthage College in Kenosha, finishing my BA with a double major in organ and psychology. I began playing weekly Sunday services at a small United Methodist church during my sophomore year (and continued playing weekly until I began teaching full time). Three years after completing my BA, I began graduate study for the MDiv at Yale University Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where I had the good fortune to study with Robert Baker and Thomas Murray. After Yale, I was ordained in the United Methodist Church, yet continued to have organ and other music responsibilities throughout ten years of fulltime parish ministry. I left fulltime parish ministry to pursue my PhD in liturgical theology at Emory University. Throughout my PhD studies, I continued to serve a small United Methodist congregation as organist and choir director.
Since completing my PhD, I have been teaching liturgical studies fulltime, first at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, where I was also dean of the chapel, and for the past twenty years at Garrett-Evangelical as the Styberg Professor of Worship, where I also directed our MA in Music Ministry program until its discontinuation three years ago. During these years, I have served as substitute organist for several congregations and, during several sabbaticals, as interim organist/music director at both First United Methodist Church, Evanston, which is my church home, and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Evanston. Unfortunately, my teaching and administrative responsibilities have not allowed the time needed to prepare for weekly service playing. Over the years, I served as president of The Liturgical Conference (2004-2015) and am currently completing a two-year term as president of Societas Liturgica. (Come join us for our congress in Maynooth, Ireland, in August 2023. Our congress theme will be “liturgy and ecumenism.”)