We are excited to write you with the news that we have hired a new Director of Music Ministries, Dr. Jonathan Giblin. Jon grew up singing in the youth and adult choirs at an Episcopal church in Connecticut where his father served as music director. He received a Bachelors in Music Education from the University of Connecticut and has experience working with both children and adult choirs, improving, in his words, “the quality of the musicianship and the spiritual focus of those participants.” He taught at a high school in Manchester and led choirs in competitions there before going back to school to advance his career.
Jon has spent time in the Midwest, receiving both his Masters and Doctorate in Organ Performance from the acclaimed Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He then went on to Director of Music Ministries positions at two churches in the Washington, DC area. He is coming to us from the United Methodist Church in Fairfax, Virginia, where he leads a choir of more than forty volunteer members, and he is looking forward to the opportunity to build the program here at St. Paul’s and grow with the choir and the church.
Jon is a great musician with a wide variety of musical interests – from classical German composers to blues and jazz to modern rock. He has performed everything from Haydn’s St. Nicholas Mass to a bluegrass mass and clearly has the range we are looking for in our next music director. He even composes and is starting to teach himself to play the banjo to enhance his range of musical talents. He’s also an incredibly nice, authentic, and sincere person. In other words, Jon seems like the total package, and we believe he will be a great addition to our program staff and our church as a whole.
Jon will start work at St. Paul’s on November 1, and his first Sunday leading worship with us will be All Saints’ Sunday. Please keep him in your prayers as he does the hard work of saying goodbye to his current parish and makes the move across country to his new home, and be prepared to offer him a warm St. Paul’s welcome come November. Thank you all for your patience and support through this process, and a special thanks to the choir, Linda Blossom, Dave Byrkit, and Joel Harper who have all carried us and our worship through these intervening months.
To learn more about Jon, hear recordings of him playing, and see some of his arrangements, check out his website at http://jonathangiblin.com/.