I AM WILSHIRE - JEFF BRUMMEL

Piping up

Wilshire and Jeff Brummel are living together in perfect harmony.

“Wilshire is the best situation any organist could find,” he said. “I have the support of the congregation and staff, and I’m supportive of the Wilshire way of worship and look for ways to match Wilshire’s expectations.

“I enjoy creating interludes, introductions and settings for hymns, but the most special thing is that so many people are appreciative of our traditional worship style.”

Before coming to Wilshire in April 2006, Jeff was the choir director/organist for John Knox Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth.

Besides his responsibilities to play for worship services at Wilshire, he accompanies the Sanctuary Choir and assists in directing Young Musicians and the children’s hand bell choir. He sings tenor in Nova and plays in Carillon Ringers.

He also serves as administrator and is a teacher for Wilshire Academy of Fine Arts, now in its beginning stages. He is teaching piano to elementary school students. “We will be adding voice, band and orchestra instruments, organ and guitar as the program develops,” he said.

Jeff grew up in the Eugene, Ore., area. His mother plays the piano, his dad the trumpet, his older brother the guitar and his twin brother the trombone. “My mother’s side used to have a country-and-western band,” he said.

He began teaching himself piano at age 12 and took organ lessons during high school. He also played trumpet, sang in the choir, played piano for the choir and was active in drama.

“I was a guest trumpeter in an Army band concert during my senior year of high school,” Jeff said, “and I was awarded a spot to play trumpet in the U.S. Army band after graduation, but I was rejected for minor asthma.”

With his future uncertain, he attended community college and later spent a semester at the University of Oregon, where he played in the marching band.

Off and on, Jeff worked retail, but his life-changing job was his service as music director (and custodian) at Trinity Baptist Church, a position he took after high school graduation. He had accompanied the church’s youth choir while he was in high school. “I was not raised in the church, but I soon became a Christian,” he said.

When a couple from the church told him about the College of the Ozarks in Missouri, “I thought it was too good to be true,” he said, because students attend free in exchange for working on campus.

Another church member financed his visit to the school, and after talking to a music professor who showed him the school’s organs, Jeff applied and was accepted for the upcoming spring semester.

“Attending College of the Ozarks allowed me to meet world dignitaries and tour the Pentagon,” he said. “One of the most meaningful experiences was singing a patriotic/sacred concert for the veterans at a nursing home in Fairfax, Va.,” he said. “I also sang in Carnegie Hall.”

Jeff’s first college job was in custodial maintenance. After inventorying guns in a museum the following summer, he worked in the music department, tutoring theory students, working in the music library, serving as pianist/accompanist/assistant director for musical productions, playing the organ for chapel services, and accompanying the chapel choir.

He also was a coordinator and counselor at a summer camp in Missouri, working not only as a music leader but also as a lifeguard. He still enjoys running and outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing and camping.

In Jeff’s senior year, he began searching for master’s programs in sacred music and organ. Through an online recommendation from the minister of music at Zion Lutheran Church in Dallas, he visited Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

After completing his undergraduate degree in music education, he enrolled at Southwestern, planning a career in church music. Al Travis, a longtime member of the music faculty at Southwestern, has become his mentor.

“He’s the greatest teacher I’ve ever had,” Jeff said. “He is a model teacher, Christian and friend.”

Jeff finished his master of music degree with a concentration in church music and organ performance in May 2007 and will complete his doctorate in December 2010.