OUR COMPOSERS

 

James Hart Brumm

 

James Hart Brumm (b. 1962) is pastor of Blooming Grove Reformed Church in Defreestville, NY, and a minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America. A graduate of Westminster Choir College (from which he received a Bachelor of Music degree), New Brunswick Theological Seminary (from which he holds Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Theology degrees) and Drew University (from which he holds a Master of Philosophy degree), he also serves as moderator of the Reformed Church in America Commission on History.

Mr. Brumm has been writing hymn texts since 1986, and his hymns have been published by Choristers Guild, Selah Publishing Company, CRC Publications, and the Hymn Society in the United States & Canada. A collection of his hymns, titles Out of the Ordinary, is published by Wayne Leupold Editions. He has collaborated with a number of composers, including Alfred V. Fedak, Iteke Prins, and Kathleen Hart Brumm. Drawing from his Reformed background, he tries to keep a strong Scriptural basis in his hymns, which he looks upon as "metrical sermons."

He has been a contributor to The Hymn, Reformed Worship, The Bulletin of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and The Church Herald. He chaired the text subcommittee for the hymnal supplement Sing! A New Creation (CRC Publications) and was a contributing author for the Leaders' Edition of that book. He is the author of Singing the Lord's Song: A History of the English-Language Hymnals of the Reformed Church in America (RCA Historical Society, 1990) and editor of Equipping the Saints: The Synod of New York, 1800-2000 (Eerdman's, 2000). A life member of the Hymn Society, he served as Book Review Editor of The Hymn from 1996 to 2000.

James lives in Defreestville with his wife, Kathleen Hart Brumm (another Choristers Guild composer), their son, Christopher, and their two dogs, Lucas and Jessie.