THOMAS JOHN PAVLECHKO (b 1962) was
born in Youngstown, Ohio. His undergraduate degree is from Youngstown
State and his Masters degree in Music from the University of Cincinnati.
He is director of music and principal organist at St. Martin's
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Austin, TX, where he oversees a multiple
choir, handbell and instrumental program. He is also chapel musician for
the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest and serves on the Synod
Worship Team.
He was Organist-Choirmaster at
Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis Tennessee, a large inner-city parish
renowned for its extensive urban ministry and long history of fine
music. He also serves on the Liturgical Music Editorial Team for the
Renewing Worship project of the Churchwide Offices of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America.
In addition to his work with churches in Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and
Virginia, Pavlechko has also served as Chapel Musician and Adjunct
Faculty for the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest in Austin,
Texas and Adjunct Professor of Music at William and Mary's Richard Bland
College in Prince William, Virginia. He is an honors graduate of the
Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University and received the
Master of Music from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University
of Cincinnati, where he studied composition and counterpoint with Allen
Sapp.
Pavlechko's compositions have been sung at national conferences of the
Association of Anglican Musicians, the Association of Lutheran Church
Musicians and The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, which
also selected him as the Emerging Hymn Composer for its 2002 Annual
Conference. He has also served as organist and workshop leader for both
regional and national conferences, and has led numerous hymn festivals,
including one for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South
Carolina.
In addition to A Season of Clear Shining, New Songs of Rejoicing, and
Shepherd Songs published by Selah, Pavlechko's work can be found with
Live Oak House and in Sundays and Seasons and Psalter for Worship,
Augsburg Fortress Publishers; Wonder, Love & Praise, A Supplement to the
Hymnal 1982, Church Publishing, Inc.; The Covenant Hymnal, Covenant
Publications; and Come You People of the Promise, New Psalms and Hymns
and Spiritual Songs, Supplement 96, Supplement 99, and Worship &
Rejoice, from Hope Publishing Co.
