John Schmidt

Biography

John C. Schmidt (Gamma Phi Chapter – 1984), Professor of Music, has been a member of the Texas State University music faculty since 1976, teaching music theory, music history, and organ. He received his Bachelor of Music degree cum laude from Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, studying organ with R. Cochrane Penick.

A Master of Sacred Music degree cum laude followed from Union Theological Seminary, New York, with organ study from Vernon de Tar. He completed a Ph.D. in musicology at New York University; his dissertation, “The Life and Works of John Knowles Paine,” was subsequently published by UMI Research Press.

Dr. Schmidt has also edited the piano works of Paine, published by Da Capo Press, as well as three of Paine’s chamber works with piano and a volume of Paine’s songs and men’s partsongs, both published by A-R Editions. Currently he is preparing an edition of Paine’s cantata, “The Nativity,” with words by John Milton.

A fifth-generation Texan, he is also involved in research concerning the music of 19th-century Germans in Texas. An active organist, he is a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists and a winner of the S. Lewis Elmer Award. He is organist for Covenant Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas.