About the Author
Photo by Lauri Bridgeforth
James H. Laster, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1934, is Professor Emeritus at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia. He holds degrees in music history as well as biology from Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee; the M.A. in musicology, and the Ph.D. in church music from George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee; a Masters of Science in Library Science (music emphasis) from Catholic University in Washington, DC. He also holds a certificate in organ from the Mozarteum Summer Academy, Salzburg, Austria.
Laster has held teaching positions at George Peabody College; Grove City College in Pennsylvania; the Community School of Tehran, Iran; the Beirut College for Women, Beirut, Lebanon; and was a member of the faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory for 27 years. He has served as guest conductor and clinician for workshops and regional choral festivals. In 1997, he was guest conductor for a choral festival of choirs from five Central American countries held in San Jose, Costa Rica. He has served as a choral judge for the Six Flags Choral Festivals, National Heritage Tours, and for Gateway Festivals.
At Shenandoah, he taught a variety of courses dealing with choral music, such as, choral conducting, choral arranging, choral organization and materials, as well as courses in church music, and music theory. Near his retirement, he served as a Reference Librarian in the Alson Smith, Jr. Library on the Shenandoah campus. For twenty-three years, he was as the director of the Cantus Singers, a women's choral ensemble that performed regularly on campus as well as in the Northern Virginia area. For ten years, he also directed the Shenandoah Singers, a show-choir of twenty-two singers.
At Shenandoah, he was active in theatre both on and off the stage, having been the musical director for fifty-two musical theatre productions, including: Gypsy, Hello Dolly, A Little Night Music, and Children of Eden, to name a few.
He served as organist/choirmaster in various churches, including St. John’s Episcopal Church, Franklin, Pennsylvania; the Community Church, Tehran, Iran; the English Speaking Church, Beirut, Lebanon, and from 1973 to 1999, was Organist/Choirmaster of Trinity Episcopal Church, Upperville, Virginia. For each congregation he composed choral and instrumental works.
Dr. Laster held membership in The American Guild of Organists, Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, and American Choral Directors Association (Virginia past-president; and past-State Chair for the Committee on Women's Choruses). His choral works are published by Augsburg-Fortress, Concordia, Mark Foster, Boosey & Hawkes, Hinshaw, Paraclete Press, and Treble Clef Press along with numerous choral and instrumental compositions in manuscript.
Photography by John Westervelt
He has received many commissions for compositions, including one for the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Virginia observed in October, 2007. This work, “Virginia’s Harmonies” for combined choirs, brass quintet and organ, used shape-note tunes from The Virginia Harmony, published in Winchester in 1831. In August, 2004, the Royal School of Church Music Millennium Youth Choir performed his “O nata lux” on the BBC broadcast of Choral Evensong aired from Hexham Abbey. In 2007, his composition, “A Madrigal for Spring,” was chosen as one of the compulsory pieces for the women’s choral division of the Schubert International Choral Festival held annually in Vienna, Austria.
James Laster is the author of the articles: “Fascination: East” that appeared in The Iranian Students’ Inter-University Society of Beirut Annual, 1968-1969 and “The Persian Tunebook: A Dream Fulfilled,” The Hymn, 30:78-88, n2 (April, 1979). He is the compiler of A Catalogue of Choral Music Arranged in Biblical Order (first and second editions); A Catalogue of Choral Music Arranged in Biblical Order - Supplement; A Catalogue of Vocal Solos and Duets Arranged in Biblical Order (first and second editions) and A Discography of Treble-Voice Recordings, and A Catalogue of Music for Organ and Instruments, all published by Scarecrow Press. His book, So You’re the New Musical Director - a guide to the duties of a musical director for Broadway productions, also published by Scarecrow Press, is in its second printing. An annotated bibliography of materials dealing with the women’s chorus, co-authored with Dr. Nancy Menk, is published as #149 (part I), #150 (part II), #166 (part III), and #175 (part IV) of The Research Memorandum Series. A history of the women’s chorus at the collegiate level in the United States since 1880 is an on-going project.
He is married to Madlon T. Laster (B.S. Maryville College, 1956; M.A. Peabody, 1967; Ph.D. George Mason University, 1996). Her books, Brain-Based Teaching for All Subjects (2008) and Teaching the Way the Brain Learns (2009) are published by Roman and Littlefield.