Music | goodshepherdmtplea

Andrew Yox has been the organist and choir director at Good Shepherd since 1994. A former member of Salem Lutheran Church in Buffalo, New York, he began piano lessons in the third grade. In his high school years, he studied the pipe organ from Frederick Burgomaster, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Buffalo. For four years at Valparaiso University he took pipe organ lessons from Dr. William Eifrig, and Merle Lehman. At the University of Chicago while studying for his Ph.D. in history, He studied for a year under Edward Mondello, the University Organist.

Yox currently serves as the Honors Director and a Professor of history at Northeast Texas Community College. He is married to Christine; and their four children, Paul, Philip, Joshua, and Rebecca have all sung while home in the Good Shepherd choir.

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About the pipe organ, Yox notes: "I love playing the pipe organ in an acoustical environment such as we are fortunate to have at Good Shepherd. The instrument is a bridge to the best in congregational singing, I believe, because of its array of Biblical instruments, harmonic support, and sonority. The pipe organ’s control over note durations allows the possibility of an intense, unflagging beat, suggesting thrust without drag, and life without fear. I am reminded of the 365 times God instructs us in His Word—“Fear Not!”

I have also been privileged to lead the choir at Good Shepherd. I like to say that “singing is the art of reaching progressive stages of exhilaration.” The better one is, the more one “feels” the sense of the Christian Gospel—of effortless grace. The prayer of our choir at the conclusion of each rehearsal is taken from Psalm 92:It is good to give thanks, to sing praises to your name O Most High, to declare your wonderful deeds in the morning, and your faithfulness by night."