by Andrew Jacob, Sing For Joy Music Director
“When in our music God is glorified, and adoration leaves no room for pride, it is as though the whole creation cried: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!”
Fred Pratt Green
On January 5, 2025, Sing For Joy Music Director Emeritus, Dr. John Ferguson, died. “Ferg,” as he was affectionately known to many, served St. Olaf College for 29 years as the Professor of Organ and Church Music, Director of the St. Olaf Cantorei, and Cantor to the St. Olaf Student Congregation. Here at Sing For Joy, we can hardly measure the impact of his work. Since his death, numerous Sing For Joy listeners have reached out to us, wanting to share tributes to how Ferg’s life and work has touched their own lives. It is my honor to share some of my own memories in the limited space of this month’s newsletter.
As some of you know, John was an avid car collector. A countless number of our get-togethers would begin with an email or phone call from him saying, “what are you up to on Saturday? The ’65 ‘Vette needs exercise.” So would begin an afternoon of driving through the countryside outside Northfield. These drives always included lunch, usually a stop at one of his favorite dives in the middle of a cornfield. It was there, amongst the biker groups who frequented the joint, that we shared many treasured conversations.
Though I was only a college student, Ferg treated me as a fellow church music colleague. He was truly interested in my thoughts and opinions. He would raise a topic, (proper hymn registrations, chorale prelude length, organ builder preferences, etc.) and we’d launch into conversation. He challenged me when we didn’t agree, not from a place of superiority, but from a place of curiosity. He genuinely wanted to know what someone who was entering the church music world in this day and age was thinking. Always the professor, he was also making sure I had data to support my thesis!
In the spring of 2018, John was honored by the American Guild of Organists as that year’s Distinguished Artist. As part of the honor, he presented one final hymn festival in Boe Memorial Chapel on the St. Olaf campus surrounded by his former choir, the St. Olaf Cantorei, several local church choirs, and hundreds of people in the congregation. While the music making was heavenly, what I remember most from the event are the brief remarks he made at the reception following. John never mentioned himself or what he had accomplished. Instead, he paid tribute to the countless church musicians around the country — in large cathedrals, rural parishes, and everything in between — who put in the hard work week after week so that their congregations might have the opportunity to sing their praise and prayers to God.
It was Ferg’s life’s work to glorify God and to help others do the same. He was often quoted as saying, “we sing because that’s what God made us to do.” It seems appropriate we close this tribute with a hymn, one that Ferg often used in his hymn festivals and one that I believe sums up this dear life.
“When in our music God is glorified, and adoration leaves no room for pride, it is as though the whole creation cried: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!” -Fred Pratt Green
Thanks be to God for the life of John Allen Ferguson!
