Biography

Wayne L. Wold (b. 1954 in Fosston, Minnesota) is Director of Music Ministry at First Lutheran Church in Ellicott City, Maryland, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Music (organ) at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. He reitred in August 2020 after thirty years at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, where he was Professor, College Organist, and Chair of the Music Department. An active composer, author, performer, church musician, and clinician, Wold holds the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree from Shenandoah Conservatory; the Master of Sacred Music (MSM) degree from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio; and the Bachelor of Music (BMus) degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He earned the certification of AAGO (Associate of the American Guild of Organists) in 2010, and he was awarded the “Alumnus of Excellence Award” in 2015 from Shenandoah Conservatory and the "Laughlin Faculty Professional Achievement Award" from Hood College in 2020. He is the editor and frequent author of a monthly column entitled “Musicians on the Side” in the journal The American Organist magazine. Wold is the author of three books, numerous articles, and dozens of anthem and hymn texts. His published compositions number over 400 and include works for organ, adult and children’s choirs, and various instrumental ensembles, plus a children’s musical, psalm settings and other liturgical music, and hymn tunes that appear in hymnals in the U.S. and Australia. He served on the editorial committee for the hymnal Evangelical Lutheran Worship. He has presented numerous recitals and improvised hymn festivals across the U.S. and in Europe and has performed as harpsichordist with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, the Hood Chamber Players, the National String Sinfonia, the Frederick Symphony Orchestra, and Bach in Baltimore Orchestra. Wold is an active member of the Baltimore, Winchester, and Central Maryland Chapters of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), a member and past regional president of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM), and a member of The Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, and he has led workshops for all three organizations. Since 2018 he has served as Regional Councillor of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Guild of Organists.