Jeff Binford has served as Organist at First Presbyterian since January of 2002.
Jeff, a native of Brownsville, Tennessee, received the Bachelor of Music
degree in Organ Performance from Belmont University in Nashville,
Tennessee, and the Master of Music degree in Organ Performance from
Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. His organ
professors include Helen Trotter Midkiff, Dr. Donald McDonald, Dr.
George Markey, Harald Vogel, and Virgil Fox, the internationally-known
concert organist, Jeff also studied in France with Marie-Louise Langlais
of the Paris Conservatoire.
He has served churches in Tennessee, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia,
Texas, and Alabama as organist or organist/choirmaster since the age of
twelve. Before coming to Tuscaloosa, Jeff was the organist at the
Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, one of the flag-ship
churches in our denomination. He has also written reviews and articles
for the two major American organ publications: The American Organist and
The Diapason. Jeff appears in a video series made in Paris that
provides information about famous French organists, composers, and
churches. The video is available from the Organ Historical Society. He
has played recitals throughout Europe in places such as Sainte-Clotilde
church in Paris, the cathedral in Albi, France, the cathedral in
Aix-en-Provence, as well as Bach’s church in Leipzig, Germany, the
Kaiser Wilhelm church in Berlin, Saint Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, and
various other venues in England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, France,
Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Most recently, Jeff played a
recital on the largest pipe organ in the world at the Convention Hall in
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In his position at First Presbyterian Church, he plays for two worship
services each Sunday, accompanies the Adult, Youth, and Children’s
choirs, and plays for all weddings, funerals, and special concerts with
the Adult Choir. He also helps in planning concerts for the Advent and
Lenten recital series.
Along with his life-long interest in music, Jeff recently has
enjoyed being part of several productions at Theatre Tuscaloosa. Other
interests are reading, research, listening to recordings, attending
concerts, home-improvement, travel, and anything to do with Colonial
Williamsburg!
L. Jeffries Binford, Jr.