Russell Schulz-Widmar

Russell Schulz-Widmar (born 1944) is an American hymn writer, composer, organist, hymnologist, teacher, and editor whose career has been devoted to liturgical and congregational music. Born in Harvard, Illinois, he studied music at Valparaiso University, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree, and continued at the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he earned a Master of Sacred Music. He later completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1974 Schulz-Widmar joined the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, where he taught church and liturgical music for more than three decades. His professional work combined teaching, organ and choral leadership, hymnology, composition, and practical worship planning. He also served church music programs in Austin, including Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, and worked across denominational lines in the wider church-music community.

Schulz-Widmar played an important editorial role in the revision that produced The Hymnal 1982. Episcopal Church archival reporting identifies him as chair of the hymnal’s music committee, responsible for evaluating settings with close attention to congregational singability and to the relationship between music and text. He has also served as president of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and, with Jeffery Rowthorn, co-edited A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools, published by Yale University Press in 1992.

His published output includes hymns, hymn tunes, choral music, organ works, and arrangements. Concordia and Selah biographical sources describe more than 150 published musical compositions. His broader contribution lies in bringing scholarship, practical musicianship, and ecumenical sensitivity together in the service of congregational song.