Bruce Greer

Bruce Greer (born October 2, 1961 in Longview, Texas) is an award winning American pianist, singer and composer.

Biographical information

Bruce recalls arranging hymns for choir and piano by age twelve. By the time he was in high school, Greer’s compositions were being performed by his church and school choirs. During his senior year at Longview High School, his school choir used one of his pieces, “We Are Thy People,” for UIL competition. Another choral composition, “Prayer of Joy,” which was also written for his high school choir, went on the following year to become his first published work.

This interest in musical composition lead Bruce to Baylor University on full scholarship where he graduated with honors as the outstanding Senior Man in 1984 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Theory and Composition.

Career

Upon graduation, Bruce went to work as a Creative Director for Word Records, the world’s largest producer of Christian music. Bruce spent six years as a songwriter, arranger and producer for Word Music, recording several projects as a piano artist. Because of Word’s worldwide distribution those early piano recordings brought recognition and interest from all over the world for Bruce’s piano artistry. In 1990, he left Word to pursue a full-time writing and concert career.

Bruce and longtime friend Keith Ferguson wrote a musical stage adaptation of the classic 1946 film It's A Wonderful Life which premiered at the Majestic Theatre (Dallas, Texas) on December 18, 1998 and was an annual Christmas show at the theatre for five years. It has since been performed at various regional and community theatres all across the United States.^[1][2]

In 1999, Bruce was awarded a Dove Award for Musical of the Year for his musical, titled "Mary, Did You Know" based on the song of the same name by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene.^[3]

That same year, Bruce was named a distinguished alumnus of Longview High School.^[4]

Greer teamed up with Ferguson again to write a musical stage adaptation of Charles Dickens classic 1843 novella A Christmas Carol which premiered at The First Baptist Church in Carrollton, Texas in December 2010.^[5]

Greer and Ferguson's newest musical, entitled Hidden and based on the Book of Esther, is currently in development with Dallas Summer Musicals.^[6]

Since leaving Word in 1990, he has become one of the most popular and highly regarded writers for church music in the country with hundreds of titles and projects published by a wide array of leading publishers. He has done extensive concert and recording work as a solo artist and also with vocalist extraordinaire, Cynthia Clawson.^[6] He has taken his music around the world, playing the piano and singing in Singapore, Malaysia, England, Canada as well as all over the United States.^[7]

Current life and family

Bruce currently lives in Oklahoma City where he is a co-Minister of Music and Worship with his wife Kim at The First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City.^[8] They have four grown sons, two daughters-in-law and two granddaughters.^[6]

References