Christian

As a trumpeter, Dr. Christian McIvor is equally at home in classical and jazz/commercial settings. Based in Greensboro, NC, McIvor is a member of Market Street Brass, a brass quintet that has performed internationally and throughout the United States. He is also the lead trumpet player for the Piedmont Triad Jazz Orchestra and Latin dance band West End Mambo and he appears frequently as a soloist and as a section player with various big bands, horn sections, symphonies, chamber orchestras, and ensembles of all types across the Southeast. As a jazz/commercial performer, he has shared the stage with such artists as Branford Marsalis, Dave Holland, Robin Eubanks, Conrad Herwig, Bryan Lynch, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Konitz, and The Temptations, among others. An avid composer and arranger, McIvor publishes with C. Alan Publications. As a singer/songwriter/guitarist, McIvor has performed at venues throughout New England, New York, and North Carolina for over 20 years. He has been lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and backup vocalist for several different bands, and he continues to perform as a solo artist. He considers his main songwriting influences to be Jason Isbell, Nick Drake, Dashboard Confessional, Counting Crows, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Buckley, and his songwriting style might best be described as a mixture of folk rock and alternative country. In 2005, McIvor’s song “Fall for You” won the John Lennon Songwriting Competition for the state of Connecticut. In addition to his own material, McIvor performs acoustic versions of many “Top 40” hits from the past 50-60 years, covering a wide range of genres and styles. McIvor is also a prolific writer of progressive contemporary praise and worship music. In 2018, he wrote “We’ll Be the Hands, We’ll Be the Feet” as the theme song for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina’s Annual Gathering in Winston-Salem, NC; “Earth: Beloved Community” as the theme song for the Alliance of Baptists Annual Gathering in Dayton, OH; and “Visions of Hope” as the theme song for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s “Selah Vie” retreat in Nashville, TN, and he served as a worship leader at each of these events. His songs are available through the Convergence Music Project (https://www.convergencemp.com/artist/christian-mcivor.html) and also at christianmcivor.bandcamp.com. McIvor is the Music & Worship Minister at College Park Baptist Church, a progressive Baptist church in Greensboro (collegeparkchurch.com). He leads worship in contemporary and blended services and directs all music ministry ensembles while also being active many other areas of ministry. He is a candidate for the Master of Divinity degree at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, a degree program he anticipates finishing in the spring of 2020. McIvor was previously the Director of Bands at Southwest Guilford High School in High Point, where his marching, concert, jazz, and chamber ensembles consistently received the highest ratings at competitions and regional/state adjudication events. He has held past teaching positions at Guilford College, High Point University, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and The North Carolina Leadership Academy. McIvor holds a B.A. in music from the State University of New York at Potsdam, a teaching certificate (K-12 Music) from Western Connecticut State University, and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Trumpet Performance (with a cognate in Jazz Studies) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In his free time, Christian likes to spend time with his beautiful wife Chrissy and their daughters Juliette and River, their dogs Sonny and Cash, and their cat Elwood. He is a diehard Boston sports fan and enjoys the outdoors, running, biking, hiking, and reading.