About Dr. I-to Loh

Born in 1936 in Taiwan, the Rev. I-to Loh is a graduate of Tainan Theological College and Seminary (M.Div.), Union Theological Seminary in New York (SMM in Composition), and University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA, Ph.D. in Music, majoring in Ethnomusicology).

He has taught Asian and Global Church Music, Ethnomusicology and Worship for many years at the Asian Institute for Liturgy and Music in Manila, and at Tainan Theological College and Seminary. He has collected and compiled over 20 collections of hymns, including Sound the Bamboo: CCA Hymnal 2000 (including 315 hymns from 22 countries, with 44 languages). He was named a Fellow of the Hymn Society of America and Canada in 1995, the first non-Caucasian to have earned that honor in the Society’s 70 years of existence. His other publications include over one hundred hymns and anthems, Teach Us to Praise, and many academic essays in Chinese and English.

For more than two decades, he was active in the ecumenical circles leading music and worship at the assemblies and conferences of the World Council of Churches and Christian Conference of Asia.

Rev. Loh retired from his positions as seminary president and head of the Church Music Department at Tainan Theological College and Seminary in 2002. He has been a visiting professor in various countries, continues to be the editor of the Official Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, and is writing a companion to Sound the Bamboo.

Video Interview

Here is a video interview conducted in 2007 by Dr. Angela Tam in Hong Kong.