James D. Hicks holds degrees in music from the Peabody Institute of Music of Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, and the University of Cincinnati. He has also studied at the Royal School of Church Music and is an associate of the American Guild of Organists. Dr. Hicks was appointed Director of Music at the Presbyterian Church in Morristown in 1985, and conducted nine of the church’s vocal and handbell choirs, and he also supervised and performd in the concert series, taught classes in music and liturgy, and served as organist. He oversaw the enhancement of the sanctuary’s seventy-eight ranks, 3,370 pipes Austin organ in 1996, and recorded a compact disk of organ music by twentieth-century American composers released by the Pro Organo label in 2003. James D. Hicks is a composer of organ, piano, choral, and handbell music, and has performed as an organ recitalist throughout the US, Europe, and Australia. Now retired from his role as church musician, today he makes his career solely as a touring organ recitalist. Dr. Hicks is a competing bagpiper and collector of Celtic instruments, and makes his home base in Morristown, New Jersey.. Since 2010, Dr. Hicks has delved into the largely obscure area of Nordic organ music, where he has become known as a leader in the renaissance of organ music from the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to commissioning new organ music from rising young Nordic composers, he is now touring regularly in Scandinavia and in America, where he is bringing Nordic organ music to recognition. He recorded 4 volumes in a series entitled Nordic Journey, where premiere recordings of many Nordic organ works are found.