John Grover Lewis – Lead Producer, The Abbamedia Group
Lead Producer: John Grover Lewis
John’s arranging and performance career spans choral-vocal music genres including: Richard Carpenter of the Carpenters; The Heralds/King’s Heralds; The Young Americans; Music Director for numerous theatrical musical productions, as well as serving as Choral Director at Chaffey High School in Southern California. His long-held faith in Jesus Christ flourished as worship leader and director in houses of worship.
With over 40 years in music recording, John’s albums as producer and arranger hold seven Excellence in Media Angel Awards. His artistry includes not only producing numerous artists in the Christian, Gospel, and Jazz genres, but also includes solo releases, and extends to former and in-class choral-vocal students — ingratiating them into the recording disciplines over the years.
(Left: John and son Daniel Lewis)
Many of John’s students have stepped into their own artistic realm in worship leadership, live performance, and studio recording.
In 2006 The Abbamedia Group began primarily as a music recording concern, later expanding into other media resources for devotion/discipleship, where John serves as Lead Producer.
Graduating from California State University at Long Beach, and University of California at Irvine, John holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Choral-Vocal Music as well as a Masters in Education. For three years he studied piano under renowned classical pianist Edith Hershtal. His choral studies were shaped under the director, publisher, and clinician Frank Pooler, as well as Sheldon Disrud, Gary McRoberts, and Brent Pierce.
An adopted child at only a few weeks after birth, John was placed in a loving Christian home with a musical father. Adoptive father Royce Lewis’ faith — along with his love for harmony — had a profound impact on his young son. The doting dad often played the piano in the home, while John and his sister Kerry joined him singing.
When they learned their son had his own natural ear for music, John’s parents further realized God’s design. By age four John began to play his preschool class songs by ear. Later he would improvise accompaniment to the family sing-a-alongs.
Holding significance in the path God had planned, those family song themes included: hymns; worship ‘choruses’; songs of virtue, love, and nostalgia. By age eight, John’s father Royce Lewis first began to include John as accompanist in church, where Royce was leading worship and directing the choir. Carrying on in church worship, this father-son duo ministered all the way through John’s early college years.
The Lewis family camaraderie of blending convicting lyrics, harmonies, and melodies laid the groundwork for John’s future ministry, performances, and compositions/arrangements.
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