Jacob Regier (1914-1999)

Title: Jacob Regier fonds

Dates of creation: 1927-1937

Biographical sketch: Jacob Regier was born in Omsk, Siberia on 3 December 1914 and died 17 March 1999 in St. Catharines, ON. In 1930 he emigrated to Brazil. He married Anni Wiens in Brazil; they had six children. The Regier family moved to Virgil, Ontario, Canada from Brazil in June 1964 after several years of  financial setbacks on their farm, and because Anni had siblings in Canada. In Canada he worked at Port Weller Dry Docks.

Regier began to serve as a choir director at the age of 19, and served his congregations (usually Mennonite Brethren) in that capacity until he had his first stroke in 1999. He used a pitch fork to give his choirs their starting note, and often had them sing acapella, but did use accompanying instruments at times. He sometimes used his own voice to direct the choir. All of his children inherited his appreciation for choral music. His favorite songs were written in a minor key -- a love that went back to his early years in Russia. In additional to choral music Regier played the guitar, the mandolin, the balalaika and the violin.

After his stroke in 1996 Jacob Regier was not able to speak, but when the family would sing for him he would join in immediately with his strong tenor voice.

Scope and content: The fonds consists of three manuscript books of choral music and one undated stapled folder. All are in the "ziffern" (numerical) musical notation. The oldest contains dates as early as 1927, and is hand-written. The latter volumes are spirit-printed from 1931-1934 and 1934-1937 respectively. The earlier volume also has hymn pages dated 1960 and 1993 laid in. 

Custodial history: Donated to the Mennonite Archives of Ontario by Ingried Regier in early 2003.

Scope and content: The fonds consists of three manuscript books of choral music and one undated stapled folder. All are in the "ziffern" (numerical) musical notation. The oldest contains dates as early as 1927, and is hand-written. The latter volumes are spirit-printed from 1931-1934 and 1934-1937 respectively. The earlier volume also has hymn pages dated 1960 and 1993 laid in.  

Notes: Six published choral works from Regier's library were added to the CGUC historical library: four volumes from the Liederperlen series published in Russia beginning in 1894, Liederborn published in Winnipeg, MB in 1932 and Spiritual Life Songs published in the 1940s.

Original archival description created 13 August 2003 by Sam Steiner.

File list:

Series 1: Music Books

1. Bound manuscript, 1927-1930
2. Bound spirit-duplicated music book, 1931-1934
3. Bound spirit-duplicated music book, 1934-1937
4. Stapled spirit-duplicated folder of hymns for Male Choir, n.d.