Lowell Mason (1792-1872) was born in Medford, MA into a musical family. He learned to play several instruments as a child and by his late-teens was the choir director for his church and leader of the town band. At age 20 he moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he worked in retail and later in a bank, but was also a church choir director, organist, and composer of hymn tunes and anthems. The Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music (1822), his first collection of hymns (to melodies by famous European composers), established his reputation as a composer and compiler of sacred music books. He moved to Boston (1827), where he was choirmaster in several prominent churches and turned his attention to music education. He was co-founder of the Boston  Academy of Music, which promoted music education among the masses, and is credited with introducing music into the public school curriculum in the US. He was one of the first prominent music educators in the country. He later lived in New York and promoted congregational singing in churches where he worked. His most famous hymn is “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”