Artist description Canadian-based, contemporary Christian singer-songwriter recording artist. Founding member of Faith Trio (see www.mp3.com/FaithTrio

Music Style Contemporary Christian

Musical Influences Michael Card, Carolyn Arends, John Michael Talbot, Sara Groves, Nichole Nordemann

Artist History Canadian-born to Eastern European immigrants, Greg Magirescu (pronounced Magic-Rescue with a silent “c” in Magic) learned the meaning of work ethic, financial struggle, and personal sacrifice at an early age. His father was a blue-collar postal worker who attended the Romanian Orthodox church every Sunday where he served as a cantor, together with Greg’s Roman Catholic mother. Church was a great mystical experience in the fullness of its Byzantine traditions. “But even though I was an altar boy and went to church every Sunday,” recalls Greg, “I never really knew Jesus or God other than as the two-dimensional images I’d seen depicted in the icons of the church. My early memories of incense rising and somber sounding melodies in a minor key, chanted in a language that I couldn’t understand, put me in awe of heaven. But, I never got to know God as a real Father or Jesus as my personal Savior. God was distant, rather austere and didn’t speak English very well.” When Greg was 9, he had a burning desire to study the piano, but because the family couldn’t afford one, he had to settle for the accordion. And, thanking God in hindsight, Greg not only learned to play the accordion, but he soon had figured out the violin, guitar, and practically every other musical instrument – including the piano. By the time he was fourteen, he was teaching on weekends at a private music school in Toronto’s west end. At the age of 16, Greg began writing a weekly column for the Toronto Sun titled The Youth Viewpoint. The newspaper’s editor gave Greg carte blanche to write about issues of the day which affected young people. “I wrote about things like teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, drug addiction, promiscuity, in addition to issues about youth culture, music and the arts,” explains Greg. It was during that time, while covering entertainment and lifestyle features for the paper that he met Dan Hill (Sometimes When We Touch). “Dan invited me to the recording studio one day to watch him lay down vocals for an upcoming album. It was then that the “bug” bit. I was mesmerized by the artistry as well as the technical side of the recording process,” recalls Greg. By the time he was 18, he was writing songs for established recording artists including Anne Murray, Kenny Rogers and Gladys Knight, as well as singing on jingle sessions around Toronto. As the years progressed, he soon headed into acting, dancing, producing and directing. In 1990, Greg married Marie Clarke, a singer in a Toronto-based vocal jazz group that he directed. In 1993, they settled in the mountains of British Columbia to begin a new life and start a family. In 1997, Greg formed Faith Trio, together with his wife and another friend. Faith Trio’s debut album, In Him We Live, and the single Blessed Are You, went on to sell several thousand copies and a number of the songs are still being played on Christian radio stations in Canada, the U.S., Australia, England, Poland, Germany, Italy and Korea. As for Greg’s faith life, it can be summed up this way: “I have finally come to know God intimately in my life… if it hadn’t been for the intervention of “angels” along the way, I don’t know where I would be today,” says Greg. “All I want to do is sing about God’s grace in my life, about my faith walk with Jesus Christ, and about the day-to-day struggle of living as He would want me to live, in the hope that others might take up the call. I really want to walk the walk even if it means never singing another note or writing another song”.

Instruments Piano, synths, accordion, violin, guitar

Albums Greg Magirescu - Food For The Journey (Independent/Word Entertainment Canada Inc.) released Sept. 2001

Location Kelowna, British Columbia - Canada

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