Jason J. McFarland was born in Sacramento, CA, and grew up on a farm near Hartford, SD, with his parents and three siblings. He attended the University of South Dakota where he was guaranteed admission to their medical school. His music major began as an indulgence for the period before medical school--a respite between the pre-medicine and honors curriculum. But, while an analytical person at heart, loving science, he realized he preferred counterpoint to chemistry and left medical ambitions behind to earn the B. Mus. and M. Mus. degrees in applied voice, also studying piano, organ, and the French horn. Washington, DC, was his home for the next fifteen years. Farm to city was a difficult yet natural transition. He moved to Washington to pursue sacred music studies at The Catholic University of America. But after his first semester of study there and an introduction to the field of liturgical studies, his interests were piqued to the point that he changed his academic trajectory, later earning the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Liturgical Studies. At CUA he studied with many of the greats in modern liturgical studies, including David N. Power, Mary Collins, Gerard Austin, James F. White, Stephen Happel, Kevin W. Irwin, Margaret Mary Kelleher and Catherine Dooley. His other professors included Joseph Komonchak (Ecclesiology), Peter C. Phan (Karl Rahner), William Loewe (Christology), James Provost (Liturgical Law), and Ruth Steiner (Chant history and paleography). As a Teaching Assistant, then Teaching Fellow, then Lecturer in the faculty, he taught undergraduates at Catholic University, including such courses as Church History (TA), World Religions (TA), Introduction to Liturgy and Sacraments, and The Mass. Jason has written several scholarly contributions in the field, and now his first book--a major contribution to the field and groundbreaking in its synthesis of theology and musicology. Professional memberships include the North American Academy of Liturgy, Societas Liturgica, the American Academy of Religion, the College Theology Society, the Catholic Theological Society, the American Musicological Society, and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. You will often find him at meetings of such groups engaging in the scholarly reparte and presenting papers. One of the great joys of his Washington life was his part in the Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. This professional choir sings the greats, new and old, of the Western choral repertoire every Sunday and holy day. He was also a cantor now and again, and participated in the recording of eleven albums.For a brief ten-year stint, he worked within the always fascinating yet sometimes frustrating world of the Catholic hierarchy, doing research for the U.S. Bishops' Conference, and working for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). With ICEL he traveled the world, visiting those places where English is a common language, as well as Italy and Spain.Honored to have been a facilitator and fly on the wall for some major events in the liturgical life of the Catholic Church, yet moving right along, he is fulfilling a life-long dream as a Peace Corps Volunteer at Zunyi Normal College in Guizhou, a poor province in Western China. While in China and learning Chinese, he continues to research and write in his field and plans to pursue post-doctoral research in Chinese liturgy after his volunteer service and before returning the United States for (ideally) a faculty appointment. An avid amateur chef, Jason spends much free time in China learning to cook Sichuan cuisine. He is also learning the Chinese gourd flute and dabbling in Chinese meditation techniques while waiting for the third naiveté. PUBLICATIONS"Ratio Translationis for the English Language: An Introduction." The Liturgy Documents: Sacrosanctum Concilium Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, forthcoming."Universal Norms for the Liturgical Year and General Roman Calendar: An Introduction." The Liturgy Documents, Volume 1: Fifth Edition. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, forthcoming."Mass Antiphons and the Dialectic of Liturgical Genre and Translation." Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the North American Academy of Liturgy, Montreal, Canada, 5-8 January 2012. Forthcoming.Announcing the Feast: The Entrance Song in the Mass of the Roman Rite. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2011.Chants of the Roman Missal: Study Edition (as editor). Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2011.The Roman Missal, Third Typical Edition (as editor). Washington, DC: International Commission on English in the Liturgy (in collaboration with thirteen publishers worldwide), 2011."Areas of Difficulty in the Received Text of The Roman Missal" (as contributor). Washington, DC: International Commission on English in the Liturgy, 2010."Early Christian Singing." Pastoral Music 34:6 (September 2010): 11-13.Become One Body, One Spirit in Christ (DVD-ROM) (as editor). Washington, DC: International Commission on English in the Liturgy, 2010."The Antiphons of the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia: A Database for Translation." Washington, DC: International Commission on English in the Liturgy, 2006.Review of Reading in Christian Communities: Essays on Interpretation in the Early Church. Edited by Charles A. Bobertz and David Brakke. University of Notre Dame Press, 2002. In Catholic Studies (February 2003).Review of Marriage and the Catholic Church: Disputed Questions. By Michael G. Lawler. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2002. In Catholic Studies (October 2002).Index for Thirty-Five Years of the Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy Newsletter: 1965-2000. Washington, DC: USCCB Publications, 2000."Cantor: An Evolving Ministry." Pastoral Music 24:2 (December 1999-January 2000): 34-36, 42-45.PAPER PRESENTATIONS AND LECTURES "On Religion and Religiosity in China." Peace Corps In Service Training. Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 31 January 2013. "Liturgical Music Planning and Its Relationship to Mass Antiphons." Archdiocese of Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. (Invited to speak, but lecture subsequently cancelled because of early departure date for Peace Corps service.) "The Introit in the Mass of the Roman Rite." Colloquium XXII of the Church Music Association of America. Salt Lake City, UT, 25 June-1 July 2012. (Invited to speak, but lecture subsequently cancelled because of early departure date for Peace Corps service.) "The Entrance Song at Eucharist: New Directions for Research." Spring Faculty-Student Lecture, School of Theology and Religious Studies, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 2012. "How Do We Announce the Feast? The Antiphons as Gentle Gate-Keeper in Selecting Music for Worship." Lecture, Graduate Colloquium for Sacred Music, Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 2012. "Theology and the Selection of Music for Sunday." Presentation, Directors of Music Ministries Division, National Association of Pastoral Musicians, Washington, DC, 2012. "Mass Antiphons and the Dialectic of Liturgical Genre and Translation." Annual Meeting of the North American Academy of Liturgy, Music Seminar. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 5-8 January 2012. "Problems with the Final Translation of the Antiphons of The Roman Missal: Censoring an Ancient Tradition." Internal Report, International Commission on English in the Liturgy, Washington, DC, 2012. "The Chants of the New Roman Missal: 'Translating' Latin Chant for Use in the Vernacular." Lecture, Graduate Colloquium for Sacred Music, Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 2011. "Baptism as a 'Structure of Belonging' in the Pre-Medieval Church." Biennial Congress of the Societas Liturgica. Reims, France, 8-13 August 2011. "Models of the Entrance Song at Eucharist." Annual Meeting of the North American Academy of Liturgy, Music Seminar. San Francisco, CA, 6-9 January 2011. "Music and Liturgical Theology: Reflections on Method." Lecture, Graduate Colloquium for Sacred Music, Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 2005. "Karl Rahner's Theology of the 'Sinful Church:' A Forgotten Dimension of the Sacrament of Penance." Forty-fourth Annual Meeting of the College Theology Society. Washington, DC, 3-6 June 2004. "Luke 10:25-37: The Appropriation of Biblical Texts in and as Context." Mid-Atlantic Meeting of the American Academy of Religion. Baltimore, MD, 18-19 March 2004. "Deconstruction, Re-imaging, and Retrieval: Currents in Christology." Forty-second Annual Meeting of the College Theology Society. Jamaica, NY, July 2002. "Ritual Movement & the Role of the Choir at Sunday Eucharist." Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Annual Retreat. Washington, DC, October 2000.