Alan Lewis grew up in Southern California, and studied organ and harpsichord at Oberlin College and Conservatory, in Ohio. His love for the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries sparked a passion for music history; he went on to earn an M.A. and Ph.D. in that field at the University of California, Berkeley, as a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities. Since 1997 he has been based at Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, as the Director of Music, where he oversees what has been (and one hopes will someday soon again be!) an active program of liturgical and concert offerings.

Alan is a former President of the Association of Anglican Musicians (AAM), and a past Dean of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He has written frequently for the AAM Journal, and his compositions have published by Selah Publications and St. James Music Press.