James "Jim" Bryan Erb (January 25, 1926 – November 11, 2014) was an American composer, arranger, musicologist, and conductor.
[2] Erb is most broadly known for his arrangement of the folk song "Shenandoah", and among musicologists of the Renaissance for his work on the magnificats of Orlando di Lasso published by Bärenreiter.
After serving in the United States Army during World War II, Erb completed his undergraduate education in music at Colorado College.
It was during this period that he composed his arrangement of the folk tune "Shenandoah", for a tour of Europe by the University of Richmond Choir.
"[8] The arrangement has been performed by numerous choirs, including the Virginia Glee Club (who commissioned the TTBB version),[9] the Chanticleer ensemble in an arrangement that combines it with the Marshall Bartholomew version,[10] and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, whose performance of it appeared on the soundtrack to the 1995 film Nixon.