Tate Pumfrey is following the example of his Lord Jesus Christ by building bridges.

The 28-year-old from Alexandria, Ont., draws disciples closer to God through his musical and poetic compositions, connecting different eras of musical heritage by maintaining both historic and modern pipe organ, and bringing people together in fellowship by hosting square dances and even leading historic church tours on behalf of the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall.

His mother, Tina Pumfrey, a Christian singer-songwriter, shed amusing light on how her son desires to connect with absolutely everyone he encounters.

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“I remember when I registered him for junior kindergarten, and his teacher asked at the end of the interview, ‘do you have any concerns for Tate?' I said, ‘maybe you can help him to learn that he shouldn't share his entire life story with every stranger,' ” reminisced Tina with a chuckle.

Her voice beamed with joy about her son, soon to become a first-time father to a baby girl with his wife, Eleanore, and his way with people.

“He loves bringing people together,” said Tina. “He can name off a whole bunch of couples he’s introduced and who've gotten married just because he loves people.”

Pumfrey’s interest in music was initially kindled when a string quartet came to visit his elementary school, Good Shepherd in Thamesville, Ont., and dazzled him.

“I was completely taken by this, and I could so clearly imagine the string quartet, almost like a conversation at the dinner table, the way that one instrument responded and how one would respond to the next and so on,” said Pumfrey.

He began developing his musical ear through training on the classical violin, classical piano and the piano accordion. Tina, who earned an Associate Diploma (ARCT) in Pedagogy and Performance from The Royal Conservatory in Toronto, greatly contributed to her son's education on the 88 keys.

But Pumfrey’s musical passion began when he started playing the fiddle, and he is quick to credit the award-winning Canadian musical family group from Cape Breton Island, The Rankins. His zeal grew by listening to their music on YouTube. He especially gravitated towards the prodigious fiddling talents of the late John Morris Rankin.

His instrumental versatility developed even more in junior high and high school as he learned the trombone, guitar and pipe organ. He also began singing in a choir and cultivating an interest in classical composition.

A great benefit of attending Ursuline College Chatham in Chatham-Kent, Ont., was the school’s strong music and arts program. One of his four musical teachers, Jim Brown, who played bass in Tina’s band, has a master’s degree in composition and provided feedback for the budding composer.

One treasured highlight from his nascent composing years was his choral setting of the Irish Blessing — “May the road rise up to meet you” — being performed during his high school graduation.

“I found that deeply satisfying,” said Pumfrey. “I've grown so much since then, so it's hard to look at it with the same eyes that I had when I wrote it in the moment. But it was pretty clear to me that I wanted to pursue music at the university level.”

He went to Carleton University in Ottawa and was, at first, primarily devoted to the Celtic fiddle. He also studied pipe organ with organist-composer Gilles Leclerc, who made history as the Royal Canadian College of Organists’ first French Canadian president from 2010 to 2012.

Leclerc, who will complete his 49th year as the titular organist of Ottawa's St. François d’Assise Church, spoke fondly about Pumfrey the musician.

“Tate has a lot of talent when it comes to composing,” said Leclerc. “I think he has a wonderful command of writing music and harmony, and he has great thoughts, themes, and oftentimes he does have a faith theme coming through his music, whether he bases something on either Gregorian chant or has some kind of a spiritual theme. As a liturgical musician myself, I found that very interesting to see that here's this new generation of young composers who are coming up and who want to express their faith through their music.”

Regarding Pumfrey the man, Leclerc said “he has a great personality. He is very vibrant and wishes to do things right.”

Pumfrey’s time in Ottawa, where he also devoted his time and talent to St. Patrick’s Basilica, proved to be a poignant musical eye-opener. Performing Gregorian Chants and sacred polyphonies and receiving his first extensive exposure to the pipe organ led him to “discover the riches of the Church’s musical heritage.”

Consequently, Pumfrey directed his creative energies to composing classical music when he transferred to Western University in London, Ont., to round out his undergraduate education.

He illuminated why classical composition became so tantalizing to him.

“I think the beauty of it is the first thing,” said Pumfrey. “And there is something about the craft of it — the intricacy and the mathematical precision — that really appealed to me in my mind.”

He recalled a memory from his childhood — subconsciously originating a waltz for a Mrs. Isaac when he was 10 without really knowing that he was composing — and then added that classical music is “something that just God sort of drew me toward and wanted me to do.”

Pumfrey’s fascination with composing was at its peak during his university years. In fact, he came up with a term to describe the sensation he felt day in and day out.

“I called it ‘the itch. I had to compose every day or I would go crazy.”

The composer who belongs to Generation Z has composed “25-30 organ pieces, five or six choir pieces,” multiple chamber works and collaborated with Australian poet Christian Walter John Catsanos on 48 Catholic hymns split into two volumes.

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The particular allure of the traditional sacred music performed during liturgies, said Pumfrey, is that it provides a “deep peace” amid a “secular culture that is becoming even more chaotic and lacking in authentic beauty.”

He is also a proponent of traditionalism in the big picture.

“We're so cut off from our roots as a society at this point, and we're left with this sort of individualism,” he said. “We need to look back to be able to know where to go looking forward. I think a lot of young people are really drawn to that, being able to look backwards to form who they are so that they know where to go.”

Pumfrey is doing his part to revive tradition by organizing more than a dozen square dances over the past couple of years, first at St. Clement’s Parish in Ottawa and then at St. Finnan's Basilica in Alexandria, that are drawing solid crowds of both young and old. He has even learned to call the dances, which he describes as a “fun challenge,” and even detects a Christian metaphor in the interdependent relationship between the caller, musicians and dancers.

“The caller is like a bishop, who leads the dancing. The musicians are like the priests and religious who cooperate with and facilitate that guidance. The dancers are like the laity who respond to that leadership. If any one of these three layers is out of its lane, the whole thing falls apart, much like the local Church.”

His Mondays to Fridays are also immersed in tradition as his company, Pumfrey Pipe Organs Inc., services approximately 100 pipe organs in eastern Ontario and into Quebec. He learned how to tune, maintain and restore these grand instruments from organ technician Sylvain Brisson.

“Just to work on these historic instruments and to see how those who came before built things, the quality of their workmanship, the beauty of their craftsmanship too — the pipes are beautifully stencilled, and the wood is so immaculately carved… it is really an enjoyable job,” he said.

The busyness of his company and his desire to be an attentive husband, soon-to-be father, son, sibling and friend does not accord him as much time for composition. He is more inspired to create when someone in his life commissions work.

It was a particular pleasure in 2025 to compose and write a Christmas choral motet and poetry piece for his Ottawa-based organist friend and recent Catholic convert, Matthew Larkin’s choir Caelis Academy Ensemble. The piece, which Pumfrey said is “among my very best work,” is called Lily Long Foretold, a richly imagistic account of how the Virgin Mary was always destined to carry our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Lilly Long Foretold - By Tate Pumfrey

O Virgin Mary, lily long foretold,

You carry Him whom heaven cannot hold;

That Heart which wakes the ever-beating sea

Beats in your womb, New Adam from New Eve.

Within the darkness of your flesh

The Light of Light reposed;

You lay your Saviour in the creche,

The Word made flesh upon your word,

And in the stable, nothing stirred,

While coruscating angel wings,

Like sunlit snowflakes round the King,

Proclaim salvation’s Dayspring.

O Virgin Mary, lily long foretold,

You carried Him whom heaven cannot hold;

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That Heart which shed its Blood on Calvary,

Beats in this Child, whose death will set us free.