Music Notes 9-15-24

This week we welcome a new member of our musical staff. Eric Thornburgh is taking some time off to care for his mom, Bunny Thornburgh, so our new bass section leader is Grant Heineman. Grant is a multifaceted emerging musician and recent graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA with a double major in Contemporary Writing & Production and Performance. An accomplished jazz pianist and vocalist, the Cleveland native melds a choral and classical piano upbringing with a deep understanding of contemporary jazz harmony and rhythms to assert himself as a 21st century musician capable of excelling in any given situation. While at Berklee, he created and directed The Bean Tones (award winning barbershop/vocal jazz quartet), co-directed and arranged for Point of Departure (DownBeat award winning vocal jazz group), played keys and sang with indie rock band Champagne Charlie & the Wah Wahs, composed and played piano for contemporary jazz sextet tanline! as well as arranged for orchestras, big bands, string quartets, and more. Welcome Grant!

Dr. Robert J. Ray, composer, conductor, and clinician, was Professor of Music and conductor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis Community Chorus. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and in May 2003, received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Vincennes University. As a pianist, he has performed as a soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony and others. As accompanist, he was privileged to have worked with the outstanding and legendary singers Robert McFerrin and Dr. William Warfield. Ray’s compositions are known nationally and internationally. The Gospel Mass, Gospel Magnificat, and this week’s anthem, He Never Failed Me Yet, are regularly performed in Europe, Asia, South Africa, and South America. He has traveled extensively throughout the world conducting his music. In April 2002, Ray returned again to Carnegie Hall as guest conductor to perform his Gospel Mass with chorus and orchestra. In February 2008, his Gospel Mass was performed with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON Chorus. He died in 2022.

Mark Hayes is a composer/arranger/pianist based in Kansas City whose music is renowned around the world. He got his degree in piano performance at Baylor University, moved to Kansas City to work as a music editor for Tempo Publishing, and now spends his time writing music for the church and traveling around the world as a clinician and guest conductor. When I met Mark in the late 80’s, I was struck by his pianistic skills – more specifically, the way he manhandled the piano into submission to produce the most wondrous sounds. Mark’s writing is superbly crafted, with influences of black gospel and jazz. This week’s offertory is his setting of the popular song Here I Am, Lord. Dan Schutte’s most famous composition is Here I Am, Lord, based on texts from Isaiah and Samuel. Despite its Catholic origins, it is found in most Protestant hymnals and has been translated into over 20 different languages. In 2008, a survey conducted by the United Methodist Church found it to be 2nd favorite after Amazing Grace.

Matt Redman is an English Christian worship leader currently based in Brighton. He has won 10 Dove Awards for everything from Worship Song of the Year 2005 (for Blessed Be Your Name) to Songwriter of the Year 2013. His album 10,000 Reasons was released in 2012 and the title track went on to be #1 on the Billboard Christian Songs chart, where it remained for 13 weeks. 10,000 Reasons also won Grammy Awards in 2013 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance. One Day (When We All Get To Heaven) is a song from his album Glory Song, released in September of 2017. Glory Song takes a more “gospel” approach, using lots of background singers that gives the album a choral feel. There is a video of Matt singing One Day with just a keyboard player and 6 backup singers that was recorded on the roof of the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. Today, Matt and his wife, Beth, are members of St. Peter’s Church in Brighton, England and have 5 children