Music Outside the Bachs

Trinity Explores! presents a series, “Music Outside the Bachs - Where Faith Meets Music,” on Thursday evenings, October 22, and November 5, 12, and 19. (Please note that we are skipping October 29.)

This TE series will take attendees into various genres of music and explore the value of music in a faithful life. Come hear performers, composers, conductors, preachers, storytellers, and poets talk about their own experiences and perform music with religious and spiritual themes, spanning the spectrum from classical, folk, and gospel to jazz, Broadway, and bluegrass. Come tap your toes and contemplate the ways that music influences your own faith.

The series will include our own soloists, Bill Borland, Kate Murray, Anne-Marie Spalinger, and David Blalock with Trinity member Sue Williams; Dr. Dwight D. Andrews, senior minister of the First Congregational Church; Steve Darsey, Director of Music at Glenn Memorial Church; and Caroline Herring, singer-song writer.

Cost for the series is $20 for individuals, $30 for families, $5 per person for any single class performance in the series. Register by clicking on the link below or by contacting Bede Campbell at 404.495.8428 or bcampbell@trinityatlanta.org.

>>Register here

November 5 – Folk Music
Caroline Herring

Set for release in October, Caroline Herring’s fourth album, Golden Apples of the Sun, is her most intimate and mature to date.

Herring has built a name for herself by crafting in-depth story songs, with critics continually describing her work as “timeless,” “pure,” “graceful,” and “powerful.” Her last release, Lantana, was named by National Public Radio as one of the “Top Ten Best Folk Albums for 2008.” While critics and fans have long praised the purity and complexity of her voice, drawing comparisons to Joan Baez and Kate Wolf, the vocal performances of Golden Apples of the Sun are as comfortable and intimate as any Herring has produced. It is the most true-to-stage release of her career, and Herring gives credit to producer David “Goody” Goodrich, who crafted the stripped-down sound in the Signature Sounds studio in Connecticut. Produced with just her guitar and live vocals, the finished product has all the marks of a fully developed artist and performer.

November 12 – Gospel and Jazz
Dwight Andrews

Jazz musician, educator, and minister, Dwight Andrews will offer his variation on this provocative theme recently invoked by colleagues Don and Emily Saliers and jazz master, Wynton Marsalis. 

Dr. Andrews, an accomplished saxophonist, will explore, in music and word, the lively controversy surrounding the use of jazz and other pop music forms in worship. He will review the cultural, sociological, religious, and even racial reasons for this fascinating state of affairs. Andrews will demonstrate the irony and paradox of this situation by presenting musical examples that show the commonalities these seemingly disparate musics share. A sample of the questions we will explore together: What is the common ground between jazz and gospel, or between modern gospel and traditional so-called hymnody? Why did the Pope Pius X in his Motu Proprio (1903) declare that “the employment of the piano is forbidden in church, as is also that of frivolous instruments such as drums, cymbals, bells and the like?” What were Mahalia Jackson’s reservations about recording Duke Ellington’s famous Come Sunday? How has the church responded to the sacred works of jazz masters such as Dave Brubeck, Mary Lou Williams, and John Coltrane? 

Dwight Andrews is an Associate Professor of Music at Emory University and Senior Minister of First Congregational Church, UCC of Atlanta. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Yale University, he has served on the faculties of Rice, Harvard, and Yale Universities. He has performed on over twenty-five recordings and is also known for his collaborations with playwright August Wilson, having served as composer/ music director for five of the Broadway productions of Wilson’ ten play cycle.  

November 19 – Sacred Poetry and Song
Sue Williams, Anne-Marie Spalinger, Kate Murray, Bill Borland, David Blalock

>>Register here