What a busy year 2004 was. Since Coventry sang for the National A.G.O. convention in July, when the Los Angeles chapter invited All Saints to open their 2004-2005 season with an evensong, I asked Canterbury to lead this service. It was a "first" for Canterbury Choir to lead a musical event for a professional music organization, and they rose fantastically to the occasion.
With the national convention of the American Guild of Organists coming to Los Angeles, I was honored that Coventry Choir was invited to join with Kirk Choir of Pasadena Presbyterian Church to lead this ecumenical service. Hanan Yaqub, Greg Norton and I planned the service, including the premiere anthem by Williametta Spencer, and 1000 organists attended and belted out those hymns.
“A musical/liturgical experience I will never forget. It was as if time stopped and the very breath of God became our communal breath (Coventry Choir, Orchestra, myself). We became vessels of hope in the midst of war.”
Concerts in Bryn Mawr and Princeton, plus morning eucharist at Christ Church in the heart of the city. Made possible by ongoing relationships with former All Saints members.
This was the first in a series of 4 Hands, 4 Feet concerts I had the pleasure of performing with my All Saints colleagues over the years. Each was great fun to plan, prepare and perform, and the audiences loved all of them!
