A Spring full of Music and Praise!
The photo above is from my 2nd annual Berklee Worships Concert- now to be know as BNOW (Berklee Night of Worship)!
Professor (and my Spiritual Daddy) Jim Peterson and I spearheaded the production with a stellar band and 8 student worship leaders from Berklee. The singers were wonderful in the show! I was super proud of them! But there were some struggles to get to the glory for sure! But God was glorified in the secular halls of Berklee College of Music! More on that later!
Me and Jim Peterson above
Here was the final program:
BERKLEE WORSHIPS2 B.N.O.W!
Thursday, April 18th, 7pm Berk Hall (1A)
Directed by Julie Kinscheck, Assistant Voice Professor And James Peterson, Guitar ProfessorӬ
The Songs
1. “You Are Good”Lead Vocals: Christian David Back up Vocals: Delhia, Keren, Dani & Isabella
Words & Music: Israel Houghton Arr.: James Peterson
Christian David above
“You are Good” is a classic in the contemporary Christian world and always fun to sing. Jim Peterson created a fantastic arrangement with even a SCAT part in the center! What a blast- the band got to stretch a little on the very first song! Christian and the gang gave their all and it jammed with praise for the Almighty!
2. “Praise”Lead Vocals: Keren Montero & Lydia Kwon
Back up Vocals: Judah, Olivia & Isabella
Words & Music: B. Lake, C. Moore, C. Brown, C. Carnes, P. Barrett, S. Furtick
Keren Montero above
Keren started this one off with lots of spunk and Latin energy. This young women radiates joy and this was a great showcase for her! Later Lydia took the lead and added her Asian flair to the mix! They added a new twist to the Elevation Worship super hit! The audience was with us! The power was pumping!
ҬScripture and prayer by Christian David
3. “Revelation 19:1″Soloist: Dani Dana Chorus: Christian, Judah, Isabella & DelhiaWords & Music: Jeffrey LaValley
Dani started this song off with a lovely Gospel solo- so soulful! They I jumped out in front of the choir to conduct. It was worshipful and beautiful.
The only challenge here was when I put my microphone back into the clip in order to sing and play guitar on the next song and my mic somehow got turned off! We didn’t really notice till we got to my solo part in “Left it in the Water…” So that was embarrassing! But what was worse was at the same time my guitar went dead! Now this happened to my lovely Taylor 914 once before at my original concert at Berklee last fall and I thought the sound people screwed up… now I assumed it was the battery (though I had put in a new battery before the show that night)- Now I wonder if I have a loose connection in the guitar itself… Why it only shows up on Berklee concerts I don’t know. I have to have it check out!!!
4. “Left it in the Water”Lead Vocals: Judah Woomert, Belt Vocals: Lydia, & Keren
Words & Music: A. Bergtholt, E. Cash, F. Cash, J. Gifford, M. Cash, S. Cash
Judah led off the vocals with great rock energy for the Lord… unfortunately the technical difficulties with my mic and guitar overshadowed this song a bit… Sorry Judah! I really love this not so well known worship song… I pray it still communicated the joy and energy of leaving our sins in the water!!!
5. “Trust in God” Lead Vocals: Judah Woomert & Olivia Barrett Back up Vocals: Dani & Lydia
Words & Music: B. Lake, C. Brown, M. Wong, S. Furtick
Olivia and Judah took the lead marvelously on this Elevation Worship standard. Trusting in the Lord is central to every Christian’s faith. I especially appreciated the genuine hearts with which these students sang… you can see their love for God on their faces.
Personal Testimony by Olivia Barrett
6. “I’m So Blessed”Lead Vocals: Isabella Gueck & Judah Woomert Back up Vocals: Olivia & Lydia
Words & Music: J. Smith, L. Cain, M. Cain, T. Cain, M. West
Ok- this was SO MUCH FUN! CAIN is one of my new favorite bands and Isabella, Judah and crew did it justice! My favorite part was the pseudo rap sections that Judah did… such a BLAST! He got right pout their and pulled in the crowd!
7. “In Jesus Name” Lead Vocals: Isabella Gueck Back up Vocals: Dani & Lydia
Words & Music:D. Spencer, E. Hulse/ J. Pardo/ K. Nichole
Isabelle brought the house down with her rendition of Katy Nicole’s “In Jesus Name!” What a gorgeous voice! -And look at her facial expressions… Lovely!
8.“The Blessing”Vocals: Keren Montero, Dani Dana, Isabella GueckWords & Music: K. Jobe, C. Brown, C. Carnes, S. Furtick
This is one we play in our home church a lot and it was so fun to do this with the students! This song builds wonderfully.
9. “Your Great Name” Lead Vocals: Julie Kinscheck Back up Vocals: Delhia & Keren
Words & Music: Krissy Nordhoff & Michael Neale
This was my big number! Jim
10. “Every Praise”Lead Vocals: Christian David
Back up Vocals: Dani, Olivia, Keren, Lydia, Delhia & Judah
Words and Music: Hezekiah Walker & John David Bratton
11.”Thank You”Lead Vocals: Dani Dana, Delhia Richards, Christian David, Back up Vocals: Lydia, Keren, Isabella, Olivia, & Judah, Words & Music: Walter Hawkins
Delhia above
The Cast:
Executive Director, Vocals & Acoustic Guitar,Julie Kinscheck, Ithaca, NY, USA
Vocals:Olivia Barrett, Worcester, MA, USA
Vocals:Christian David, Fresno, CA, USA
Vocals:Isabella Gueck, New Milford, CT, USA
Vocals:Yukyoung (Lydia) Kwon, Incheon, Republic of Korea
Vocals:Keren Montero,Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Vocals:Dani Dana, Nairobi, Kenya
Vocals:Delhia Richards, Ontario, Canada
Acoustic guitar:Judah Woomert, Sarasota, FL, USA
The Band:
Music Director, Lead Guitar:James Peterson, Mt. Laurel, NJ, USA(above)
Piano:Harold Charon, Havana, Cuba (above)
Synthesizers:Peter Sun, Taipei, Taiwan
Bass Guitar,Lionel Girardeau, Bordeaux, France
Drums, Diego Castrillo- Vilches, Framingham, MA, USA
OK- the story- So we started with 12 singers in the show. Two decided very early that they had too many schedule conflicts and dropped out right after call backs. Sad because they were both wonderful vocalists. Oh, well. Next, only two weeks before the show another very talented singer dropped out because she was just overwhelmed. Then the week of the show two students had “family emergencies” and one had work conflicts, too… One even had a panic attack! Satan was after us BIG time! But in the end it boiled down to 8 dedicated singers who rocked the house!
Honestly- in the end the thing I was most worried about was remembering my own lyrics! (It has gotten harder lately!) Maybe I should be like Taylor Swift and have the lyrics pumped in through my in-ear monitors during the show! )That could be distracting!) But I did fine with my lyrics… wish I could say the same about my guitar- not wrong chords- it just cut out part way through- even when I put in what I thought was a new battery before the show. Very frustrating!
Bottom line- the show was a grand success… though I forgot to invite everyone to the wonderful women’s service, Better Together, I would be singing/ playing at the following weekend at the Old John Hancock Hall! Alas! Though a bunch of folks from the show came to the event anyway from word of mouth! At least I did get to thank my mentor and cheerleader Phil Lima, the assistant chair of the voice department. So nice that he came by!
Sadly, Ralph wasn’t able to play on this particular show… but he has been doing lots of great work with his electronic music endeavors. Catch him on Instagram @Ralphykeys
Look forward to BNOW (Berklee Worships3) 2025 on Thursday April 17th!
Blessings!