Church and Worship
The Concert
by Jimmy Hopper
There was a very significant musical event in Tuscaloosa Sunday night when the Music Department of Riverwood presented the Fall Concert under the overall direction of our Director of Music, Jeff Miller. It is now 48 hours later and when I think of the beauty, emotion and delight of the music, I am again filled with wonder and thoughts of worship.
There were four parts to the concert. Our Children’s Choir had obviously spent much time and practice and were wonderful (and cute as always.) The Riverwood Korean Worship Choir had three pieces that they did with their usual competence, beauty and obvious joy in the Lord. And it was a joy for the audience to hear Jesus Loves Me in Korean and understand in a new way how the message of Christ has reached all peoples and languages.
Then we had our supremely talented instrumentalists: Linda Graham on piano, Nancy Hopper on violin, Sarah Vander Wal on cello, and Bill Hopper on oboe. They played alone and as accompaniment to several choir pieces. They are spectactularly talented. There is nothing better in Tuscaloosa.
Finally we had our wonderful adult choir bring us a worship service in song; from the Call to Worship to the Benediction. Our choir is unpaid and all that they do is to worship and glorify God. I’m no expert but I do enjoy music and have heard many concerts. They are good; very, very good.
I could say something about every piece because it was all concert-hall quality but I’ll just mention two things. The Riverwood Trio, Linda, Nancy, and Sarah played a new composition by Gwyneth Walker, A Vision of Hills, based on the Irish hymn, Be Thou My Vision. Jeff said that it had never been performed before in Tuscaloosa. It will never be performed better. It’s simply not possible for it to be performed better than these ladies played and you have to hear it to understand how beautiful the piece is.
The other one I want to mention was the beautiful and haunting spiritual, He Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word sung by the Adult Choir. Someone who had suffered composing music about the suffering of our Lord. If you were there and heard it, I doubt that you will ever forget it. In fact, I’m going to have to talk Jeff into doing it on a Sunday morning sometime, maybe around Easter.
By this post, I want to personally thank everyone who participated for an unforgettable evening. Jeff Miller does an absolutely wondrous job and the Music Department adds so very much to Riverwood worship. If you missed it, you really missed something special. The next concert will be on December 16 and will be A Service of Lessons and Carols. Take the advice of a guy whose been around a little bit and be there. You won’t be sorry and you’ll never miss another one.
Posted by Jimmy Hopper at September 18, 2007 04:18 PM
Thanks so much for the great review, Jimmy! We really had a good time putting the concert together. I do want to take a second to especially thank Linda on piano. She had the most difficult part of our trio, and she handled it beautifully.
Thanks also to everyone who attended. I am so grateful to be part of a church that supports worship through music!
I’d like to second everything Jimmy said. It was absolutely magnificent in every respect. I’d like to thank everyone who performed. Riverwood has an amazing pool of talented members, and I really appreciate their giving their time and efforts to put something like this together.
Only at Riverwood!
It is a blessing to be able to offer praise to our God. He has given us a gift in Jeff that makes us all better.