Music on demand
Wickersham
heads project
to create church choir CD
The
CD includes organ music
and was a Bicentennial effort
By
Tara Gentile
Contributing Writer
(July 2009) As a way to take part in the Madison
Bicentennial, local churches pooled together their best choir voices
and compositions to create a compact disc titled, Our Heritage
in Praise.
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The idea for the CD originated with Prince of Peace Catholic
Churchs choir director and organist, Larry Wickersham. It stemmed
from a nine-year-old event called the Spring Choir Festival, held the
second Sunday after Easter and sponsored by the Madison Ministerial
Association. During the festival, local choirs perform their individual
selections after which all the combined choirs sing together in finale.
With a generous donation from the Morgan and Nay Funeral Home, choirs
from six churches and 120 singers from 10 churches and elementary schools
recorded 17 of their favorite hymns and anthems including Amazing
Grace, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and Mozarts
Ave Verum Corpus.
The CD is a celebration of 200 years of music and song in Madison
churches. We wanted to commemorate that music through the combined talents
of an ecumenical choir like the one that assembles every year for the
choir festival, said Wickersham.
In keeping with the theme of the Bicentennial celebration, four historic
organs are featured on Our Heritage in Praise. The organs
remain in their original configurations with only the addition of electric
blowers to supply air. They are known as fine examples of organ building
from their eras, said Wickersham. Local recording engineer, Dennis ONeal.
recorded the four organs inside the churches that house them.
The whole recording process was a lot of fun. We were able to
play around, but we did a lot of work, too, said Fern Sexton,
who played the piano accompaniment for several of the combined choir
selections. Its one of the few times that all the different denominations
get to see each other, she said.
I love to see the different faiths intermingle and to hear all
the voices. The experience brought so many people together for a glorious
project, said Sexton.
Our Heritage in Praise costs $10 and proceeds will benefit
the Spring Choir Festival. The CD can be found at any of the participating
churches Christ Episcopal, First Assembly of God, First
Baptist, First Christian, Hanover United Methodist, Madison Presbyterian,
Prince of Peace, Resurrection Lutheran, St. Johns and Trinity
United Methodist.
The CDs also are available at Hertz Shoe Store, Jefferson County Historical
Society, Lanier Mansion Gift Shop, Madison City Hall, the Madison Courier,
Madison Main Street Program, Ohio Theatre and the Village Lights Book
Store.
Back to July 2009 Articles.