At LCH, there is such a wide variety of music which is offered, from ancient chant; to Renaissance polyphony; to the giant of the Baroque, Johann Sebastian Bach; to music by present day composers. You may find it surprising that the only music class Carl Crosier didn’t do well in was “Music before 1750!”
We’ve been using the “Alleluia” mass at the 8:00 am service for a couple of years now and I thought some of you would like to know the two women behind it, aka “The Braeded Chord,” Sharon Dennis and Doris Au MacDonald. It is in the folk music genre and uses piano, guitar, violin, and flute. We’ve also added steel drum to the ensemble.
Doris is my younger sister and while my other sister, Margo and I both majored in music, Doris got a degree in education. She traveled the world for years with her husband, as part of Wycliffe Bible Translators, but now they’ve settled in Virginia. She met Sharon Dennis when their kids were small and in baseball together (the boys just finished their freshman year in college!) Sharon got her degree in petroleum engineering but always enjoyed singing and playing music. You can read the complete story on their website, www.thebraededchord.com.
Doris and Sharon just received their fourth and fifth WAMMIES, awards given by the Washington Area Musicians, somewhat like our local Hoku Awards or the Grammies, for Best Religious Group and Best Religious Album of 2009. This CD was based on music they composed for LCH, the “Alleluia” Mass. When we brought them to Hawaii in April 2008 to teach us the music, they gave several concerts around the island while they were here, beginning with one in the LCH courtyard.
The Braeded Chord just returned home from a two-week trip to Kenya, where they served as artists-in-residence at Kima International School of Theology and Bunyore Girls School.
It’s ironic that while Carl and I are in France in July, Doris and Sharon will be attending the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians conference in Boulder, Colorado. The “Alleluia Mass” is now being sung in churches in Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and New Zealand.
We had it first!
Thanks, Kathy! We should make you our official publicist– you make us sound good! Btw, the boys were in cub/boy scouts together and played soccer together– other than that, you did your homework!
[…] was just about a year ago that I started this blog and one of the first postings I wrote was about The Braeded Chord. Since then, a new video was produced using footage of their trip to […]