The New Psalmist Baptist Choir will be singingg at Windsor Castle and 'Many Heavens, One Earth; Faith, the Environment and Copenhagen' on November 4th in London, link here for tickets.

 

 

The great faiths have survived because they can communicate messages about how to live our lives well - and because those messages have touched peoples' hearts and minds in profound ways. One of the most important ways of doing this is through stories, told through music, dance and narrative. This therefore is a key element of the Windsor celebration. The performers include, in alphabetical order:

 

Matt Addis

William (Patrick) Alston

James Dewitt (JD) Alston

Narguess Farzad

Sally Magnussun

James Morant

New Psalmist Baptist Church Choir

Michael Ormiston

SheshBesh

Anusha Subramanyam

 

 

Matt Addis made his West End debut in Boeing Boeing and toured internationally with Stones in His Pockets. He was last seen in hit comedy Pythonesque at this year's Edinburgh Festival. Recent television and radio includes Queen Victoria's Men, The Siege of Krishnapur, The Government Inspector, Our Mutual Friend and Good Evening. Matt can regularly be heard reading poetry on R4 and the World Service.

 

During the celebration Matt, alongside Narguess Farzad, will be reading 'The Conference of the Birds', a moving poem which tells an Islamic story of natural phenomena working together to solve crises (further details below).

 

 

William (Patrick) Alston is a native of Baltimore, Maryland USA.  He has performed throughout the United States and abroad, in venues such as the famed Mormon Tabernacle, New York's Carnegie Hall, Auditorium de Milano and other venues, large and small. He has been both a solo artist and an accompanist.  He is skilled as an organist, pianist and music administrator for various churches in Baltimore and has been an active force in church music for over twenty years. 

 

William holds a B.A. degree in piano performance from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he studied with Dr. Nancy Roldan and Dr. Rachael Franklin.  In 1998, he earned the Collegiate certificate from the American Guild of Organists and studied organ technique with Dr. Dale Krider.  In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in sacred music from the Eastern Theological Seminary.

 

He is Founder and President of Hands 'n' Harmony, Inc, which is an organization that specializes in the education and professional development of church musicians.  He serves as Coordinator of Worship Music and Accompaniment for the Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore.  He also is a full-time teacher of keyboard and international baccalaureate music theory at the Baltimore City College High School and principal accompanist of its renowned City College High School Choirs.   

 
James Dewitt (JD) Alston, organist, pianist, conductor, teacher and administrator, serves as Minister of Music at the New Psalmist Baptist Church, Baltimore, Maryland USA.  A native Baltimorean, his music contributions span over 40 years.  Affectionately known as "JD", he has been recognized as a long time symbol of excellence in church music.  His musical studies were at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where he studied classical piano with Mr. Jack Thames. 

 

In conjunction with his brother, Patrick Alston, he is committed to Hands "n' Harmony, presenting instrumental concerts featuring talents at the pipe organ, Hammond organ, grand piano and keyboard/synthesizer.  James Alston is well-versed in music of many genres, including piano, organ, jazz, show tunes and gospel. He has served as Minister of Music at the New Psalmist Baptist Church since 1983, under the pastorate of Bishop Walter Scott Thomas, Sr. 

  

  

Narguess Farzad is a senior fellow of the Department of Languages & Cultures at the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. Specialising in Persian language and poetry, she has translated selections of contemporary Persian & Tajik verse. Narguess is also a member of the editorial board of the Middle East in London magazine.

 

Along with Matt Addis, Narguess will be reading 'The Conference of the Birds' during the Windsor celebration. This allegorical, moving poem, written by the Persian poet Attar in the 12^th century, tells the story of a group of birds who set out to find their Lord and master. Their journey takes them through struggle and pain, fear and disillusionment, towards a final goal of wisdom.

 

It is a story of the soul's search for God and truth, and portrays the endeavours and sufferings that accompany such a journey for all life forms. One clear and simple message of the poem is: that to achieve what is worthwhile we have to overcome the obstacles placed before and around us.

   

 

Sally Magnussun is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and writer, who has presented a range of programmes for the BBC from current affairs and politics to news and religion. These currently include Reporting Scotland, Songs of Praise and occasional reportage for Panorama. She also presents the popular Radio 4 geneaology series Tracing Your Roots and Radio Scotland's Sally on Sunday.

 

In 1996 she won a Scottish Bafta as part of the team on the BBC's Dunblane: A Community Remembers, and in 1998 was awarded a Royal Television Society award for her exclusive television interview with Earl Spencer, Diana: My Sister the Princess. In 2004 her hard-hitting series Britain's Secret Shame, credited with raising awareness of abuse of the elderly in Britain's care homes, won the Royal Television Society's award for Best Daytime Series. In 2007 the Institute of Contemporary Scotland awarded her a place in the Scottish Academy of Merit for services to the media.

  

Based in Glasgow, she is a mother of five and the author of several of books, including Dreaming of Iceland (a memoir based on a journey to the ancestral home with her father) Glorious Things (a selection of favourite hymns), Family Life (a series of humorous anecdotes about life with more children than was good for her sanity at the time) and the recently reissued biography of Eric Liddell, The Flying Scotsman.

 

 

James Morant, of the NPBC Choir, was born in Baltimore, Maryland USA.  He began singing in church at an early age, but did not find his niche as a soloist until a choir director heard him singing in the background at a music taping session.  He was asked to be a lead vocalist at the very next concert given by that choir director. 

 

Since then, James has directed choirs on his own, performed at the Smithsonian Institution, the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, the Camden Yards Stadium (before a hometown crowd of 25,000) in Baltimore, and many other venues in the United States. 

 

He was a member of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, serving as the director of its Maryland chapter for five years and directing the 2,500-voice National Recording Choir.  He was a featured vocalist with the group Tabernacle in performances in France at the Montauban Jazz Festival and the Ramparts Jazz Festival, and at the Vittoria-Gastiez Jazz Festival in Spain. 

  

James has a smooth vocal style, often wringing the very last ounce of emotion from a lyric. He can also transform himself and the mood with a burst of power and range, evoking a different emotional intensity from an audience. 

James will be singing lead vocals during the celebration with the New Psalmist Baptist Choir 

 

 

New Psalmist Baptist Church Choir, located in Baltimore, Maryland USA, is a 7,000+ member congregation serving the needs of its local congregation, expanding its network to include other churches, and reaching out to global partners to provide faith-based aid and humanitarian assistance. Over 300 voices comprise the total choir membership in the Music Ministry of the NPBC. To listen to their new song- written especially for Windsor, click here!

 

The Windsor Castle event in November will welcome 12 members of the choir to perform, dynamic in their vocal talents, as well as a small musical staff drawn from the Ministry. The group reflects a diversity of religious musical styles, from Negro spirituals and anthems, to more contemporary, hard-driving gospel styles, and it is difficult not to feel inspired and uplifted on hearing them perform.

 

During the Windsor celebrations the NPBC choir will perform their new piece "That's what the Cross would say", written especially for the Windsor event. This much-anticipated composition is based on the 7^th century Anglo-Saxon poem, 'The Dream of the Rood'.

 

The 'rood' is the tree on which Christ was crucified- and it is our narrator. It describes what it feels like to be cut down in the forest, torn from your natural setting and then slashed into the shape of pole ready to be the stake upon which man is to be cruelly put to death. The group will accompany James Morant, lead vocalist/ co-lyricist, and W. Patrick Alston, keyboardist/ co-lyricist/ composer.

 

The tree laments that it wanted to fall down and crush the human beings who had cut it about and who then took one of their own and crucified him. But the tree also knows that it has a cosmic role to play. In this Christian work the suffering of the tree and of Jesus himself reflect the wider pain and suffering that humanity causes to its own kind and to all creation. This is why the song says "All Creation wept".

 

The core intent of the NPBC Choir is that it delivers to the world a message of good news, stewardship and a bright environmental future. Members of the group are world-class singers who have been affiliated with such organisations as the Gospel Music Workshop of America and the Praise and Worship Convocation, and some have toured in Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Slovakia, and the Bahamas, as well as throughout the United States. 

To hear the an interview with James Morant and Reverend Al Bailey of the New Psalmist Baptist Choir that was featured on Radio 4's Sunday Programme 25/10/09, please click here, or for the transcript here.

Singers:

Linda Harris - first soprano

Joyce Lea Street - first soprano

Sharon Dickerson-Greene - second soprano

Antoinette Spence - second soprano

Cassiopeia Brown - alto

Diann Cupid - alto

Joi Thomas - alto

Roderick Hairston - tenor

Raymel Moseley - tenor

James Morant - baritone

Albert Prater - baritone

 

Musicians

 

James Dewitt Alston

William Alston

 

  

Michael Ormiston is Britain's foremost Mongolian Khöömii (overtone) singer, having studied in Mongolia on and off since 1993, and been blessed to teach this style of singing by his teacher Tserendavaa. Michael has composed and performed music for dance productions, TV and radio programmes, and even appeared in two Hollywood films.

 

Michael is an expert player of the Tibetan Singing Bowl, leading workshops and meditations, and has played for His Eminence Khamba Lam Choijampts as well as His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Michael plays an array of instruments including the Morin Khuur (Mongolian horse head fiddle), the symphonic gongs, the ney (Sufi flute), ritual instruments of Tibetan Buddhism, shamanic drums and the flat-back bouzouki (long necked lute).

  

  

The SheshBesh ensemble unites Jewish musicians from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) with some of the finest musicians from the Arab, Christian and Muslim communities in Northern Israel. It was founded in 1996 and has later become part of KeyNote, the educational program of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

!!To sample/ purchase Shesh Besh's new album link here!!

  

Their onstage presence and the quality of their music reflect SheshBesh's belief in the power of music as a bridge-builder and unifyer of different peoples and cultures. Together they create a harmonious fusion of sounds from the Middle Eastern and Western Classical worlds, enhanced by their own unique spark of originality.

  

The Arab-Jewish ensemble appears regularly in schools, both in the classroom and in concerts for school children. The IPO has commissioned the work "Ode to Happiness" by Gil Shochat to feature SheshBesh as a solo ensemble in a series of concerts for 4000 school children at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv.

 

SheshBesh's first album, Collective Memory, was released in July 2007. It includes works by contemporary Israeli composers, Arab and Jewish alike; Haya Samir, Benyamin Yusupov and Shai Cohen to name a few. It also contains works by the ensemble members themselves, Alfred Hajjar and Bishara Naddaf, along with folk music specially arranged for SheshBesh. 

 

In 2007 SheshBesh and KeyNote were granted the KulturPreis Europa's Tolerance Award, which acknowledges individuals and institutions who have contributed to the development of intercultural dialogue and human rights. It was founded in 1992 by the former German Foreign Secretary Mr. Hans Dietrich Genscher the KulturForum Europa is composed of Europe's leading politicians, scientists, artists and opinion leaders.

 

Members:

 

Sami Khashibun: oriental violin

Saida Bar-Lev: violin and viola

Yossi Arnheim: flute

Alfred Hajar: ney

Ramsis Kasis: oud

Bishara Naddaf: deff, darbuka

Peter Marck: double bass

 

  

Anusha Subramanyam is artistic director of 'Beeja', a dance company based in London, but she performs and teaches dance internationally. Heralded as one of the most exciting exponents of Bharatanatyam, a traditional South-Indian dance, Anusha works both inside and outside its traditions, and choreographs a wide range of performances. She has collaborated with artists from a variety of disciplines and consequently creates work that is, whilst challenging, accessible and entertaining.

 

Anusha is an inspiring teacher who, for the last 22 years, has focused on integrating dance education with somatic and contemplative practices in her work. This year she has been awarded a Lisa Ullmann travelling scholarship to go to the United States, which will enable her to explore her dance practice further through the study of experiential anatomy at the Body Movement Centre in Pittsburgh. Anusha is also the programme director for Dance India 2009 and the subject leader for Bharatanatyam at the CAT (Centre for Advanced Training) programme in Birmingham.