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June Choral Extravaganza
Music Minister Profiles:
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Eric O'del, Music Director, Seattle Center for Spiritual Living, Rev. Dr. Kathianne Lewis, Sr. Minister
Eric O’del has been the Music Ministry Director at Center for Spiritual Living, Seattle for over 11 years. In addition to directing the 75 voice Choir of Light he also directs CSL’s 8 voice chant ensemble Una Voce. He produces music for 3 Sunday services and a Wednesday evening service, as well as a Winter concert, the Spring “Divas” Concert and the Seattle Sacred Music Festival. He has been a featured presenter at the New Thought Music Symposium at Agape Church in L.A., and serves as a mentor in developing music ministry to music directors and ministers throughout the United States and Great Britain. He is also a licensed Religious Science Practitioner with an active Spiritual counseling practice.
The CSL Choir of Light was founded in 1993 with a mission to “open hearts and heal minds, bring joy to all and create Heaven on Earth”. Eric O’del became Choir Director in 1995. Since then the Choir has been featured on 3 CD recording projects and as guest performers at the Northwest Folklife Festival, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorials at the Seattle Center and Mount Zion Baptist Church, and the New Thought Choir Festival in Wilsonville, Oregon. They have also performed at churches in Vancouver, B.C., Santa Rosa, California and Kona, Hawaii. Their recording of “Choir Om” is featured in the sound track to the documentary film “One”.
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Penelope Williams, Music Minister, Unity North Atlanta Church, Rev. Nancy Worth, Sr. Minister.
Penelope Williams joined Unity North in the full time music minister role in February of 2005. Penelope brings broad musical credentials, 29 years of music experience and a loving New Thought consciousness to the role. By way of credentials and experience: Penelope is an accomplished jazz musician with 29 years of performing experience.Her piano and vocal skills are known throughout the New Thought world.
Penelope holds a masters in music from GA State University and was previously the Music Director at the Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta, (formerly the Atlanta Church of Religious Science) where she established a record of inspired personal and guest performances.
Penelope was previously the Programs and Events Director for GA State University. Penelope's choir experience includes the GSU Vocal Jazz Choir, where she was Interim Director for one year and initiating a choir at the Atlanta Church of Religious Science. She has performed for President Carter on more than one occasion, she has performed at the Kennedy Center and at select venues as a jazz musician and in performances nationwide. Penelope serves on the Board of Governors of the Nat’l Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, (Atlanta).
She is well connected in both local music circles and in the national New Thought movement. |
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Marian M. Gamble, Minister of Music, (Atlanta) Hillside Chapel and Truth Center, Rev. Dr. Barbara L. King, Founder-Minister.
Marian became a member of Hillside in 1978 and joined the choir. Subsequently she served as director of the Gospel Choir, director of the Youth Choir, and director of the Sanctuary Choir. She organized the Hillside Children’s Choir in 1978 and served as its director until 2002. Since 1988, Marian has been director of the Hillside Choir and of the music ministry which includes the Hillside Choir, King Singers (a vocal ensemble), a men’s group, praise team, youth choir, harpist, violinist, and five member house band. She is a member of the Hillside Leadership Council.
During her years at Hillside, Marian has taught Bible classes, served on several committees, conducted a training session for volunteers and a seminar for teachers of Truth classes. She is a vocalist and former member of S’Sense, a 13-year contemporary gospel vocal group that performed throughout the southeast. Prior to moving to Georgia, she lived in Chicago and was choir director for 18 years at Fairfield Baptist Church, where her father was pastor, and was also director of the Baptist district association choir. Music is Marian’s spiritual gift rather than her educational background. Through her music, she desires to leave “heart prints” that nurture the spirit and transform lives. |
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Valerie Joi Fiddmont, is a musicians’ musician dedicated to teaching music as ministry. She conducts three gospel choirs in the Santa Cruz area – the Inner Light Ministries choir, Inner Light’s Singing Circle, and the UCSC Gospel choir - each with 60 to 100 voices. At the 2005 Monterey Jazz Festival she was featured as one of Tim’s Top 10 Picks, the director’s favorite artists for the weekend. Valerie Joi was also the director of the choral ensemble of the 2005 San Jose Jazz Festival Orchestra featuring Jeri Allen on piano. As a New Thought Practitioner with an MBA from Rice University, she is grounded in the practical and the divine. Her CD of original compositions, Singing the Sacred Yes, was released by Sounds True in 2006.
The Inner Light Choir, directed by Valerie Joi Fiddmont, is a central part of the music ministry at Inner Light Ministries, a major omni-faith church in Santa Cruz. The talented 85-voice ensemble is dedicated to healing and transformation through song. In addition to ministering twice a month at the Inner Light Sunday Morning Service, they have ministered at Revelation 2004 and 2008, with Valerie Joi at the 2005 Monterey Jazz Festival, and in 2006 with Rickie Byars-Beckwith (recording artist and founding director of the Agape International Choir) at the Center for Spiritual Living in San Jose, CA. |
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