Ensoma Creative | “Up From The Grave”

Members of Ensoma Creative perform my arrangement of Robert Lowry’s hymn “Low in the Grave He Lay” for Easter Sunday. We have been delighted to share in celebrating Easter with music—usually a holiday that is rich with extravagant and meaningful music performances—even in the midst of these isolated times during the coronavirus pandemic. It is our hope that we can inspire your hearts to rejoice and celebrate along with us, so that we may be united in hope on this triumphant day.

Ensoma Creative & Lyra Chamber | Were You There?

A Good Friday Meditation on the crucifixion of Jesus… The events of this day are engraved on our hearts. I have always felt that this day is not just some far off day in history, but a day in which we all took part. It was our Sin that nailed Jesus to the cross, and you and I were the reason the Lord came down to teach us, to love us, and to die for us. We were the ones who accepted him, praised him, and then rejected him, betrayed him, arrested, wrongly accused, and murdered him. And he submitted to our grave sins so that he may break Sin and death to save us and bring us near to him.

I invite you to listen to this performance of “Were You There” from an extended work of mine called “By This I’ll Reach My Home”—it’s a piece I composed/arranged/orchestrated for this day of Holy Week. This live performance was with my beloved friends in Ensoma Creative, as well as Laura Lyman and the Lyra Chamber Orchestra.

Gabrielle, Josh & Joel | “Mandatum”

Social distancing music-making for Maundy Thursday with some of my most talented musician friends Gabrielle Losey (soprano), Josh Munnell (tenor and mixing), and Joel Clifft (organ)! The name for this day of Holy Week comes from the first word of this Latin text during Jesus’s last supper with the disciples—the night before his crucifixion. In the last few years, I had spent Holy Week remembering this story—this reality—through rehearsals and large performances of requiems and new original music with many of my admirable musician friends. I’m fortunate that I am still able to do something like that in such a strange time as this.

Gab, Josh & Town | Covid Kyrie

This was one of those pieces that I composed and started recording in the same day, because I had a wife for a soprano and a best friend for a tenor who I knew would sing it with me. They always inspire me.

I chose this text from the traditional Mass for the times we're in, because I'm sure that most of us need a little bit of help as well as more beauty, and it's a simple reminder of where it is most appropriate to look for it and expect it. Enjoy this piece sung by Gabrielle Losey, Josh Munnell, and me.

G.F. Handel | Dixit Dominus

On March 23, 2019, I got to conduct the Los Angeles Chamber Choir & Ensoma Creative in a performance of G.F Handel’s Dixit Dominus with the incredible soloists Anna Schubert, Elissa Johnston, Niké St. Clair, Jon Lee Keenan, and Chung Uk Lee. Check it out!

Town & Gab | “Nothing But the Blood”

This April, Gabrielle and I visited Mont La Salle in Napa Valley where we got married almost a year ago, now with our baby boy on the way. We couldn't keep ourselves from singing in this incredible space! Here's us singing my arrangement of the traditional hymn “Nothing But the Blood.” It’s usually for SATB, but when the reverb is this good, Soprano/Bass works just as well!

Lydia Sewell & Ensoma Creative | Psalm 116

In the summer of 2016, I got to write a piece for a dear friend Mickenzie Haan, who—with her family at her side—traversed a remarkable journey through tragedy with miraculous outcomes. During that summer, she was placed into an induced coma due to an unexpected, life-threatening infection that caused swelling of the brain. Thankfully, she is alive and well today, but over the many months that followed this extended time in a coma, she had to relearn how to walk and speak and sing. I wrote this piece during her process of recovery, praying and trusting that she would one day walk and sing again, so that she may share her miraculous story with the world.

With the singers of Ensoma Creative—many of whom were also friends of Mickenzie’s—I conducted the premiere performance of Psalm 116 with my wonderfully talented friend Lydia Sewell on violin.