Gone fishin'

from the Music Director

Dear Friends:

It’s been so long since we’ve been together in person, but I still feel connected with you through our sense of community and the miracle of modern technology. I am thankful that music continues to be a part of spiritual life at CUUC, especially at this time of incertitude and loss.

For the past 15 years, the start of summer has meant packing my bags and heading off to Spain to play, teach and lecture at several musical festivals. In particular, Joel and I look forward to returning every year to the magnificent town of Burgos; we feel we have a personal relationship with its splendid Gothic cathedral! (see below) This year, though, the unthinkable has happened; all of these activities have been cancelled, and, in an ironic twist, the European Union recently granted the current occupant of the White House his longed-for travel ban.

Still, there are compensations, and remaining in closer contact with the CUUC community and with our denomination is one of them. Last weekend, I was able to participate in the first Virtual GA. The numerous services, talks, and workshops I attended have given me much to ponder in terms of relating the past to current struggles for racial equality, and the challenges involved in situating artistic creation in moral contexts. I hope to share my evolving understanding of these issues through my programming and through my contextualizing at worship services and on our blog in the coming church year.

For now, I look forward to making music for those of you who take solace in it twice each week throughout the summer, through my ongoing series of “A Tempo with Adam” concerts. I will be suspending these concerts the week of July 6, when Joel and I head up to Oneonta for a much-needed mental health break. I look forward to resuming on July 13, and every Monday and Friday afternoon thereafter at 3 pm EST until Labor Day. You can access these concerts through Zoom at: https://zoom.us/j/93960775149 (*Phone (audio only), call: 929-436-2866 and enter Meeting ID: 939 6077 5149)

Although I do not normally participate in live worship services between the 3rd Sunday in June and the 1st Sunday after Labor Day, I am looking forward to providing music for former CUUC ministerial intern Jef Gamblee on August 9. It will be a pleasure to collaborate again with Jef, and reconnect with many of you then.

I leave you with a few links to highlights from my last “A Tempo with Adam” broadcast, which included repertoire connected to our unfolding understanding of the July 4th holiday:

George Gershwin: 3 Preludes https://www.facebook.com/adamkentmusic/videos/pcb.10157232010701752/10157232002486752/?type=3&theater

Claude Debussy: Golliwogg’s Cakewalk https://www.facebook.com/adamkentmusic/videos/pcb.10157232010701752/10157232009141752/?type=3&theater

Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Souvenir de Porto Rico https://www.facebook.com/adamkentmusic/videos/10157231994451752/

Anonymous Colonial: Variations on “Yankee Doodle” https://www.facebook.com/adamkentmusic/videos/pcb.10157231987506752/10157231983971752/?type=3&theater

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: “Deep River” arranged for solo piano https://www.facebook.com/adamkentmusic/videos/pcb.10157231987506752/10157231985131752/?type=3&theater

Wishing everyone health, peace and fellowship this summer,
Adam