newsletter sample

October 2017
www.bachandsons.com www.promotionmusic.org www.fromseatoshiningsea.net
www.aroundtheworldin80minutes.org

In this issue

Jeannine's Notes

Guest Interview with Daniel Gawthrop

David's Sidebar

Upcoming Pro-Motion Music Events

Our Websites

Our Blogs

Our Podcasts

Our Infographics
Our Videos

David's Sidebar

Those of you who know me, know that I think I'm pretty funny. Well, I have met my match, okay maybe he's even better. Daniel Gawthrop is not only a fine composer and gentleman but he's also hilarious. You should friend his facebook page. You'll see postings of humorous interpretations of art posted. They will lighten your day!

i.e.

"It had been a long time since Melinda had eaten at a Dairy Queen and the one Howard found seemed a bit more upscale than the ones she remembered. She was eager to see just how her Peanut Buster Parfait would be served." Gawthrop

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"As he listened to the choir, the cardinal struggled to maintain a neutral expression. His patience with so-called “praise motets” was badly strained. Even in Latin, there’s a limit to how many times the same phrase can be repeated before it loses all meaning. Trying to force a change, however, would result in a battle. The last time he requested a little Palestrina be added to the mix, the Schola Cantorum looked at him like he had just suggested replacing votive candles with LEDs. And the group’s director was the worst of the lot—Father Georgio, who fancied himself a composer, had just published a new collection of praise motets of his own. The book was called Holy Hip Hop Harmonies and the blasted thing was selling faster than Al Gore bobblehead dolls at a Greenpeace meeting. Something would have to be done."
Daniel Gawthrop

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Upcoming Pro-Motion Music events

The Organ Music of America
An Organ Workshop

presented by

Dr. Jeannine Jordan, organist

Saturday, November 11, 2017
at 10:00 a.m.

Sponsored by the
Space Coast Chapter of the American Guild of Organists

Advent Lutheran Church

Suntree Campus

7550 N. Wickham Road
Melbourne, Florida 32940

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From Sea to Shining Sea

Organ and Multimedia Concert

Dr. Jeannine Jordan, organist

with

David Jordan,

media artist

Sunday, November 12, 2017
at 3:00 p.m.

Advent Lutheran Church

Suntree Campus

7550 N. Wickham Road
Melbourne, Florida 32940

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Contact Jeannine
today at
jeannine@promotionmusic.org
to host
From Sea to Shining Sea

To discover more visit

www.fromseatoshiningsea.net

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with
Dr. Jeannine Jordan, organist

Friday, December 1, 2017
at 7:30 p.m.
Bethel Congregational UCC
Beaverton, OR

Saturday, December 2, 2017
at 7:30 p.m.
St. Peter Catholic
Portland, OR

Sunday, December 3, 2017
at 3:00 p.m.
Bethel Congregational UCC
Beaverton, OR

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Jordan Organ Studio Fall Concert

Saturday, December 9, 2017
1:00 p.m.

Zion Lutheran Church
Hillsboro, OR

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Around the World in 80 Minutes

Organ and Multimedia Concert

Dr. Jeannine Jordan, organist

with

David Jordan,

media artist

Sunday, February 18, 2018
at 3:00 p.m.

Who's on Third? Concert Series
Woodburn United
Methodist Church
700 N Cascade Dr,

Woodburn, OR 97071
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Contact Jeannine today at jeannine@promotionmusic.org
to add your city to the inaugural 2017 tour of Around the World in 80 Minutes.

To discover more visit

www.aroundtheworldin
80minutes.org

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Around the World in 80 Minutes

Organ and Multimedia Concert

Dr. Jeannine Jordan, organist

with

David Jordan,

media artist

Saturday, March 4, 2018
at 7:00 p.m.

St Paul Lutheran Church

12345 Manchester Rd,

St. Louis, MO 63131

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Around the World in 80 Minutes

Organ and Multimedia Concert

Dr. Jeannine Jordan, organist

with

David Jordan,

media artist

Rescheduled from October 8 2017
New Date
Sunday, April 8, 2018
at 3:00 p.m.

First Methodist Church
1838 SW Jefferson St, Portland, OR
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Around the World in 80 Minutes

Organ and Multimedia Concert

Dr. Jeannine Jordan, organist

with

David Jordan,

media artist

Sunday, April 15, 2018
at 3:00 p.m.

Fairlawn Lutheran Church

3415 W Market St,

Fairlawn, OH 44333

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From Sea to Shining Sea

Organ and Multimedia Concert

Dr. Jeannine Jordan, organist

with

David Jordan,

media artist

Sunday, April 29, 2018
at 3:00 p.m.

Nelson Hall Theatre

Performing Arts at Elim Park

150 Cook Hill Rd,

Cheshire, CT 06410

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Bach and Sons

Organ and Multimedia Concert

Dr. Jeannine Jordan, organist

with

David Jordan,

media artist

Friday, May 11, 2018
at 7:00 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church

121 S Harrison St,

Saginaw, MI 48602

Jeannine's Notes

Six degrees of separation is the idea that all living things and everything else in the world are six or fewer steps away from each other so that a chain of a "friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.

That, my friends, is how we came to feature the extraordinary life and work of Daniel Gawthrop in this month's Guest Artist Interview. Recently, David became a FB friend of Daniel Gawthrop. Since then he has been thoroughly enjoying the quirky humorous FB postings by Mr. Gawthrop and encouraged me to follow him as well. (You'll want to check out David's Sidebar to learn more.)

Upon seeing Mr. Gawthrop's name, I realized that Mr. Gawthrop's organ compositions are in my repertoire. I was also reminded of a grand evening in Alexandria, Virginia with organist Mary Mozelle who at that time had just finished a recording Mr. Gawthrop's organ music.

We continue to enjoy Mr. Gawthrop's humorous FB postings and have had the opportunity to become acquainted with his fascinating life of music. There are not many composers who can say that one of their pieces is among the most frequently performed choral pieces of modern times and has sold more than a half million copies! I know you'll want to read the interview to discover this piece and this interesting life. Enjoy!

Who knows where those "six degrees of separation" will take us next month?

Guest Artist Interview
with Daniel Gawthrop

Jeannine: Who is Daniel Gawthrop? Please introduce yourself.

Mr. Gawthrop: I started musical activities in elementary school, played trombone in the band beginning in junior high, sang in school and church choirs and fell in love with the organ
as a youngster. Supportive parents and readily available instruction in a fine public school system helped me develop my skills. I began college as an organ performance major but quickly discovered that my piano technique and background were inadequate to allow me to succeed. A few years in the Navy (mostly in northern Germany) and marriage helped mature me a bit and when I returned to college the switch to composition seemed natural.

From that point I have been obsessed with creating music which will touch people and lift them up. Much of that music has been written for church use, but there is also a substantial body of choral works with secular texts. Music for my favorite instrument, the organ, also comprises a good percentage of my output, and orchestral pieces appear when those rare commissions allow.

Jeannine: What brought you to the world of music?

Mr. Gawthrop: I honestly cannot remember a time when it was not central to my life. I’m forced to assume I was born with the need to hear and create music—it’s as necessary as food…especially chocolate!

Jeannine: You are certainly a musical polymath with work not only as a composer, but also as an organist, conductor, teacher, adjudicator, publisher, writer, and music critic – a true musical Renaissance man! Let’s meet first the composer, Daniel Gawthrop. Your compositional output of choral and organ works is extensive with over 100 commissions to write original music. How do you approach a commission?

Mr. Gawthrop: The large majority of my commissions have been for choral music and my approach to a choral piece always starts with the text. I feel quite strongly that the proper role for music in a vocal composition is to support, strengthen and enhance the message of the text. Indeed, I often say that what I’m really doing is finding the music that is already there in the words. Clearly, this leaves me at somewhat of a disadvantage if the text at hand does not have something significant to say. Accordingly, I have over the years come to a policy of selecting my own texts in order to be certain I’ll be able to find worthy music for them.

Jeannine: You are also a music publisher, establishing the Dunstan House in 1991. What are the challenges, joys of publishing and promoting your own music so successfully – case in point, Mr. Gawthrop’s choral piece, Sing Me to Heaven, has half million copies in print, and has become one of the most performed and recorded choral works in modern history!

Mr. Gawthrop: My wife and I started Dunstan House when I realized that the companies which had been publishing my things up to that point were forced by reality to profitably sell as many copies as possible of each title, and that this quite inevitably led to editorial decisions about what to publish and what to allow to eventually go out of print which were not necessarily in my best interests. The only way to control those decisions was to own the process, so Dunstan House was established to allow me to publish even the things which would probably never turn a profit, and to keep in print even things which didn’t sell thousands of copies each year.

Obviously, the joys of self-publication are pretty much wrapped up right there. The challenges also follow pretty logically—no one but me will do any advertising or promotion for my catalog, so when there’s little or no money for those efforts (which is most of the time) very little gets done. Accordingly, I am looking at a catalog which is, from my perspective, filled with undiscovered gems which are unknown to nearly everyone but the original commissioning body. Please visit http://www.dunstanhouse.com/ to peruse our catalog.

Jeannine: As a writer you shared your insights with the public of Washington DC as music critic for The Washington Post. What skills are needed to be an astute music critic? You must have many “stories” from this part of your career. Is there one you’d care to share with our readers?

Mr. Gawthrop: The language skills required are considerable, not only in finding constantly fresh ways to colorfully and memorably describe musical events but also in the discipline required to be comprehensively descriptive within just a few column inches. Beyond language issues, it really helps to be broadly based in your listening and reading habits so that the things you are writing (to a very sophisticated audience) are firmly based in understanding.

I came to professional music criticism with almost no formal training and did so in front of a cosmopolitan readership in a major international music capitol. It was scary. I think the magnitude of what I had undertaken didn’t become fully clear to me until when, within a very short period of time, I was assigned to review two events by world class performers whom I had previously known only through recordings: the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and concert organist Marie Claire Alain. It was in equal measures humbling and exhilarating.

Jeannine: Another of your many talents are the Facebook witticisms you share on a regular basis that bring famous art works to life with witty repartee between characters. What is this wonderfully creative process? (See David's Sidebar)

Mr. Gawthrop: I stare at the picture until my fevered imagination overheats and begins spouting nonsense. I capture as much as possible and edit until I lose interest!

Jeannine: Thank you for this wonderfully refreshing and delightful interview.

Our Websites

Bach and Sons
A perfect concert for celebrating
the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation

From Sea to Shining Sea
An ideal concert for celebrating
our American heritage and patriotic holidays

Around the World in 80 Minutes
An outstanding concert to celebrate
the diversity of our world

Our Videos

To discover what the organ and multimedia concert experience, Around the World in 80 Minutes is all about, CLICK HERE.

To view the Inspire video created by David Jordan

Click on the image below

To view our Bach and Sons Introduction Video
Click here

To view an excerpt of

From Sea to Shining Sea
Jeannine's performance of Blithely Breezing Along
Click here

Let's Talk

We'd love to chat with you about hosting your first (if not second or third) Jeannine and David Jordan organ and multimedia concert in your area. Let’s share ideas, make plans, and set a concert date.