We’re starting a new series on the podcast to feature you- yes you! NPM Spotlight is a new series for Ministry Monday that allows you to nominate yourself or others to be featured on the podcast. Are you or somebody you know ministering in a unique way? Maybe it’s a limitation due to budgetary constraints, or creative ways to engage a parish in light of the current pandemic. Or maybe you recently merged parishes and your ensemble director is engaging music ministers from both parishes in a very unique way. Or maybe you’ve heard of a local church that is live streaming their liturgies in a way that’s just inspiring!
Whatever it is, we want to hear from you. NPM Spotlight will feature pastoral musicians across our country- and our world. Email us to nominate a fellow pastoral musician to be interviewed. Our email address is ministrymonday@npm.org.
Today I’m proud to share one of the recorded sessions from the 2020 Virtual Convention. The following session was one of four sessions in NPM’s “Black Lives Matter” series during the convention, led by an incredible team across the span of the week. At the end of the presentation you will hear Dr. Kim Harris as well as Valerie Lee-Jeter, presenters throughout the week and members of NPM’s multicultural task force.
M. Roger Holland II is a Composer and Teaching Assistant Professor in Music and Religion and Director of The Spirituals Project at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver. His session today helps us learn about the theological roots of black Catholic music in the Church, both culturally and in light of the Church documents. He also provides several suggestions in ways you can introduce multicultural music in your parish’s repertoire, and shares the historical roots and cultural significance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”.
Get ready to sing along and enjoy this presentation by M. Roger Holland II. Take it away, Professor Holland!
SHOW NOTES
A recent article by Archbishop of Baltimore William E. Lori was published in America Magazine. We encourage you to read it: “Archbishop Lori: How church teaching can help explain why ‘Black Lives Matter’”
Sister Thea Bowman’s speech to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1989 is a great accompaniment to today's presentation.
The transcript to Sister Bowman's speech can be found here.
BIO- M. Roger Holland II
M. Roger Holland, II is the newly appointed Teaching Assistant Professor of Music and Religion and Director of The Spirituals Project at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver. He is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he received the Master of Divinity degree. He also holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music where he received a Master’s in Piano Performance and a Bachelor’s Degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, majoring in Music Education, with a concentration in piano and voice.
Roger toured nationally and internationally with The Boys Choir of Harlem, working with them as a conductor, pianist, instructor and arranger for several of their recordings. Roger served as Minister of Music for Our Lady of Charity Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn, NY for 12 years and is Liturgical Music Consultant for the New York Archdiocese Office of Black Ministry, acting as Music Director for their special Masses at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Roger served as Artist in Residence at Union Theological Seminary for 13 years where he directed their Gospel Choir. In addition to his Broadway credits, which include, playing for the Broadway production of Oprah Winfrey’s The Color Purple, Roger is also a respected clinician, presenting workshops for McDonald’s Gospelfest, the Clarence Rivers Music Institute, Archbishop Lyke Liturgical Conference, the Roderick Bell Institute, Unity Explosion-Region X, and the Hampton University Ministers’ Conference. His commissioned works include “The Dream and The Dreamer,” “Down By The River,” commissioned by The Negro Spiritual Scholarship Foundation, and “The Tribulation Suite,” a 4-movement work based on Negro Spirituals. In 2016, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York presented Roger with the Pierre Toussaint Medallion for Service.
Roger’s website can be found at mrogerholland.com.