Orchestral “The Seven Days of Creation” Portrays Creation Sounds
“If they fall asleep listening to Day 7, I have done my job,” says Adventist composer Brett Perry of his new record, ‘Orchestral Suite for The Seven Days of Creation.’” According to Perry, the album is the first of a trilogy series taking its inspiration from three pivotal points in the Bible: The Beginning of Creation (the seven days of creation); The Life of Christ (creation’s spiritual restoration); and The Prophets and Revelation (physical restoration).
After much prayer, writing on the “Creation” suite began on Jan. 1, 2003. “Depending on my workload, my schedule can vary from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or possibly 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.,” he adds. “So I worked on the Creation suite first each day in my studio in Burbank before beginning commercial projects, composing music to accompany television series and sitcoms.
“My goal for this project is to glorify the Father,” he notes. “I knew there was nothing like this out there. I wanted to write something to challenge people’s thinking in a spiritual way and to draw them to Genesis. That’s my biggest goal. I hope Day 7, for example, takes listeners far away from whatever grind he or she may be involved with, with renewed recognition that every being on this earth belongs to this creation and its Maker.
“The project was inspired by God, but the green light for it came from my wife, Valerie Jean. Val knows the risks in making and promoting a project, but I am thankful that she felt it would be worth the risk. Being involved with classical music is something I’ve always wanted to do from college, but I pushed it aside. I figured it had to be hard, considering the competition is ‘The Messiah’!”
Evangelistic Choir and Church Target Brazilian Community
“He is my evangelism assistant,” says Los Angeles Portuguese Church Pastor Claudiner Mockiuti of his congregation’s music director, Alex Reichart. In addition to a full-time schedule teaching piano, and responsibilities as music director of his church, Reichart is also music director for two United Methodist churches.
For L.A. Portuguese Church music evangelism, Reichart produces three or four concerts a year featuring the church’s 32-voice choir. The congregation invites the Greater Los Angeles Brazilian community to the concerts, then follows up with those who attend.
In the spring of 2003, the church sponsored a concert at Glendale Adventist Academy, advertising in a Brazilian magazine with a local circulation of 15,000. The Brazilian Consulate e-mailed 1,000 announcements to area Brazilians. Of the 700 who attended, 350 were community residents. Guests included the Brazilian Ambassador and the pastor for Hispanic Ministries at the Crystal Cathedral, whom Reichart had invited after performing at the Cathedral. The concert will air on 3ABN.
More recently, the choir was invited to sing the Brazilian National Anthem at the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Hollywood for “Brazilian Day in L.A.” For the occasion, Reichart assembled the 75-member “Brazilian Adventist Choir of California.” Brazilian TV (Global Network) reported on the event, then requested an interview about the church and choir at a later date. A TV crew taped and interviewed Mockiuti and Reichart at the church on a subsequent Sabbath from 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
According to Mockiuti, two or three individuals from the community have now joined the choir. One woman who was studying with the pastor told him, “I have been looking for a Brazilian choir for 17 years!”
The pastor reports, “After a large concert, many Brazilians come to our church one or more times, so we started a ‘Ministry of Reception.’ In the parking lot of the church and at concerts, reception ministers hand out welcome packets. Concert guests are also offered gift pens with the name of the concert and choir on it in exchange for their names and addresses. The pens are handed out at the end of concerts.
A concert CD is included in the welcome packages given to church visitors, and a concert video is being finalized that will be promoted at concerts and in local Brazilian media. For further information, visit
www.amigosbrasileiros.com.
Lay Minister Combines Music, Media and Preaching
Gerald Babanezhad is an experienced piano teacher and performer who views music as both a means for earning his living and a medium of ministry. “Since 1995, I have had a music media ministry to evangelize among academia using classical music venues and composing music based on biblical themes,” he notes. Some of his work has caught the attention of listeners of KCSN, the radio station of California State University, Northridge, where he attends.
Originally from Iran, Babanezhad acknowledges a passion for ministry among local Armenian, Iranian, Assyrian and Afghani populations. In addition to providing music, speaking or Bible-study ministry for groups at Glendale City and Glendale Filipino churches, he currently studies Bible prophecies with a Persian group in Woodland Hills and studies with a “New Believers” group in Sherman Oaks.
The groups developed from the lay pastor’s practice of associating with non-Adventist churches among population groups he hopes to reach. “Through God’s providence, I met an Iranian man socially who invited me to lecture on the book of Daniel in a Reseda Pentecostal church,” he says. “This led to another invitation from a pastor of another Reseda Persian church, inviting Babanezhad to provide worship music, then sermons. “Recently this pastor invited me to pastor the church, which ex-Muslims, Jewish and Christian members attend, even though he knows that I am a Seventh-day Adventist,” he adds.
A small grant from church and conference sources made it possible for Babanezhad to assemble a production studio in San Fernando Valley for audio and video ministries. As a result, he now produces and co-hosts “A Sure Harvest,” a weekly one-hour program in English on public access television with a potential audience of 1 million. Kozette Dayermangian co-hosts the program, which is bringing stories from Scripture to people who are tradition-based but not scripturally literate. Efforts are underway to take “A Sure Harvest” statewide and beyond.
“Soul winning is my obsession—communicating the truth with which the Lord has blessed Seventh-day Adventists so lavishly. I want to share the truth of Scripture in an effective, intellectual, loving and culturally sensitive way, using community services, multimedia—any available means,” Babanezhad says.
At press time, he is preparing to perform his latest composition, a concerto for piano and orchestra, on the Northridge campus. Two CDs of his work are also newly available. For details, call 818-726-3741.
