PUBLIC THEOLOGY THROUGH MUSIC
I’ve been exploring the intersections between music and the Christian life for 25 years.
I maintain an international career as a unique voice in the global conversation about the relationships between music and faith. The breadth of my experience as a musician, teacher, writer, and teacher allows me to communicate to a wide variety of people - from students to clergy, scholars to laypeople - in ways that are valuable to their faith and to their understanding of the Christian tradition. Deeply committed to ecumenical and interfaith work, my projects are founded on my belief in the unique power of sacred music to foster conversations about religion that bring people together and promote understanding of each others’ perspectives.
As a musician, I have worked in genres as diverse as classical music, gospel, bluegrass, and experimental jazz. My classical compositions have been heard on NPR’s “Performance Today”, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and have been performed by over 100 orchestras in the US, Canada, and Europe. I have spoken on music and faith at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Harvard Divinity School, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and the parish of St. Martin in the Fields in London. I’ve written for an ecumenical collection of media sources, including The Christian Century, Sojourners, Patheos, The Biblical Mind, and Books & Culture. I’ve been featured on BBC Radio, Time Magazine, the Homebrwed Christianity podcast, and the Unorthodox Podcast from the Jewish magazine Tablet.
Click on the button below to find out more about me, or click the links for info about specific projects.
And click here for information about the concerts, talks, and workshops I presented during the spring of 2024 while serving as a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford.
My music
I’m a composer of contemporary classical music that explores the Christian tradition. My music is intended to contribute to the lives of Christians interested in engaging with Scripture and theology in unique ways. Click here to listen and learn more.
Blog
How does music help us understand God, the Christian tradition, and our lives as faithful people? Check out my new column “Alleluia! Music and the Christian Life.” on Patheos, the internet’s largest platform for writing about religion.
Deus Ex Musica
I founded Deus Ex Musica to promote the use of sacred music as a resource for learning and spiritual growth. It’s an ecumenical organization that fosters Christian unity using sacred music.
Writing
Click here to check out some of my writing for general and academic audiences, such as my theological reading of the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s”, or re my unique research project about images of Jesus in popular music.
Speaking
I give presentations and workshops on a wide variety of topics related to sacred music. Click here to find out more, and learn how to bring me to your classroom or church.
Press
Click here to read what others have written about my projects, or to listen to my recent podcast appearances on Music & the Bible, Twelve Enough, and Forefront 360.
Visit the website for ROCK OF AGES: Jesus in Popular Music, my new multi-disciplinary research project exploring 50 years of secular songs about the Son of God.
EVENTS AND NEWS
2025
Fellowship, Woolf Institute, University of Cambridge. July 2025). Curator, host, and composer for “Creation: A World-Premiere Event” featuring new sacred works by Christian , Jewish, and Muslim composers.
Listening to the Psalms, a short course at Sarum College (UK), co-sponsored by the Royal School of Church Music. Instructor, composer, performer. Feb. 2025.
Search Me, O God: Interfaith Musical Explorations of the Psalms, Holy Sepulchre Church, London, Composer and host. Feb. 2025.
Residency at St, Thomas Episcopal Church, Hanover, HN,. Workshop leader, composer, performer.. Feb. 2025.
2024
Search Me, O God: An Interfaith Musical Exploration of the Psalms, Boston College Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, Host and Composer, Nov. 2024.
Jesus in Popular Music: A Unique Spiritual and Theological Resource. Lecture, London School of Theology, Oct. 2024
Found in Translation: Cross-Cultural Musical Explorations of the Bible, London School of Theology, October 2024.
My research into images of Jesus in popular music was featured in this January 2024 article in Time Magazine by Olivia Waxman.
Listen to the BBC4 radio segment featuring an interview with me from January, 2024.
Click here for information about the concerts, talks, and workshops I presented during the spring of 2024 while serving as a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford.
Visiting Fellowship, Exeter College, University of Oxford (2024 )
Visiting Fellowship, Wolfson College, University of Oxford (2024)
2021-2023
Oxford Interfaith Forum, Senior Fellow
2022 Music Teachers National Association “Distinguished Composer of the Year”
Awarded for “Psalms of Ascent”, the state of Maine’s contribution to the national competition.
2021 Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant
For All the Saints selected for publication in Modern Music for New Singers: 21st Century American Art Songs, Vol. 2, from North Star Music, LLC.
Associate Fellow of the Kirby-Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge, UK
Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Psalm Festival
Psalm 150 (flute) and Psalm 19 (baritone and piano) selected for inclusion.
ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS
For a list of lectures given during my 2024 fellowship at Oxford, click here.
“The Binding of Isaac According to the Elohist: Biblical and Theological Resonance in New Cantata”
The Bible in Art, Music, and Literature Seminar Series, Centre for Reception History of the BIble, University of Oxford Department of Theology and Religion
“Binding Isaac With Music”: A Screening and Discussion
University of Cambridge Faculty of Divinity/Cambridge Inter-faith Programme
“Prophetic Witness And Anti-Semitism: A Case Study On Musical And Meta-Musical Upstanding Through The Arts"
Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, White Supremacy and US Culture: The Call for Interfaith "Upstanding", Boston University
“Strange Energy: An Ecotheological Composition”
Music, Religion & Activism: An Ecotheology Conference from The Open University
Psalm 150: An Interpretation
Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics: Doctrine of Creation Conference
“New Sacred Music as an Ecumenical Resource for Faith Formation: An Interactive Introduction to Deus Ex Musica”
Society for Christian Scholarship in Music
“A New Resource for Thematic Programming”
College Orchestra Directors Association National Conference
PRESENTATIONS: ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS
Selected list: University of Cambridge, Faculty of Divinity, University of Oxford Faculty of Theology, Illinois State University School of Music, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Butler University, Trinity Western University (Canada), Gordon College, Eden Theological Seminary, Boston University School of Theology and Ministry, Boston College School of Theology, Stonehill College
PUBLICATIONS
“A Man or Amenuensis?” in Partnering With God: Exploring Collaboration in Open and Relational Theology, Ed. Rambob et al, SacraSage Press.
New Sacred Choral Music at the Grammys in The Christian Century, Mar. 24, 2021
Rock of Ages: Jesus in Popular Songs, 1969-2019 in Christian Music in the Americas, Ed. Shenton and Smolko, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021
Jesus Shows Up in Discos, Honky-tonks, Blues Bars, and Strip Clubs in Sojourners Magazine, Dec. 2020
A Literary Bible Translation Changed My View of Scripture in The Biblical Mind: An Online Magazine from the Center for Hebraic Thought
More Than Worship: Sacred Music as a Resource for Teaching and Learning in Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
OTHER PRESENTATIONS
“Easter and Passover in Interfaith Contexts,”
Oxford Interfaith Forum (online)
Host and Moderator,
27 March 2023
“A Musical Exploration of the Psalms”
Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology
Moderator and featured composer.
1 September, 7 pm, Margaret Beaufort Hall, Cambridge, UK.
The Beautiful World of Holiness: Explorations of Creation and Nature Through New Sacred Music
26 June 2022, 3 pm, All Saints Church, Tooting, London.
More information
The Psalms Project: Dialogues with Contemporary Sacred Music
3 July 2022, 7:30pm, Institute of Contemporary Performance, London. More information.
An interactive discussion about the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, using the video of the world-premiere of my new musical setting of Genesis 22. Sponsored by the parish of St Martin in the Fields’ HeartEdge program.
A 3-part series for pastors, teachers, church leaders, and laypeople that explores the unique spiritual insights of secular songs about Jesus. Sponsored by the parish of St Martin in the Fields’ HeartEdge program.