For the first time in their 30-year history, The CenturyMen, a 100 member men’s chorus of Southern Baptist musicians, have been nominated for a Grammy Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
The group’s most recent recording, “Beautiful Star — A Celebration of Christmas,” is one of six nominees in the category of best classical crossover album. The winner will be announced Feb. 23 at the 42nd annual Grammy Awards, to be broadcast on CBS.
Buryl Red, The CenturyMen’s musical director, said, “This is a real honor. I was real pleased when our recording was placed in the category of classical crossover. I was happy that people perceived it that way.
“We see our work as a way to communicate the message of Christ with the secular world,” Red told Baptist Press. “I feel like our music can communicate beyond the musical language of the church.”
Bill Mallory, minister of music at First Baptist Church, Chalkville, is one of five Alabamians in the group. He said his reaction to the nomination was “total surprise because the Grammies are primarily considered a secular award. It’s amazing that a group of Southern Baptist ministers of music who get together to practice once a year would get nominated.”
Mallory, who described himself as a “newcomer” to the group having joined in 1986, said the nomination was not the focus of the group.
The other Alabamians involved are: John Leland of First Baptist Church, Opelika; Brad Bradford of Calvary Baptist, Dothan; Walter Rodgers of First Baptist, Talladega; and charter member Don Lingle, First Baptist Andalusia.
Other nominees in the category of best classical crossover album include “Christmas By the Bay,” performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; “If Ever I would Leave You — The Songs of Alan Jay Lerner,” English Northern Philharmonic; “Meyer: Short Trip Home,” Joshua Bell, violin, Sam Bush, mandolin, violin, Mike Marshall, guitar mandola, violin, and Edgar Meyer, double bass; and “Schickele: Hornsmoke,” The Chestnut Brass Co.
Red, 62, has been the musical director and principal arranger for The CenturyMen since the group’s inception. Several of his choral works, including “Celebrate Life” and the first performing edition of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s “Magnificat,” are considered musical landmarks.
Founded in 1969, the CenturyMen are comprised of more than 100 men, each a director of music from a Baptist church, representing 22 states and two foreign countries. The group has performed around the world, including the People’s Republic of Chin, Russia, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
Red said The CenturyMen will return to the recording studio in the summer to produce a new compilation of music.
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