organ hero

What a wonderful night. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Tonight was the concert honoring The Boss.

Yes, he has a real name. No, I'm not going to use it here. He's The Boss, and that's that.

And he is AMAZING. Seriously amazing.

He was selected as the composer of the year for the Grand Rapids chapter of the American Guild of Organists, which means that tonight's program was made up exclusively of his compositions.

Now, the thing about The Boss is that even though he is incredibly talented as a performer and composer, he is just a real, easy-to-talk-to, down-to-earth, kind person, who credits God for his compositional gifts and is not inclined to tooting his own horn. So to have a chance to honor him in this way was really, really special.

I got to be a part of it by singing in the choir. And I will be the first to say that the choir's performance was not flawless. My own performance was not flawless. It never is. But we sang our hearts out, because we so love and appreciate The Boss for who he is and what he does.

The coolest part of the whole night, though, was not any of the stirring anthems or powerful concertatos or sparkling organ works. It was the last hymn. (Tune and text by The Boss, of course.) I can't even explain the sensation of singing in that vast sea of sound, but the words of the final verse speak for themselves:

From the heights of heav'n resounding,
music will untune the sky,
trumpeting God's reign eternal, 
calling all the faithful nigh. 
Myriads then unite in chorus, 
singing at the Lamb's high throne:
Soli Deo, Gloria!
Glory be to God alone!

A wonderful, wonderful night.