Part of the cultural fabric of our parish life is the songs we sing. We, as pastoral musicians, are highly aware of this fact. There are so many considerations we make when choosing the repertoire for our parish: instrumental, scriptural, melodic….but what about cultural? How much does our music adequately represent the varied, complex, beautiful human existences that make up the Church? Do we really consider the representation we provide in our music?

That is where our conversation starts today. I am pleased to introduce M Roger Holland as my guest for this episode. Roger is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Music and Religion and Director of The Spirituals Project at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver. In this episode, Roger shares his reflections on the need for representation of all races, musical and cultural styles in what we do in music ministry.