“Music touches parts of the soul words cannot even reach.” – Plato

“To sing is to pray twice.” – St. Augustine

A Texas clergyman writes: “You should join the choir: it really is the answer … read more.

“You’re invited to participate in music ensembles at Good Shepherd. Come join us!” – Andy Shelden

For more details on the opportunities below, please see Andy after church at the organ or during the fellowship period in the parish hall or email him: Music Director, Andy Shelden at info@goodshepherdrichmond.org or ajshelden.music@gmail.com.

Choir

Do you love to sing – to make a joyful noise unto the Lord? Come to choir on Thursday evenings and join your voice with ours! All are welcome.

The Good Shepherd Choir is open to all adults and youth.

Our choir practices September – May on Thursday evenings. We perform four-part anthems on most Sundays and need new/more singers on all parts. Please consider joining the choir.

We are always recruiting! Invite a friend to join with you!

Bell Choir

Do you play the hand bells? Do you want to learn how? Calling all hand bell players or wannabe hand bell players – positions are open!

Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys: We welcome you to join us. Our music director  will teach you how to ring the bells and when to do it! Practices are usually on Sunday mornings after the service (or before church on the mornings when we perform). We have played for Christmas Eve and Lenten services and at other times during the year.

The bells are waiting to be rung!

Blue Grass Band

In our congregation we are fortunate to have an abundance of musical talent. We even have a special summer service that features our in-house bluegrass group on banjo, mandolin, and guitar! The “Bluegrass Sunday” tradition at Good Shepherd began on a summer afternoon in 2008, when Rick Curtis and Dick Hickman began playing bluegrass and folk songs on their mandolin and guitar. This year Dick and Rick welcome vocalists: Sandi Bray, Maggie Southwick, and Cortes Pauls to the group.

Listen to the music:  Blue Grass Band.

“Tracker” Organ

The Good Shepherd organ was built by the Dobson Organ Company, which is located in the small western Iowa town of Lake City.

Lynn A. Dobson, owner and artistic director of the firm, designed the case of the organ. Free-standing, the organ contains approximately one thousand pipes arranged in 17 ranks and 15 stops. The pipes, some of wood and others of a lead/tin alloy or of zinc, are played by two manual keyboards and a pedal keyboard through an entirely mechanical system of levers and rods between the keyboards and pipe valv

This system, called tracker action, is extremely long-lived and has been used in organ construction since the instrument’s invention about 2,300 years ago.

On-line Music Messages from Danny Corneliussen (former Music Director)

From March 2020 to March 2021 the churches in our diocese were either closed or open with restrictions – including no choir. We thank Danny Corneliussen, who was our Music Director at that time, for his weekly Sunday web-site feedings of our souls with his beautiful recorded music, thoughtful personal reflections, and interesting research into the musical history of the pieces he played for us during this difficult Covid-19 time. From now on each week, with Danny’s permission, we shall continue to feature one of his timeless Music Messages created during this “year of the pandemic”. All of his recorded selections (grouped by seasons of the church year) are available below. We invite you to enjoy them on any day and at any season of the church year.

Advent   Christmas   Epiphany

 Lent   Easter   Pentecost