#182: Simple Ways to Improvise This Advent (Part 2) (with Dr. Benjamin Cornelius-Bates)

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The next episode in Ministry Monday’s Advent series features part two of my conversation with Dr. Benjamin Cornelius-Bates, Professor of Musicianship at Duquesne University. Last week Dr. Cornelius-Bates shared some basic tips on how to improvise on traditional and contemporary Advent hymn tunes this Advent and Christmas season. If you haven’t listened to it, I strongly encourage you to! (You can find it here.) This week we pick up where we left off and see how we can develop his improvisation tips into more complex ways of sparking creativity in the liturgy.

SHOW NOTES

Psalm: Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
God indeed is my savior;
I am confident and unafraid.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
With joy you will draw water
at the fountain of salvation.

Give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name;
among the nations make known his deeds,
proclaim how exalted is his name.


Sing praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement;
let this be known throughout all the earth.
Shout with exultation, O city of Zion,
for great in your midst
is the Holy One of Israel!


Bio: Dr. Benjamin Cornelius-Bates
Dr. Benjamin Cornelius-Bates, organist, improviser, and composer, grew up in Alaska. He earned his BM in organ performance at the University of Montana in Missoula studying with Dr. Nancy Cooper. After moving to Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife, Benjamin studied organ with Rachel Alflatt and composition with her husband Denis Bédard. Benjamin earned his MM in Sacred Music from Duquesne University in 2009 and an Artist’s Diploma in 2011 studying under Dr. Ann Labounsky, emphasizing improvisation. Benjamin has a Doctorate in Music Composition at West Virginia University, where he studied with Dr. Joseph Dangerfield, Dr. Matthew Heap, and Dr. David Taddie. He has competed internationally as an improviser in France, Germany, and the United States and has had numerous commissions including a premier at the 2018 Kansas City American Guild of Organists National Convention.

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