Photograph by Jody McVeigh
Achieved organist James Biery will retire because the minister of music at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church this summer time.
Final Thursday was bittersweet for Minister of Music James Biery, who for greater than a decade has contributed his contact to worship companies and particular occasions alike at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church.
March 28 marked his final time on the helm of a particular Maundy Thursday service he developed and carried out at Memorial quickly after he joined the workers 14 years in the past.
“For Maundy Thursday, they could never figure out what to do,” he stated. “There would be 25 to 30 people who came — the same number of people in the choir. When I came, I saw the space and had a dream. I knew this would be a good place to do a chancel drama or church opera. … We have talented singers here, a nice space, available instrumentalists.”
He spent a while researching items that might work for the church, however when he couldn’t discover one thing appropriate, he and his spouse, Marilyn, sat down and wrote a 20-minute theater piece based mostly on the Doubting Thomas story. That they had a lot enjoyable, they wrote one other based mostly on Mary and Martha.
Photograph courtesy of Judy Masserang
Biery has led the music ministry at Memorial Church since 2014.
“We came up with an interesting format,” Biery recalled. “I spent many months engaged on the musical rating for it. And in 2017, we went from 20 folks to 200 immediately. It turned custom.
“It’s a tremendous example of how music can be totally integrated into a church service, not just something to fill up empty space,” he added. “… I try to do that in all our worship experiences here — totally integrate music into worship so it fits with what’s being preached from the pulpit and what scripture is telling us.”
Biery will step down from his duties of directing the choirs, taking part in the Klais organ and overseeing the music program, however he has a number of extra feats to sort out first.
He’ll conduct his final live performance at Memorial later this month. It is going to observe the identical theme as this 12 months’s Music at Memorial sequence — the quantity 14 — which has particular that means to him.
“I’ve known for a while, though not through planning, but my career has separated itself into 14-year segments,” he stated. “I labored at two church buildings in Connecticut for seven years every, proper after grad college, then labored on the Cathedral at St. Paul in Minnesota for 14 years. After which I got here right here in 2010.
“I decided it’s probably the right time for retirement to happen,” he added, “which is also 14 years. There’s a nice symmetry there. But there’s more to the story.”
The Bierys have traveled every summer time to the Bach Competition in Germany. Final 12 months they observed workers members sporting T-shirts with “14” printed on them. He questioned why and realized Bach had a peculiar fascination with the quantity.
“Numerology was a thing back in those days,” Biery stated. “And the number seven, throughout Christian history and beyond that, is a symbol of perfection. … Twice seven, or 14, is considered double perfection.”
Bach’s Goldberg Variations has 14 variations; the piece he supposedly wrote on his deathbed has 14 notes in every phrase; the letters in “Bach,” when matched with corresponding numbers — 2-1-3-8 — whole 14; and the checklist goes on.
“So I thought this would be a fun theme for my last year,” Biery stated. “Bach is important to church musicians; he’s our patron saint, so to speak. This concert features Bach music very prominently. The choir will sing a few of the favorite things I’ve written for them and everybody here the past 14 years. We’ll open and close with ‘Te Deum laudamus,’ a hymn of thanksgiving. I’ll play the organ and there will be choral music. It will be a fun time to look back at the music we’ve done together the past 14 years.”
One other approach to study Biery’s musical profession is by reviewing his Wikipedia web page, which options an in depth catalogue of the music he’s composed, or by trying out a number of of the 272 movies posted on his YouTube channel, to which there are greater than 1,000 subscribers.
“I posted sporadically, but had never really done anything with it,” he stated of the channel, @james
bierymusic. “Then came lockdown and the church started making music videos of hymns and organ music. We ended up with this incredible library. It served a need for churches in search of music.”
A Nebraska native, Biery’s personal seek for music started pretty early.
“It grabbed me,” he stated. “I started with piano lessons at 7, then discovered organ pretty early.”
It piqued his curiosity sufficient to set his sights on Northwestern College’s organ program. There he earned bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in organ efficiency, in addition to met his spouse, who additionally was within the organ program.
He knew he wished to discover church music — he’d been taking part in the organ at church since highschool — moderately than pursue a doctorate. Whereas searching for work, Biery, who grew up within the Presbyterian religion, was inspired by a good friend to think about the Catholic Church.
“It was the late ’70s, still early enough when choirs were being resurrected,” he stated. “So I took a full-time job at a Catholic church in Wallingford, Conn. I had a great start there.”
In the meantime, his spouse performed organ at Heart Congregational Church in Hartford. When a place at a Catholic cathedral in Hartford opened, Biery utilized and received it.
“For a seven-year period we were both working with significant congregations in Hartford,” he stated, noting the couple shared their assets between the Catholic and Protestant congregations.
Biery accepted his third put up at a Catholic cathedral in Minnesota — the workers was large enough to rent Marilyn, too — and although he by no means transformed to Catholicism, loved his time there. Fourteen years later, he landed in Grosse Pointe Farms, the place he’s made fairly an impression.
Although his official retirement date is June 30, Biery’s final Sunday on the organ is Might 18. Making worship much more particular that morning will likely be a visiting 20-piece chamber orchestra, led by a colleague from Germany.
“The choir will collaborate with them, so it will be a nice little party here,” he stated.
Although he’s able to retire, the identical can’t be stated for his spouse, who serves as bridge director of music at Kirk within the Hills Church in Bloomfield; nonetheless, plans are being hatched to finally relocate nearer to her household close to Saugatuck.
“There needs to be a healthy, fresh start,” Biery stated of his place. “There’s a future here that a new person would be able to do in ways that I can’t. And I don’t want to miss the retirement thing.”
Biery has no plans to take a seat idly in retirement, when he’ll have extra time to compose and document music. He additionally hopes to dedicate extra time to a renewed pastime of mannequin practice work.
“I have had model train equipment boxed up from when I was a child,” he stated. “The hobby has come a long way since 50 years ago. The childhood stuff is boxed up again and I’ve got all new pieces. I’ve had good fun with it.”
Biery stated he’ll most miss the folks at Memorial Church, from congregants and workers members to the “incredibly supportive folks in my program,” he stated. “Some of the singers have stuck with this most of my time here. I will dearly miss them. We’ve developed a really nice family and we all care for each other. We’re a church within a church, a community within a community, which is the way it ought to be.”
The Sunday, April 21, live performance, “Fourteen!,” takes place from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Memorial Church, 16 Lakeshore, Grosse Pointe Farms. For extra data, go to gpmchurch.org or name (313) 882-5330.
“Well bless their hearts.”
