(Note from Carolyn: I’m taking a break from my regular health and eating column to feature my good friends the Lewis Family. For those of you who love or are curious about the popular herbal detox drink we share here at Meridian, we’re staring a series of monthly phone calls with Dr. Miller where you can ask questions, hear committed Meridian users share their experiences, win free product and more! Our first phone call is this Wednesday, September 24 at 9:00 PM EST. ClickHERE for details.)
It’s been a year and a half since Justin Wayne Lewis (32) was the toast of Salt Lake City after winning the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s “Conduct the Choir” Facebook contest in 2012. (You can read my detailed article published here at Meridian 2013 about it in the link at the bottom of this article.)
It’s been a busy 20 months since then! His wife Jenny (29) has retired her military career as a violist in the United States Army Strolling Strings to stay at home with their children, and they have relocated to Yorktown, Virginia where Justin is now serving as a military band conductor and the Primary chorister of the Yorktown Ward, Newport News Stake. They’ve purchased and renovated a lovely home, had a darling new baby girl (Cora Jade, better known as “Juicy” who is now 9 months) started their sons Jackson (age 4) on the cello and Josiah (age 3) on the viola, and recorded their first CD through Deseret Book with the Capitol String Quartet. “Walk Beside Me- A Classical Take on LDS Children’s Favorites” was released on September 9, 2014 and was in the top three best-selling CDs at Deseret Book within the first week.
Oh, and in their spare time they also created a Youtube video of the family and their quartet that captures their love of service through music and deed that will surely go viral.
I am blessed to be personally well-acquainted with them as they lived in my Ward (The Springfield Ward of the Annandale Virginia Stake where their two little boys were born) until their move to Yorktown shortly after the Tabernacle Choir performance. For the years they were with us, it was always within their intrinsic kindly nature and their artistic passion to share their musical gifts whenever possible with any age group. We experienced it most often, however, with special arrangements of Primary songs for children’s baptisms, the annual Primary musical program, or to help showcase a budding musician by doing a duet of a Primary Song in Sacrament Meeting. Even for non-musicians it was always exciting and amazing to hear what they could do with a Primary song that was already indelibly printed in your heart and mind.
I’ll never forget how the entire congregation, especially small children, hushed when Justin and/or Jenny walked up to play because not only was it a privilege to listen, but the expression of love and devotion on their faces is also a gift. The ultimate, near celestial experience, of hearing them with Primary music was at the funeral for the unexpected death of a toddler where they joined their gifts with another professional string musician in our ward and played “Jesus Wants Me for A Sunbeam” in a tender, classical arrangement that was arranged by Justin for the occasion.
Oh, what a healing balm and a day-lifter beautiful music given as a gift can be, and oh, what opportunities arise for artists when a passion for sharing and building Zion is the foundation for performing whenever possible.
Where did this drive come from? Justin elaborates, “We were both raised in the Church and taught to
serve with our music from very early on.” (I detailed this in my first article that is included as a link at the bottom.) Then a wedding gift in the form of a book from Jenny’s viola teacher (Dr. David Dalton at BYU) included a talk by Boyd K. Packer, “The Arts and The Spirit of the Lord.” In it Packer talks at length about our talents in the arts being true gifts and how they are given to us to build the Kingdom. “This just felt so familiar and so right, but here it was in words from an Apostle! We have spent a lot of time talking about it, and it has been the inspiration for a lot that we do.”
In 2011, Haleigh Vance (a violinist in the quartet and a long-time childhood friend of Jenny’s) approached the Lewis’ about recording an album together. Jenny’s cousin, Richard Tolbert, had arranged a suite of primary songs and they all thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try and record them. “We just had so much fun with them,” says Justin. They recorded their demo album and sent it off to Shadow Mountain Records, the premier record label of Deseret Book.
“We got the polite, ‘Thank you for your interest’ email, but then didn’t hear anything for a while.” Several months later, however, they were contacted again by Deseret Book and slowly the project started to take form.
Shadow Mountain commissioned six talented arrangers (Merrill Jenson, Daniel Omer, Richard Tolbert, Michael Vance, Regan Brough and Justin himself) to arrange songs for the CD, and flew out Tyler Castleton, a celebrated music producer, songwriter and composer, to produce the album in Springfield, Virginia.
“I love the creativity in the arrangements,” says Justin. “For example ‘Saturday’ starts just how we all want our Saturdays to be: organized and disciplined and we know what the day is all about.
But by the end it’s crazy and breathless, just like a real Saturday for most of us. ‘Popcorn Popping’ starts with Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 59, and takes off from there.” There is imagery and symbolism in each and every track on the CD. ‘Give Said the Little Stream’ is made to sound like a stream with running sixteenth notes throughout. In ‘Book of Mormon Stories,’ you can hear the war chapters and it ends with the cello solo, made to represent Moroni left alone to wander at the end of the book.
Early this year, the Capitol String Quartet (comprising of four LDS musicians from military families) went into rehearsal mode and set a date at Bias Studios here in Springfield, Virginia. The violinists in the quartet are Karen Johnson and Haleigh Vance. Though all members live in Virginia and the Washington DC area, they are no longer neighbors and there were many long trips up and down 95 from Virginia to Maryland as they rehearsed, and eventually recorded the music. Usually their children accompanied them at their rehearsals. Haleigh has five children, Karen has four, and Justin and Jenny have three. “It was neat to watch their little faces as we rehearsed and then to see them all of a sudden light up when they recognized a certain Primary melody,” Justin said. Several of Janice Kapp Perry’s songs including “Army of Helaman”, “I Love to See the Temple” and “I’m Trying To Be Like Jesus” are included on the CD.
Sister Perry, when she heard the tracks was delighted and said “I love the Primary songs in any form. They teach the gospel pure and simple. This is a different and beautiful iteration of some Primary songs without words, but as they play, the words definitely pass through our minds. They’re to be complimented on their creativity and I’m sure the Saints will find joy in listening to this new presentation of Primary songs.”
How lovely and true! Beethoven himself believed in the power of music without lyrics. As Justin told me that “Beethoven felt that music without lyrics allows the human spirit to find its own lyrics and personal inspiration.”
It will be a joy for listeners to have both the words and the wide-open opportunity to be further inspired as they listen to these choice musicians express the gospel in the simplicity of Primary songs. The playlist of 12 songs is lovely ranging from fun songs like “I Hope They Call Me on a Mission” and “Popcorn Popping” to “The Still Small Voice” and “I Feel My Savior’s Love.”
The Quartet knew they wanted to have a music video to help launch the CD but wasn’t sure how to make it happen. Jenny, a photographer who created the winning video for the Tabernacle Choir contest, decided to give it a try. “As I listened to all of the songs, trying to think about what could be brought to life through video, “Give Said the Little Stream’ kept coming to my mind. We all wanted this video to be about the message of the song, but at first we weren’t sure how we would convey it.” The inspiration came as Justin and Jenny were vacationing at Stone Harbor, NJ in July. They had come from a week-long music camp so they happened to have their instruments with them. “Without a real storyline, we just started filming. We woke up one morning at sunrise and just started filming,” Jenny said. Later, the boys watched the video and wanted in on the action.
“We weren’t sure how it would work since the boys are so young, but we decided to just focus on things they already love to do, and the storyboard soon created itself. It was easy and fun to direct them!” says Jenny, a natural Ken Burns. The video, with the quartet providing the musical background of “Give Said The Little Stream” in classical style, has two storyline elements happening throughout. The first element depicts the water as it starts out as rain, then moves to a small stream and waterfall, and eventually becomes the ocean. The second element is of the boys and their sweet service to others. It shows them watching a thunderstorm, then going out to play in their backyard with the butterflies, then picking flowers for others, and ultimately ends with them offering a free concert on their cello and viola as the camera overlooks the ocean and their audience of family and friends spread out on picnic blankets. Interspersed throughout the movie are warm and engaging short segments of the four members of the quartet.
“The most challenging part of the video was coming up with the quotes to make a powerful beginning and conclusion. I searched Conference talks for hours on any General Authority talking about water, rain or rivers – and then amazingly, Elder David Bednar gave a talk for BYU Education Week on August 19, 2014 that precisely and compelling said what we were trying to convey. I couldn’t find the quote before because it hadn’t been given!” said Justin.
“May our many, small individual efforts produce a steady rainfall of righteousness and truth that gradually swells a multitude of streams and rivers and ultimately becomes a flood that sweeps the earth.? (Elder David A. Bednar, BYU Education Week, August 19, 2014 Link to this talk is below.)
What’s next for this marvelous young family and string quartet? With their talents rooted in the doctrines of service and the values of the doctrines in its simplest, most generous form through Primary music, it will be a journey that will be exciting to watch as they fulfill Elder Bednar’s request for each of us to flood the earth with our talents and individual efforts. What a treat it will be to walk beside them as the early streams of their music now turns into mighty rivers in the years to come.
(Their “Walk Beside Me” CD is available at Deseret Book, Amazon, iTunes, and at LDS bookstores and WalMart in the Utah area. You can hear short selections from the CD and view the video at their website, )
LINKS
“Ode to Joy: Justin Lewis Wins Tabernacle Choir Guest Conductor Contest” by Carolyn Allen
Meridian Magazine February 2012 CLICK HERE
Boyd K. Packer Article: “The Arts and The Spirit of The Lord”
BYU 12 Stake Fireside CLICK HERE
David A. Bednar Talk “To Sweep The Earth As With A Flood”
BYU Education Week, August 19, 2014 CLICK HERE
Carolyn Allen is the Author of 60 Seconds to Weight Loss Success — One Minute Inspirations to Change Your Thinking, Your Weight and Your Life, available at her website. She has been providing mental and spiritual approaches for weight loss success both online and in the Washington, DC community since 1999 presenting for Weight Watchers, First Class, Fairfax County Adult Education and other community groups. She and her husband Bob are the parents of five children and grandparents of eight. They live in the Washington D.C. area where she serves as Primary Chorister and joins her husband in teaching Missionary Preparation for the Annandale Stake CES Institute program.
