Tallowood Talking

Tallowood adult choir singing National Anthem at Minute Maid Park preceding Astros - Dodgers baseball

Music is such a major component of Tallowood’s worship. 

This weekend, the adult choir began work toward its Christmas concerts, with a retreat that began Friday evening and resumed Saturday morning. 

Dave and Jess Ray, Tallowood’s outstanding contemporary worship artists, lead services Saturday evenings and the first service on Sunday mornings, starting at 9. 

Two weeks ago, the adult choir marched onto the field at Minute Maid Park, and sang the National Anthem preceding the Astros’ game with the Dodgers. 

The following Sunday evening, September 12, they provided a powerful concert of eight choral anthems, accompanied by the Tallowood orchestra, and the trombone group, Bayou City Bones. 

Christmas 2008

Sunday evening, September 26, beginning at 6, Gerald Ray brings his extremely popular “Hymn Sing” back to Tallowood, for a concert that always packs the house.  In this “Evening of Joyful Singing” service, the retired Houston First Baptist Music Minister will lead congregational singing, the Tallowood choir, soloists and four concert pianists —  including recording artist Linda McKechnie — in a celebration of hymns of our faith.  

People who frequent “Hymn Sing” events come from across the Houston area and know that about half of the worship center seats are usually occupied 30 minutes before the program gets underway. 

Sunday afternoon, the 19^th, Sonlight, Tallowood’s high school choral group, launches its new season with rehearsals beginning at 4:30 in Tallowood’s choral hall. 

Randy Kilpatrick leads Sonlight in rehearsal

This group was on tour in San Diego during the summer, and its tour of Texas venues will occur Spring Break week of March 14, when they will perform in a number of cities across the state. 

And, to ensure Tallowood’s musical family remains strong and dynamic, choral programs for children ages 3 through 5^th grade, and “Heartlight” for junior high students, have already begun.  These groups will perform throughout the academic year, as well. 

Music?  It’s worship, and it’s in Tallowood’s DNA.

Looking like a gigantic spider, the cherry picker is moved around the sanctuary to enable workers to seal sound insulating material.

The interior of the sanctuary has a very different look this week, and it is changing daily.

Plastic sheeting covers virtually every square inch of the room, including pews, floors, light fixtures high above and organ pipes over the choir loft. 

It’s protection to catch the fall out from a remediation project to seal tiny flakes of sound insulation material on wall and ceiling tiles.  The material is used to enable the room to have a good balance between the spoken voice, musicians and instruments. 

Problem is, people have recently noticed little flakes falling whenever the organ hits a particularly powerful low note, or there is heavy thunder.  

That prompted the current project.  It involved a crane being moved into the sanctuary so that workers can be lifted high above to brush off any loose material, and spray a sealant to permanently seal the tile surfaces. 

The work started early Monday, and will be finished by midday Saturday. 

“This place will be clean by Saturday afternoon,” promises Steve Felts, Tallowood’s property manager, “but to complete the job we have to remove pews here to relocate the crane, then replace those pews and move others so that we can place the crane in a different spot to treat another area of the ceiling, and on and on.” 

It’s a bit like a giant puzzle.  But Steve agrees it beats “snowing” inside when the organ shows off.