Sunday Night Live Prom Praise Special

hello again from me pam rhodes welcome to a very special edition of sunday night live back in 1972 a young man called noel tradinik was appointed as the director of music for all souls church in langham place in central london now that was 50 years ago and over the five decades since knoll's ministry of worship through song and music has become loved and recognized across this country and indeed across the world well in 1988 noel brought the all souls orchestra and a huge choir here to the royal albert hall and that was the start of a series of really popular annual concerts there are about 5 000 christians waiting inside all wanting to say happy 50th anniversary prom praise [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] so so [Music] uh [Music] so [Music] [Music] ah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] now [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hello my name's giles i play the trumpet and i first sat on this stage in the royal albert hall in 1990 32 years ago having trained just over the road at the royal college of music at the time i've always enjoyed playing the orchestra because it's just so different from playing with any other classical orchestra and you've got a bunch of committed christians giving their heart out to jesus and it just makes the whole evening so special i'm viviane uh and i'm a viola player and i've been a viola player with the awesome orchestra for nearly 40 years i first joined when i was a student i became a christian when i was a student in my second year at the royal academy of music and i was starting to become a professional musician and um i'd heard about the all souls orchestra and we'd actually been to see them because we had some friends who were in it um and um we we became christians um and um i started to play when i was in my second year at music college and i've been playing ever since on and off and done many of these concerts at the royal albert hall yeah it's an absolute delight to be playing today on its 50th anniversary my name is jeff howard i've brought my choir cambrensis all the way from cardiff today to perform in prom praise here at the albert hall i think they're all really excited i've performed here before several times and also in a previous prom praise i played the piano and to be able to take part in an event which literally fills a building like the albert hall with god's praises i think is something that even a non-christian would love to hear and love to experience it's going to be so exciting my name is elaine scott i come from amisham in buckinghamshire and i have been a member of the orchestra for 37 years and because i love the lord and i particularly love to use the musical gifts that god has given me through music through the gift of music it's just such a joy to see so many people in under one roof praising god simultaneously so it's such a privilege to and i've just seen so many lives changed because of it hello i'm ananda mukherjee i'm a tenor and i'm part of the octet or the semi-chorus that's premiering michelle hugh's beautiful and inspiring anthem one in the name and i'm the tennis soloist in that piece well it's a dream come true because as an opera singer but also as a christian and part of your souls family prom praise is always the event of the year and of course i've known about it for so many years and been part of the also family and sung many times with the orchestra and the chorus and noel and i go back a long way but to make my debut in prom praise on his 50th anniversary at the royal albert hall well as they say my cup runneth over and my heart is full so it's a dream come true and a great privilege and honor to be asked i'm so excited pam so i'm going to be uh playing gershwin's rhapsody in blue selections from that such famous piece it's like an infusion of classical music and jazz and it's my prom praise royal albert hall david it's the first time i'm playing here so i'm super excited to play with the fantastic all souls orchestra and with the orchestra's conductor emeritus noel is just so exciting and to think of so many christian musicians coming together from well around the world i know some people have flown in it's just going to be awesome i can't wait i'm so excited we love prom praise we just love singing hymns and and we've been singing at prom praise for 25 years we couldn't possibly miss this one and in fact we got withdrawal subjects because of the pandemic and covert stopped the from praise for a couple of years but here we are again oh i'm well loving it it's so special because there's such a variety of hymns and music and we we get the organ playing on its own solos and we have the soloists who who join us and we we enjoy that very much it's just i think it's the variety well none of us would be here tonight without the vision of the rector at all souls church back in 1972 michael bourne so michael how did it all begin well we were really catching up at that time because music had done some massive uh challenges since the war and the idea of uh even guitars or modern music from america was quite a shock to the system over here but gradually some of us got organized and we produced a book that many people will know called youth praise that went all around the world and filled this hall a couple more than once but then at rallies in london people were getting fed up with the guitar and the question was we got so much in our christian heritage so much of wonderful music uh from our creator so much that we could share for all ages not just young people who like guitars but how do we solve it and that was when i saw the last night of the proms walking into my uh living room in london and i saw it at that moment it clicked why can't we do the same sort of thing but make it the singing part being christian and being a wonderful opportunity to praise god and to celebrate with the wonder of music in all his richness and with an orchestra and this would also enable many people from churches all over the country who have perhaps small groups and so on but they can come and share singing with thousands and thousands of people to a wonderful orchestra a great choir and hearts lifted to heaven by the glory of worshiping god and then i suppose that must have been around the time that ultradinic joined you we went to advertising for a new organist or choir director we went through a lot of lists but when we did the interviewing there was one person who stood out beyond everybody else and that was niltodynic not least of what he could play but the way in which he could manipulate harmonize arrange and uh all together when he when we got him to do it sort of free hand without any music in front of him it was so creative so we said that's the man little did we know then what this man was going to be with his huge talents his ability to handle orchestras to orchestrate music and to inspire others to to serve christ in this way little did we know we started fairly amateurishly with anybody in the church who could play an instrument because i always felt if you did that you ought to be have an opportunity to praise god with their instrument if you're singing with a voice you do it in the choir but what did you do if you played the violin or a trumpet and so we started like that but rapidly it grew into the orchestra that noel made it and it might have been initiated by that idea that night but from then on it was all knowledge um creation and we owe him more than anything can say really to the whole church in britain and abroad for his inspiration his christ-centeredness his abilities and the way in which prom praise grew out of its confines of all souls then to the barbican and then eventually to the royal albert hall where it is now safely back home again how does it feel to be here 50 years on at the royal abbott hall at this very special anniversary concert well i always love coming i've come with probably every time almost every time and coming back now for the 50th anniversary it's very moving to think 50 years they've passed so quickly and so thrillingly and there's so much to praise god for so i'm very thankful to be here and uh to join in worship as really nowhere else you can do it in in this life a full taste of what it's going to be like in heaven and here is that young man who started building the old souls music ministry 50 years ago no tradinic well you can imagine i need to pinch myself to really think is it really 50 years that's half a century from the time when michael born at my interview said no i want you to start an orchestra it was something that i had done as part of my degree so that i was rowing to go to form an orchestra i remember the little cyclasized imitation sheets that we ran off and they were to fill in their name and their instrument and when they were free and what their experience was so that's how the orchestra started 50 years ago and then gradually it built up in fact it built up quite quickly because all souls lang and place as a church is right there in the center of london north of oxford circus right next to bbc broadcasting house yes a central uh capital church uh in every sense and it attracted musicians opera singers and uh people in symphony orchestras as well as lots of music students so it was no hardship to form an orchestra in fact up to that point it was almost a sin not to form an orchestra so that people with instrumental gifts could actually begin to use their gifts worshiping god and leading the congregation wonderfully was that really 50 years ago it was in 1972 and then prom praise came along and it was wonderful not only to have the worship led by this group within all souls but we began to travel around and then establish our own outreach program when i went to all cells in 1972 already there had there was an established uh four-part choir actually a vega almost a chorus almost a choral society john stott had been the rector michael bourne had recently taken over as the church leader the senior pastor and on that occasion it was something that the church had done for some time to have oratorio evening services on that occasion they would sort of contract in an orchestra but the choir was of that standard to on a sunday night uh present uh an oratorio because of its biblical content and then john stott or michael bourne will give a sermon so it was acquired that i took over in and inherited and enjoyed directing and i began to write music for that choir as well so that when we then developed the orchestra it was very natural particularly in the worship services and in the early prom praises to say well we'll have the all sales choir on parade as well but then the day came ten years after our first prom praise 1987. the first prom praise had been in all souls church and most of them uh up to that time and then we wanted of course to come home where the spiritual home of prom praise really is because it is a christian last night of the proms of course we wanted to come to the royal albert hall and we wanted the arena to be empty so that promenadas could be there with their church banners and with their flags and with them actually not as it were generating national fervor or patriotism but actually in our christian last night of the proms it was god that we wanted to celebrate and worship jesus christ as lord of creation as lord of the music as lord of heaven and earth so gradually the choir needed to expand and so we began to have hundreds of people coming to join our prom praise gathered choir and in some ways that was a way of disseminating our ideas and our music because they learned music for the concerts and then they would take it back to their own churches and we know of lovely occasions when they were performing and in some ways the format hasn't changed we still have choral items and tonight we have some great versions of to god be the glory and in christ alone and the and we also have orchestral music so there's some music by john williams the phil composer i'm conducting rhapsody in blue by george gershwin and there's some lovely classical music as well so choir music orchestra music always getting the audience to sing not land of hope and glory or if we do land of hope and glory we actually change the words and put some christian words in to ergar's pomp and circumstance march number one and then finally a chance for a soloist both a vocal soloist and instrumental soloist to be featured as well so soloists choirs congregational singing and orchestral music right from the beginning has been the ingredient that prom praise if you like brings together in a wonderful way when noel retired after 48 years who could possibly fill his shoes well this talented musician and minister michael andrews so actually i i'd known noel for about 10 years or so i came to all souls i came to a carol service after a friend invited me i was going to another church at the time i was just moving houses and i thought oh my word there's an orchestra in this church in the center of london so i went up to knoll and i said i'd love to do some arrangements and some orchestrations and noah was so kind he said oh yes come come and meet me and before i knew it i think i'd written three orchestrations for a royal albert hall concert didn't know didn't know what was going on but all these years later um it was amazing to see that there was this role to take over from knoll and i i just threw my hat in the ring thinking there must be so many amazing capab amazingly capable people that that could apply for it and of course they did um and i i just felt incredibly honoured to be picking up the baton and and running prom praise herein but i took the job thinking do you know what the role is all about encouraging people to praise god and worship him and to use our musical gifts to praise him so i'm simply almost a coordinator of musical gifts and and and encouraging audiences to sing and praise god so i just remind myself all the time that's what noel's done all those years and that's my mission to keep on doing that is encouraging people to praise and worship god with all that they have i'm so excited after three years of not having prom praise that we'll have thousands of people singing together in the nation's favorite concert hall again so i'm just thrilled that we're able to do this again and we're going to have so many people praising and worshiping god at the royal albert hall this evening and celebrating 50 years of amazing music ministry here in the heart of london [Music] hey [Music] ah [Music] ah [Music] when i feel my faith will fail christ will hold me fast when the tempter would prevail he will hold me fast i could never keep my hope through life's terrible path for my love is often called he must hold me fast he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my savior loves me he will hold me fast [Music] [Applause] he his promises shall last but by himself he will hold he will hold me fast he will hold me he will hold me fast [Music] just as happy as [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] he will hold me [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you thank you kristen i came here with mum and dad and the kid we went here for a week in london when i was a kid middle of my teens and sunday night we decided to go to also's church and as chance would have it the orchestra were playing they opened with joy to the world they sang our god reigns i remember most of the program and uh the first time i'd seen an orchestra play him and i just thought this was the most incredible thing and my dad said in other words would you like to play at an orchestra like this and i said no i'd like to conduct an orchestra like this and so we started then working towards the new irish and uh launched that launched a couple years later and i was 18 uh on the back of that but in between times i got to know a little bit got to follow what they did and this combination of using the classical arts of actually being serious about the bible and and and also then through both contemporary and historical church music helping families and churches was just it was such a it was the thing that really launched me into doing church music so i owe these people a tremendous deal [Music] i think if we're christians and we're looking towards heaven you know as our home then then it changes how we think about our art and our legacy in the sense that i am standing in the shoulders of those who've gone before me and i'm simply taking the baton of those people and passing on to the next generation so i think basic common sense through the basic humility says we take the great things that we have learned from and we try to write grow those forms so that that's what i've tried to do as a writer in the first half of my career and now as a writer publisher with with 10 writers working for our publishing company those guys are taking on the mantle and i'm trying to help them so i think part of it is that but i think honestly as a dad and somebody who's a church leader as if we love the people around us it's our responsibility to make sure each generation know the great hymns of the faith because we i drove our girls to school last month we did him with a month each month and kristen can talk about that but um you know he'd have beaten my vision and i took the girls to school and went be there my vision oh lord of my heart that that's what i want them to think about their life then be them my wisdom as they go to school or go under their ipads or watch nonsense and television or spotify i want them that christ's wisdom will be there be there my breastplate one day i want them when they have temptation and no longer there i want him to be the sword for the fight and riches i hate not no man's empty praise when life comes and success or disappointment comes i want them to say riches i hate not nor man's empty praise and as they faith face sickness and death i want them to sing hi king of heaven so that's a gift but that's a gift that if when i when we taught our kids we give them that as a gift for 50 years you know there are many modern songs talking about our hearts but they're not going to last 50 years whereas beating my vision as a gift we've given to them for 50 years so the challenge to parents and the grandparents and the worship leaders and the pastors is love your congregation enough to make sure they have a good cannon of the great hymns of the faith i don't care if it's more of a contemporary church traditional orchestra pipe organ band rock band whatever it really doesn't matter just make sure somewhere in the middle of it there's a canon of songs that we can grow old that become the foundations and the song grammar of what we believe [Music] is it's wonderful back here there's nowhere better to sing than the royal albert hall right greatest concert hall in the whole world such a privilege to get to know from the history to the surrounding to the surrounding to the to the the awesomeness of the building but yet the intimacy of the building it's quite unique on the world stage and uh and yet to take this space and to send these great trees to other believers it's pretty fantastic of all the homes we play in every year you know this is still this is still you know special beyond words and uh but i say honored to be a small part of this this movement both the work of all souls church and john stott and the work of the all souls orchestra and prom praise without them i wouldn't have written hymns today and so to be here tonight to be able to say thank you to the lord for his faithfulness and thank these people for their work is a really special thing we're also excited to have our family with us tonight both sets of parents and our our four girls and a couple of our nieces we haven't seen them for many months because we live over in the states and so it's a special night to have them here in this space and have them singing they love these sorts of events so it's great to have them here yeah and if you hear kids misbehaving during the car they're not ours is there somebody else this is sunday night live celebrating the musical ministry of all souls choir and orchestra waiting inside the role abbott hall are 5 000 christians all wanting to say happy 50th anniversary prom praise [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign so [Music] [Music] uh foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] so [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] uh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] my name is charlie screen i'm the new director of all souls i've been there about a year and it's been hard work but yeah i'm enjoying it so far we're going to be singing today all about god's faithfulness uh god's promise god's hope is an anchor for the soul and souls sing and to have good um bible filled words for us to sing that live in our hearts that we take with us into work and into challenging situations that is actually it just gives great courage and comfort to christian people as they live their lives out in the rest of london it's incredible to be able to get people together like this it's the 50th anniversary of the orchestra but it's the two years of covid's that we've just lived through and to be able to bring everyone together the the tech team and the stagehands and the orchestra and everyone else um are just buzzing because we're able to put this on we're going to be filling the albert hall with people to sing god's praises and to to hear and think about a god who is utterly reliable and we've seen that the last two years i'm going to be saying that maybe human beings thought they had everything fixed and sought it and we've seen that is not true the the world and its problems are bigger than us and so to come together and to sing together to think together about a god who is like an anchor it's just such a great occasion and such an encouragement to be together to do that i was at the first prom praise all those years ago and for me it was a magical time i was playing in the royal artillery orchestra in the army down at woolwich and my mother sent me a little snippet out of the life of faith magazine asking if anybody wanted to come along and play for this christian orchestra and to me it was just wonderful to get together with other christians and pray before we started playing and it was just the start of a great road for me well being at the 50th in the royal albert hall this hall is so special as we've been here so many times and in the military i was here so many times as well but it really is a very special opportunity to be able to share with all these people in the in the building but not only in the building as a whole as it were as a concert hall but around the world because it's being beamed out and just to think that people that we'll never meet are actually entering into what we're doing tonight before each concert we always have the opportunity to pray together which again is very different from a secular setting where it's totally the opposite in many respects but we have this common bond of faith together and to be able to pray next to someone and share some of the things that are going on in our lives it's just a great thing and to really encourage the audiences each time to enter into what we're doing and to be a part of the whole concert [Music] [Music] is uh [Music] i [Music] see we just pray that coming to jesus sitting at his feet coming to you father and realizing that you invite us into your family as sons and daughters through the blood of jesus may that be the thing that people leave the royal albert hall this evening foremost in their minds and that the music would have brought it to life so powerfully so we pray father we pray for your spirit in each of us help us to worship you this evening help us to glorify your name amen [Music] graham kendrick who's performing in this anniversary concert can look back over many years of prom praise memories the fact that noel started to gather people who were brilliant classical orchestral musicians and give them a place to play was really really important um to uh um to provide that platform and you know here we are all these years later for me one of the things that i i reflect on with orchestral music compared to me as a sort of singer-songwriter it's the sheer sonic breadth and and variety and you know this the the moods and the atmospheres that can be conjured up by an orchestra are just phenomenal and and the sheer energy of it some of my first experiences with the all-stars orchestra as a guest for the first time in my life i found myself physically in the middle of an orchestra you know all around me and once they get going it's it's it's overwhelming you know it's it's um it's the volume you know people complain about rock music through our speakers but august can be very loud but um the the sheer energy and variety of uh of expression that is there is is uh is a such a valuable thing [Music] teach me so tonight i have the great privilege of of leading a song leaving the congregation singing a song of mine called amazing love with the whole orchestra [Music] there's also a song i wrote during lockdown with lucy grimble who's going to is part of the program tonight and a song called the cross has spoken and so we've been performing it together we've just recorded it so the orchestra are doing uh without my help um acquire a song called no need to fear which uh which i i wrote and the other thing i think which is quite special maybe maybe this year a few years ago i had a go at writing a different set of words for the tune jerusalem um which is probably the purest might hate me for that but it's just such a great tune so um that's going to be part of the of the program um later on this evening as well and i will be joining in that but that's like with everybody everybody joining together in the finale [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] together [Music] what love is so did [Music] [Music] [Music] god [Music] [Music] and so despite riches [Music] [Music] is [Music] the son of god given for me my dad and my dad [Music] and now this love of christ [Music] live again [Music] the son of god [Music] [Music] graham kendrick always a favorite on prom praise but there are new faces here too this is rapper governor b so i'm at the royal albert hall today for prom praise which is actually really special for me because my dad who passed away in 2017 wasn't really the type to go to concerts but one of the few concerts we went to was seeing george benson here at the royal albert so i feel like he'd be very proud today i've heard a lot about the all souls orchestra and i had a rehearsal with them last week and everything sounded amazing and i think the part that i play is bringing a spoken word piece to tonight that conveys what the last couple of years have been like and how even though it's been challenging there is hope so i'm very excited about it and also i'm not sure rap is something that they've had at um the royal albert hall for prom praise before so i'm very excited i think there's an incredible diversity here i've seen people that you know i grew up listening to like graham kendrick and keith getty and stuff like that and so to be a part of it is is a huge privilege and hopefully there'll be a wide range of of people here old to to young different backgrounds and i think that's a great representation of of the church in the modern day so yeah i'm just here to to bring a bit of a different flavor and hopefully there's a few people that like it and no one goes home while i'm on stage now you're very much in touch with the younger generation and every generation has its own voice what do you see as the music for the future i do think every generation has its own voice um but i don't think it's just one verse i think every generation has a number of voices and we have to try our best to be all things to all people otherwise there's going to be a group that feel marginalized and ostracized and left out and i think tonight is is a great representation of that you know my mum is a huge graeme kendrick fan but she's not the biggest fan of my music so she wouldn't listen to rap she supports what i do but what i'm trying to say is that there's something for everyone and in terms of where i see music going you know it's interesting i think the the generation that i'm a part of i'm actually a bit older now but i think it's good to explore musical styles and not just you know this star was for yesterday and this style is today i think it's a case of collaboration and merging them together and seeing how we can we can work together so i'm very excited about the future well i think your mum will be very proud of you my mom is very proud but the proudest things i've done are definitely being on songs of praise and tonight at the royal albert hall for prom phrase so yeah yes mommy i've done it heavenly father we thank you for all the good things of life we thank you for harmony and unity and we thank you how music gives us and demonstrates those qualities how music blended together brings beautiful sounds and harmony and wonder and melody and unites worshipers and musicians and singers as they bring these gifts of music into your presence and as their means of worshiping you father would you bless us would you continue to bless the also's orchestra would you expand its ministry through concerts through publications through witness through recordings through online programs just such as this and father altogether we wish to use music to glorify the name of jesus to lift him high and we pray that many hundreds of people through this wonderful sunday night live program but week by week may be drawn into your presence and through premier christian radio father we ask a blessing we ask for power we ask for hearts that are full of thanksgiving we ask for hearts that are full of dependency on you so day by day this week and beyond would you allow the music of heaven to lift our hearts to give us excitement as we anticipate being with you and we bring you our worship may we worship you this day this week in spirit and in truth may we worship the lord in the beauty of holiness thank you for the way you bless us now and we ask may the peace of god which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds and our lives in the knowledge and love of god himself and may music play its own part as you lord bless us and may the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit who bring such life and eternity to us now be with us all this night and forevermore and god's people said with me amen well what a wonderful evening and what a magnificent act of worship the all souls orchestra and choir have invited us to share with them here tonight and if you would like to enjoy the whole concert you can find it at www.allsoulsmusic.org [Applause] and we finish now with a reminder of how prom praise has filled this royal albert hall over the years with glorious music and praise this great charles wesley classic comes from prom praise 2015 so it's goodbye from me pam rhodes and from sunday night live [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] and if you've enjoyed sunday night live don't forget to press the subscribe and like buttons so that your device will offer you future editions each week and recognize that this is a 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Channel: Premier On Demand

Views: 67,846

Keywords: Premier, Premier Christian Radio, Christianity, Sunday Night Live, Pam Rhodes, prom praise, prom praise 50

Id: hFkTzLIYedk

Length: 60min 26sec (3626 seconds)

Published: Fri May 20 2022