Hope on a Hill Concert Series

Join us on our Facebook page for our summer concert series.  Here you’ll find musical works by our talented staff and members including: Randy Fischer on the organ, Greg Berg-Holy Communion Minister of Music and many others.  We’ll add new concerts every week so check back often.   You can find our first concert by Randy here: https://www.facebook.com/HCLCRacine/videos/352955632382324 and our second concert by Greg Berg here: https://www.facebook.com/gregory.berg.3/videos/10158712897788134

In 2016, Holy Communion began a new service, “We Are Called.”  A blend of modern music and hymns accompanied by a band, this service focuses on using our many gifts to help God’s people and the world around us.  The liturgy is easy even for our youngest parishioners to learn and sing joyously, while remaining meaningful and fulfilling!  The service also features prayers written by different groups or individuals each time we do it, making it a wonderful, collaborative endeavor of this special place.  This service is usually the first Sunday of the month but check our calendar page for the specific dates as some months during the summer, the service changes.  And remember, worship times during the school year are 8:30 and 10:45 and during the summer at 9:30.

Greg Berg has been the Minister of Music at Holy Communion since 1988.  Greg’s ‘real job’ is Assistant Professor of Music at Carthage College and he is also Fine Arts Director and host of ‘The Morning Show’ at WGTD FM 91.1, the local affiliate of NPR.  Greg donates much of his time to the Racine community as the music director for many of the musicals at the Racine Theater Guild, emcee and soloist for the Kenosha Pops Band, and soloist with the Kenosha Symphony, Racine Symphony, Choral Arts Society of Wisconsin, and the Racine Concert Band.

Greg is also an accomplished composer and has written the uplifting  Holy Communion’s liturgy: “O The Joy.”  Three of Greg’s compositions have been published by Hal Leonard Corporation.  Recently, during a two-year period which Greg called, “Sing a New Song”, he composed a new piece of music every week!

Greg brings an incredible amount of talent and guidance to the music at Holy Communion.  Of music’s role in the church, Greg states, “Music is a means by which God can move in dramatic and powerful ways- to inspire, to comfort, to draw together.  It often takes up where words leave off and is one of the most important ways in which people of all ages can come together.”  It is hard not to see the love of music every single Sunday of the year at Holy Communion.  “I love how music can help connect us to our own traditions while also awakening us to exciting new possibilities,” says Greg.

Of the role music plays in his own life, Greg says the it’s ‘almost as essential as oxygen to me.  I can’t imagine life without it.’

Check out Greg’s website at: www.messyprofessor.com

Kate Potter-Barrow is the Youth and Sunday School Choir Director at Holy Communion and has been for over 20 years.  Her love of music and children are very evident in the songs the kids sing and her enthusiasm is infectious!  Kate is also a middle school history and geography teacher at Walden School and also directs the school’s talent shows and musicals.  Within the Racine community she plays piano and sings for weddings and other special events, is involved with the Racine Theater Guild and is a member of the singing group, Caritas along with Greg and Kathy Berg.

In addition to singing on Sundays during the school year, the children and choirs of Holy Communion present the annual Christmas program: “Look for the Light,” a pageant celebrating the birth of Jesus with original songs, soloists, and even live animals!  The church is transformed into a living scene from the bible as the children narrate and sing about the events surrounding the birth of the Christ child.  It is truly an amazing concert, even when the animals don’t always cooperate- it only adds to the enjoyment!

Of the role music plays in her life, Kate says, “There is always music playing in my head!  It moves and inspires me, it brings me to tears, it makes me want to dance (and much to Greg Berg’s chagrin, accompany our church choirs on percussion instruments!).”

When asked why music is important in the church, she states, “Music in the church connects us to God and others.  It helps us express our deepest feelings with more depth and clarity than words alone could ever muster.  It helps us unite our voices in times of great joy and of great sorrow, allowing expression of our deepest emotions.”

Kate also plays in the Bell Choir, sings in the Adult Choir, serves as an assisting minister and has been the driving force behind our new contemporary service.

Randy Fischer is the church organist and accompanist for the Adult and Children’s Choirs.  Recently retired, Randy spends much of his time doing things people do in retirement that the rest of us don’t get to do.