Church welcomes new music director

The Bloomfield Presbyterian Church on the Green has hired a new music director. His name is Jesse Gray and he started at the church in the fall.

Born in Connecticut, Gray attended Andrews University, in Berrien Springs, Mich. He has two bachelor of science degrees, one in music and one in biochemistry.

“To be honest, I don’t do that much chemistry anymore,” he said at the church last week. “I currently work for a start-up company and the church fulfills my music side,”

The start-up, he said, is called Metal Light. It is located in Newark and is focused on battery technology. At Metal Light he is the chief operating officer.

“I handle a lot of different things,” he said, “from technology to operations. It’s a very small team.”

He previously worked, for four years, as a music director in South Bend, Ind., at Memorial Presbyterian. The church has since closed. He was employed there with his sister, Rachel, who plays the cello and piano. Gray plays the viola, piano and organ.

“My parents are not musicians,” he said, “but they wanted us to pursue music and enrolled us into lessons at the age of four. They saw that music could open up opportunities education-wise and socially, and we could use our talents in the church. Even at an early age, we were playing in churches.”

His sister now lives in Nashville, closer to their parents who live in southern Tenn., in Fayetteville, about 15 minutes from Ala. She is in marketing for an AI tech company and teaches piano at a community school, but is planning a trip to Bloomfield. When she does come, Gray said it will be like the “old days.”

As music director, he will organize the music to be heard on Sunday. He is also the choir director, with Thursday night rehearsals, and is in charge of the Glockenspiel Kids. These are children who will play the percussive instrument on church holidays. The choir typically sings an anthem which is a music selection that fits the theme for a Sunday. The theme is chosen by the pastor, the Rev. Ruth Boling. Gray will select an appropriate composition from the church’s extensive library.

“I am not a composer, but I do like organizing music,” he said, adding that could mean changing the order of the melody or adding a melody or harmony. “Almost everything I play is really more of a style. I wouldn’t call it an arrangement. I have a style that blends with a lot of different things I’ve heard — a blend of classical, jazz and gospel, which doesn’t make sense.”

Nonetheless, he said his music tries to convey a spiritual message.

“There’s a form of communication you can’t express with words,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to get across. I don’t think that’s true for all musicians. They don’t interpret the music. They just play what’s on the page.”

People, he said, react in two different ways to his music. Some may think, oh, that’s different. But others listen to it and contemplate what they heard and may ask themselves, what’s the message of this music?

“That’s what I’m trying to get to,” Gray said. “There’s two parts to that. One part is what I’m trying to relay. But that’s my own experience. The other part is what the words mean to the listener. People hear it and contemplate their past and their memories. That’s something out of my control.”
He would like to see more community engagement in the church in the form of recitals and plays —entertainment.

“We have a great space here,” he said. “If you have a talent you’d like to demonstrate please reach out to me.

Gray can be contacted at: jmichael1050@gmail.com.