GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—Highland Hills Baptist Church hosted its first-ever Highland Hills Festival of Sacred Music, an event that included the participation of a community chorus and undergraduate brass quintets from local colleges and universities. The church planned the event as an outreach to the arts community in Grand Rapids.
Douglas Yeo, bass trombonist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was the featured guest artist, leading rehearsals and master classes and giving a testimony of his faith in Christ.
The event was organized by Mark Warren, associate pastor of music and adult ministries of Highland Hills Baptist, and Wayne Wilcox, a graphic designer who is a member of Highland Hills Baptist and who has designed several CDs produced by Doug Yeo.
The three-day event culminated in a Saturday night gala concert to support David’s House Ministries, Wyoming, Mich., which has two homes for adults with developmental disabilities. The concert featured the festival choir led by Dr. Richard Stewart, retired chair of the music department at Cornerstone University. Two brass ensembles played, and Yeo performed on bass trombone and serpent (a medieval brass instrument with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument but side holes like a woodwind).
Yeo is on a six-month sabbatical, allowing him to travel and take on projects he would not normally be able to accept when playing full time with the orchestra. He is chronicling his time off in a diary he publishes on his website.
“It was very satisfying to find the Highland Hills Baptist Church nearly full for the concert,” Doug Yeo wrote. “Clearly Wayne Wilcox’s diligent efforts in publicizing the Festival had paid off. It was also nice to see so many people volunteering to make the Festival a success.”
Yeo stayed at Highland Hills Baptist through Sunday morning, playing two trombone solos and accompany the choir on its anthem, Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.
“I experienced a great mix of activities that touched on a number of my passions: working on behalf of brass bands around North America, playing serpent and trombone, leading talented brass players, speaking of my Christian faith, and interacting with people on issues of consequence.”
