Peace of Peace Lutheran Church is installing a new minister of music, R. Douglas Helvering, an active composer, arranger, and singer, on Sunday, September 6, at both the 9 and 11 a.m. services. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, he is returning to the area and settling into West Windsor next week. In addition to working with the church, he will also be adjunct assistant professor on the music theory faculty at Westminster.##M:[more]##
A graduate of University of Nebraska-Omaha, Class of 2000, Helvering received a bachelor’s degree in music in composition. During college he performed with the concert choir and toured with the group on two European tours. At Westminister Choir College he performed with the Westminster Choir and Westminster Symphonic Choir. He graduated with a master’s degree in music in composition in 2002. In 2008 he received a DMA degree in composition form the University of Kansas.
Helvering, who specializes in the choral genre, has had his music featured at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association, at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, and at Carnegie Hall in New York.
His former posts include teaching positions at the Metropolitan Community College of Kansas City and the Midwest Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served as choir director at Countryside Christian Church in Mission, Kansas as well as the music director of the Sunflower Brass, a professional brass choir in the Kansas City area. Helvering is the founding editor of Amber Waves Music Publishing and served for four years as composer-in-residence for the William Baker Choral Foundation. As a music journalist, he served as the lead choral and vocal writer for www.kcmetropolis.org.
From his MySpace page: “My musical journey has been an eclectic one to say the least. I enjoy listening to all sorts of music ranging from Renaissance motets to Jackson Browne and from Stravinsky to Garth Brooks. My professional training is of course in the classical stylistic and historical traits. As a result, my music shows traits of many different stylistic tendencies, often infusing traditional tonal harmony with modal and contemporary sounds. I have great affinity for the classical master composers, but perhaps most of all I enjoy the German masters of the 19th century, including Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Beethoven.”
Helvering met his wife, Megan, at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, while he was completing his undergraduate degree and she was working on her masters degree. They were in several classes together. Both were raised in the Omaha, Nebraska area. “We are both mid-westerners at heart,” he says.
Also a life-long musician, Megan’s instrument is French horn. Her degrees include a bachelor’s degree in music education, a master’s in music in French horn performance, and a master’s in arts administration with an emphasis in fundraising and development. “We are still looking for the right employment opportunity for her,” he says. They are bringing Cassie, 7, a cocker-mix dog, to their new home. For more information about the new residents visit www.rdouglashelvering.com.
Minister of Music Debut, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 177 Princeton-Hightstown Road, West Windsor. Sunday, September 6, 9 and 11 a.m. 609-799-1753. www.popnj.org.
