Jackson native Chris Brunt, music associate and resident organist/director of Cox Chapel Music at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, will be the featured guest during the Millsaps Singers fall concert on Friday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ford Academic Complex Recital Hall.
The Singers, a 65- to 75-voice stage choir, will perform choral works of the English tradition. Admission is free, with $5 donations accepted at the door.
Brunt has music degrees from Millsaps and Westminster Choir College. He has studied at the Royal School of Church Music in London, England, and he has done post-graduate work at the University of Mississippi, where he taught music appreciation courses, and worked as an accompanist.
Before moving to Texas in May 2001, Chris was a mainstay in the arts scene in Jackson, serving as an accompanist for many area groups including the Jackson Choral Society, the Jackson Little Theatre, The Millsaps Singers, the Mississippi Camerata, and the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church. During his early college years Chris conducted the first Jackson area stage performance of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale,” and organized tribute concerts of music by Benjamin Britten, Samuel Barber, and Olivier Messiaen.
In 1981 Chris moved to Princeton, N.J. and joined the music programs of Princeton University Chapel and Trinity Church. In 1983 Chris made his New York City debut performing an organ recital at St. Bartholomew’s Church, and, that fall, was appointed accompanist for The Westminster Symphonic Choir. He is listed in the 1983 edition of “Outstanding Young Men In America.” As director of The Handel Society of Jackson from 1989 until 1995, he led Mississippi premieres of several major works including “Giulio Cesare”, “Xerxes”, “Acis and Galatea”, “Saul”, “Esther”, “Apollo and Dafne”, and Purcell’s “Ode On St. Cecilia’s Day.”
As organist Chris has served United Methodist and Episcopal churches in New Jersey, Mississippi, New York, and Texas. He has performed recitals in Mississippi, Texas, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., New York, and at Princeton University. Chris is past dean of the Jackson chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
He was assistant professor of music history and college organist at Millsaps College from 1992-2001. In 1999 Chris received the Ole Miss Music Department’s Music History/Theory Award for his musicological study of Mahler’s “Symphony No. 10.” In 2001 he was featured organist with Mississippi Symphony Orchestra in performances of Saint-Saens’ “Symphony No. 3” (Organ), and was a worship organist at the 2001 Region IV AGO Convention. He is presently an active member of the Dallas American Guild of Organists and is a member of next year’s 2007 regional convention steering committee.
A former tenor in the renowned Westminster Choir (touring ensemble), Chris’ vocal credits include work with the Musica Sacra Singers of Jackson, St. Andrew’s Cathedral Chamber Society, Canticum Sacrum of Jackson, Mississippi Academy of Ancient Music, Jackson Choral Society, and Arts District Chorale of Dallas. He has sung the Evangelist in Bach’s “St. John Passion,” King Caspar in “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” the countertenor solos in Handel’s “Messiah,” Abraham in Britten’s “Abraham and Isaac,” tenor soloist in Beethoven’s “Mass in C Major,” and the role of Don Octave in P.D.Q. Bach’s “The Stoned Guest.”
Chris’s teacher-mentors have included Donald D. Kilmer, Donald McDonald, Joseph Flummerfelt, Lionel Dakers, Erik Routley, James Litton, Joyce Avent, Bonnie Jean Coleman, and David R. Davidson.
