The Music & the Spoken Word broadcast airs live via TV, radio, and internet stream on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. mountain time. For information on other airtimes, visit “Airing Schedules” at musicandthespokenword.org.

Music

Conductor: Mack Wilberg
Organist: Richard Elliott
Announcer: Lloyd Newell
Special Guests: The Piano Guys

“In Hymns of Praise”
Music: Alfred Beirly
Lyrics: Ada Blenkhorn
Arranger: Mack Wilberg

“The Mission” / ”How Great Thou Art”
Music: Ennion Morricone/Swedish folk melody
Lyrics: Stuart K. Hine
Arrangement: Jon Schmidt, Al van der Beek, and Steven Sharp Nelson
Featuring: The Piano Guys

“I Feel My Savior’s Love”¹
Music: K. Newell Dayley
Lyrics: Ralph Rodgers Jr., K. Newell Dayley, and Laurie Huffman
Arrangement: Sam Cardon

Improvisation on “Hymn to Joy” (organ solo)
Music: Ludwig van Beethoven
Arrangement: Richard Elliott

“Wayfaring Stranger”²
Music and Lyrics: traditional American folk hymn
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
Featuring: The Piano Guys

“Tuya es la gloria (To Thee Be the Glory)”
Music and Lyrics: traditional Latin American hymn
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
Featuring: The Piano Guys

“Alleluia Fanfare/Praise to the Lord, The Almighty”³
Music: German hymn tune
Lyrics: Joachim Neander; trans.: Catherine Winkworth
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

1. From the album Love is Spoken Here.
2. From the album Peace Like a River.
3. From the album America’s Choir.

The Spoken Word

The Music of Faith and Hope 

By Lloyd Newell with The Piano Guys (Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson)
 

Over a decade ago, some friends got together to make music. They called it “an experiment in a new way to produce music visually.”¹  It started out small but has now grown in unexpected ways as these friends have performed all over the world together, and their YouTube videos have over two billion views and millions of subscribers.  These friends are known as the Piano Guys, and their music, also in unexpected ways, mixes modern and classical music in what could be described as a beautiful conversation between a piano and a cello.

Steven: Those first few video shoots we had no idea what we were doing. It was like lights, camera, act like you know what you're doing. But that is the miracle in finding yourself in the work that God has for you to do. We've learned he can do so much more with it than we ever can.

But these friends want to do more than just entertain and have fun. They want to help people—to inspire and encourage them.

Jon: We read these comments that come in and people say the music comforts them or it inspires them or it gives them hope.  And at that point you think, 'What does God want us to do with this?' And it takes on a higher... it takes on an aspect of calling.

It’s not that different, in fact, from the mission of The Tabernacle Choir. The styles may be somewhat different, but the inspiration—the “spiritual calling”—is the same: a desire to bless and lift people with the power of beautiful music.

Jon: We pray before our shows, we pray before we write, we pray when we come up against problems. And we just pray that God can use us and that He can work through our talents.  And it is the best feeling to feel like that prayer gets answered.

The composer Oscar Hammerstein once said, “It is a modern tragedy that despair has so many spokesmen, and hope [has] so few.”²  The Piano Guys want to be spokesmen for hope.

Steven: Hope is powerful.  I have been so deep in self doubt at times that nothing could help me out, except for the power of the One who descended below all things in order to lift us up. Jesus is my hope. I hope that is the feeling people experience the most as they listen or watch the music He has given us.

1. Steven Sharp Nelson, in Esther Basha, “The Piano Guys—from YouTube to World Tour,” Piano Performer Magazine, June 22, 2018, magazine.pianoperformers.org.
2. In Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe (radio program), Jan. 1, 1951, prx.org.