The wedding that I partnered to play prelude songs with was July 11 (a few weekends ago). I was so very honored to play at the ceremony. It was, of course, tons of fun (the wedding , the celebrations and the playing)!

Yohanna and her family are Eritrean. People with an Eritrean cultural background sure know how to celebrate! In Eritrea, wedding celebrations occur for days, literally! Because this wedding was a joining of two cultures (Dutch-Canadian and Eritrean-Canadian), intentional effort was made to include both cultures. For example, we witnessed a really wonderful Eritrean tradition in which a blanket was given to the groom to make the home of Yohanna and Brendan, a warm and welcoming place. At the reception, half an hour of Canadian/English music and then a half hour of Eritrean music was played. I found the joining of the two cultures in this covenant of marriage with prayers and scriptures in both English and Tigrinya to be moving and beautiful!

In case you were curious, the playing went quite well. It is an extra challenge to play with someone else. You both need to count (ex. 1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and) the song carefully to ensure the other person can follow where you are located in the music. Jessica and I practiced together frequently so that we could ensure a lovely prelude for the wedding ceremony. Our prelude song-list combined both classical pieces (Bach/Beethoven/Handel) and praise songs:

1. Prelude (No.1 in Well-Tempered Clavier) by Johann Sebastian Bach
2. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by Johann Sebastian Bach
3. Fur Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven
4. Air on a G-String by George Fredrich Handel (from Handel’s Water Music)
5. O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by Indelible Grace/Christopher Miner
6. Psalm 25 by The Psalm Project
7. Sing To The Lord by Matt Crocker and Mike Guglielmucci (more commonly known by Chris Tomlin)

It was an utter joy for Jessica and I to give these songs to Yohanna and Brendan for their wedding ceremony! So, a big thank you to Brendan and Yohanna for asking me to play (when, I fear, I had little faith in my left hand) and to my dear friend Jessica.