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Dr. Brett Stewart is a conductor, composer, pianist, and vocalist. He has taught music to youth and adults for nearly three decades and—together with his brother—founded Millennial Choirs & Orchestras. He is also a composer-in-residence for MCO, having composed and arranged well over one hundred works for the organization, including the full-length oratorio Messiah in America, and the full-length patriotic work To Be American.
Brett received a doctorate degree in Choral Conducting with cognate studies in Composition from the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music, a master’s degree in Choral Conducting from California State University, Long Beach, and a bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from Brigham Young University. Extremely active and busy with his family and religious life, Stewart devotes his career time exclusively to MCO and other composing projects. Brett and his wife, Mindy, are the parents of seven children and live in northeast Texas.
Links
Millennial Choirs and Orchestras
MCO on YouTube
Messiah in America on YouTube
“Savior, Redeemer of My Soul”
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Not encouraging! I spent a lifetime and hundreds of hours as a professional church organist for 30 years! If the organ goes away in church I’d have to rethink my activity level in the church. Pretty hard to listen after that.
As a Ph.D. in music history from USC and a life-long organist/pianist for the church, I was surprised by some of the comments by Brother Stewart. Our Sacrament meeting is not a concert venue but a sacred gathering of saints to renew our covenants. Do we want everyone to magnify their calling and improve their skills, certainly. A thought came to my mind as I listened: when I attended BYU, I achieved a Bachelor’s and Masters’ degree in Trumpet performance by the time I was 22 years old. I had performed as a soloist with the Utah Symphony and had been first chair in the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra for several years. My wife and I were visiting family in Mesa Arizona for the 4th of July and the Mesa community band was playing. As I listened, I thought of all the mistakes players were making, problems with intonation, and phrasing, the third trombone was off-key, and on and on. I mentioned this to my wife who said, don’t you feel the spirit? She had tears in her eyes because she was in the spirit of the moment. She said how lucky we are to hear these people dedicate their talents to performing in the best way they can.
It was then that I realized, that my critical, professional nature as a musician was a stumbling block was preventing me from witnessing what was really happening. The fact that their performance was not ready for Carnegie Hall was meaningless. If you have ever watched “The Music Man” you will know that it is the engagement of the individual that builds society, not a harsh appraisal of their skill level.