Changing the rhythm

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, June 19th. This is WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you’re listening. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Music, Love and Faith!

WORLD’s Myrna Brown has our story.

SOUND: [Piano]

MYRNA BROWN: With his eyes closed, Carey Luce sits in front of a black upright piano.

SOUND: [Piano]

His wife, Geraldine stands by his side. She watches his fingers glide across the keys and waits for her moment.

GERALDINE LATTY-LUCE: (Singing) Our God is a God who knows all we need…

Together, they’ve just created a new song.

GERALDINE: So at one point, I was thinking just bring all you have in your hands. And then thinking about your listeners, some of them who may be feeling, I don’t have much to give. So that became a prayer that became a song in the moment. Do you see what I mean?

The technique is called musical improvisation. 53-year-old Carey and 61-year-old Geraldine have been honing the skill since they were children. Carey, grew up in London, the son of a pastor.

CAREY LUCE: My dad is a beautiful pianist. His parents both played piano and organ.

And Geraldine is the daughter of West Indies immigrants, who migrated to England.

GERALDINE: I do know I have a photograph of me standing next to my mum and she was the choir director at church and my mouth is this big. And I’m, like singing my heart out, and I know I was around three then.

Both studied music in college, but Carey and Geraldine didn’t meet until years later. As a church music director, Geraldine often brought together musicians like Carey to play at worship conferences around the United Kingdom.

LUCE: But it wasn’t until I started working at London School of Theology, seeing Carey full time where I fell in love.

Taking that next step wasn’t as easy for Carey because Geraldine was his mentor.

CAREY: So, I had to quit the mentor/mentee relationship first so that the love relationship had space.

After they married in 2013, they formed Luce Music and began releasing new projects, like their 2017 album Can You See It?

CAREY: Everything is kind of infused with the Gospel flavor because of Geraldine’s vocals. You’ve got a track there which is Latin. You’ve got some Funk. You’ve got some Rock.

But in 2020, amid the COVID lockdown, Carey took a deep dive into one of his favorite 19th century classical music composers, Chopin.

CAREY LUCE: I started playing through his preludes and then what happens if I just take a few notes from a prelude like eighth notes and then I add a ninth note to change the rhythm from like straight four. But if I have nine notes, it has 1,2,3,4…. [clapping his hands to illustrate]

SOUND: [PRELUDE 1 FROM CHOPIN FUSION]

Carey then added drums, the bass and strings. After a year of composing and rearranging, they released Chopin Fusion.

GERALDINE: One of the critiques we’ve had of our music and our album has been, but do you know who you are? You’re so many things. And we’re thinking, hoorah! That’s what we’re going for.

SOUND: [DORDT UNIVERSITY CLOCK TOWER]

Geraldine and Carey Luce Photo by Myrna Brown

In the Fall of 2021, Carey and Geraldine accepted an assignment that took them to the other side of the world, Sioux Center, Iowa.

JEREMY PERIGO: What would it be like if we brought a couple of worship artists to be guests in residence for about two months…

That’s Jeremy Perigo, on the campus of Dordt University. He’s a professor of Theology and Worship Arts. He first met the Luces in 2013 in London. It was his idea to bring Carey and Geraldine to Northwest Iowa, where Dutch settlers in the late 19th century planted some of the region’s oldest reformed churches.

PERIGO: Our posture is wanting to of course be strong and convicted in our beliefs and our own cultural backgrounds, but also to learn from what God’s doing in other parts of the world and even other times in history.

DORDT GOSPEL CONCERT: Are you ready to be a part of making history tonight?

CHOIR: Your love keeps lifting me…keeps on lifting me…higher, higher and higher…

You’re listening to a 2021 recording of Dordt University’s first gospel choir concert - 50 students strong.

DORDT CHOIR SOLOIST: Now I’m flying on Your wings of grace..and it’s taking me higher and higher and higher….

The campus auditorium was packed with people like a 70-year-old who sat in the front row with six of his friends.

GERALDINE: And he said, yeah, this is not what we’re used to. But for them the message was so key that there was no difference. It was just in a different key, but the Good News was still the same.

After the concert, Geraldine and Carey returned to London. But in 2023 they were asked to come back to Dordt to fill in as interim Directors of Worship Arts.

LIBBY BANDELIN: I just love serving under them and being led by them.

Libby Bandelin is a cellist on the Dordt worship arts team.

BANDELIN: Geraldine would come and just ask how I was doing as a person. I’d gotten a running injury and was experiencing some pain, so she just stopped in the middle of rehearsal and asked if she could pray for me.

SOUND: [CAREY ON PIANO]

After a year of mentoring, teaching and composing, Geraldine and Carey are praying about God’s next assignment for them. As independent artists, they haven’t had huge material success and aren’t well known in mainstream Christian music.

GERALDINE: One of the things I think we have sacrificed is popularity. But part of where we have been called feels different. We won’t lie, sometimes it’s a lot of hard work traveling up hundreds of miles to a small country church.

But the Luce's say the sacrifice has been worth it.

CAREY: If we look to the feeding of the five thousand and then Calvary. And if it’s about the numbers, the feeding of the five thousand would be the success and Calvary would be the failure. But Calvary was no failure. No failure.

MUSIC: [PLAYING/SINGING]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Sioux Center, Iowa.

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