Music Season 2019-2020

There is joy at Duke Chapel.

This year, we welcome our new Director of Chapel Music, Dr. Zebulon Highben, to lead the time-honored tradition of sacred music at Duke Chapel. His commitment to our history and to innovation, to the old masterworks and to new compositions, is rooted in his passionate engagement with what music can do with us and for us. He knows that sacred music offers each of us the chance to participate more fully in the beauty of life as human beings, regardless of our individual beliefs. When we gather together to listen, setting down our cellular devices, our to-do lists, and the demands of the day, we glimpse the sacred nature of song and sound. Be it Bach, Beethoven, or the anonymous composer of an American Spiritual, sacred music reminds us that we begin and end in the mystery of love and we celebrate the creativity of all of God’s creation. Sacred music reminds us that we are made in the image of a beautiful, creative God, a God who breathes and moves through the staccato and the legato, the sorrow and the joys of our lives.   

I commend the entire season to you, your family, and your friends. In every way imaginable, the Chapel is making a joyful noise—breaking forth into joyous song. I hope that you will make Duke Chapel a destination for concerts and worship services throughout the year. But most of all, I encourage you to raise your voice, play your instruments, and join us as we make that joyful noise and break forth into the joy of God.

Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery
Dean of Duke University Chapel

the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace!”

These beloved lyrics by Charles Wesley have appeared in myriad hymnals since their first publication in 1740. Wesley’s poem was probably inspired by an earlier German hymn by Johann Mentzer, translated here by Catherine Winkworth:

"O that I had a thousand voices and with a thousand tongues could tell
of God in whom the earth rejoices, who all things wisely does and well!
My grateful heart would then be free to tell what God has done for me.”

These texts remind us of some important truths about the church’s music. Our singing connects us with all of creation and all of God’s people in every time and every place. Together we join the “new song” of the scriptures, a song built upon the knowledge of who God is and what God has done, and which anticipates God’s redemptive, hope-filled future. 

As I begin my tenure as Director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel, I am cognizant of the thousands of voices that have been raised in praise, prayer, and hope in this sacred space. I am deeply honored to join this community, and to steward Duke Chapel’s vibrant tradition of sacred music forward into a new season of song. The following pages highlight some of the many services, concerts, and recitals that will form us in the year ahead. Join us often. Add your voice to ours. Come to Duke Chapel and sing with us of the triumphs of God’s glories and God’s grace.

Dr. Zebulon Highben
Director of Chapel Music