Meet Our New Pianist!

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of Your wonderful deeds. 
I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.” Psalm 9:1-2

             Meet our new Pianist at New Covenant, Mr. Jason Lawrence, who the Lord brought to us officially on Sunday, August 16! We’re excited to have him and hope you’ll take a moment to get to know him better. Jason grew up in the Bahamas, on the island of Trinidad, where he is the middle child, having both an older and younger sister. He grew up in the Seventh-Day Adventist church, where his mother was the Assistant Church Keyboardist and eventually the Music Director. His father joined the church later in life and provided Jason and his sisters with a solid, Christian education. Jason remembers coming to Christ when he was 9 years old. 
              His parents were adamant about his success academically that they didn’t allow Jason and his sisters to have a television in their home. Instead, Jason found himself reading books to spark his creativity. During high school, he began focusing on economics and nutrition. He earned his first bachelor’s degree in Trinidad from the University of the Southern Caribbean in nutrition and dietetics. After graduating with his nutrition degree, he continued participating in school choirs and playing piano. While his love for playing piano continued to blossom, a fellow soloist recommended that he apply for a piano program at the University of Trinidad. Jason followed the soloist’s advice, and pursued musical study with an emphasis on voice and piano. After completing one year of piano, Jason felt led to switch his degree to focus on vocal  performance with Dr. Leah Brown, who had many connections to other professors in the United States. Dr. Brown was influential in leading Jason to Alcorn State University in Lorman, MS, where he focuses on piano and vocal performance, while still practicing cooking as a dedicated hobby. 
            Before Jason first came to the US, his uncle (a New Yorker), warned him that the US is “big” and it takes “a really long time” to drive anywhere! Jason actually thought they had gotten lost when he was on the way to Alcorn the first time. He remembers being surprised by the rural setting of many MS towns, reminding him of rural Trinidad and comforting him. The hardest challenge adapting to MS life was learning how to speak “Southern”, because his Caribbean accent was hard for people to understand at first. Jason has at least two more years at Alcorn studying vocal and piano performance. He hopes to start either in an opera studio/vocal performance program or start his Masters in Collaborative Piano after his undergraduate at Alcorn. His love for working with other musicians and seeing how they appreciate music, as well as his ability to accommodate different styles of music makes collaboration very appealing to him.
            New Covenant is thrilled to have Jason be a part of our team and we have been blessed exponentially already having him lead us in giving praise to God the Almighty! 
 

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