Oyez! Hear ye! Lend me your ears! Tomorrow's Lisa Tolliver Show should get you shouting, clapping, and tapping your feet. You may even lift up your voice and sing
.My guest will be Minister of Music, Major Ouida Waltryce Harding (affectionately known as "Major"). If you've never heard OF her, you've likely HEARD her beautiful, award-winning music. That's likely, as she sometimes performs with well-known gospel artists, such as Dorothy Norwood
and Cissy Houston.
For example, Major was Musical Director for Face to Face, for which Ms. Houston captured the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album. [Hear excerpts.] And the gospel singing group, 'The Reflections of Faith', which Major says she organized "with the intent to do more than sound good, but to also connect and encourage persons from all walks of life," won three consecutive NYC Gospel Grammy Awards for the Best Non-Recording Female Group. Amen!The show will air at high noon (ET) on Wednesday, July 25. To hear and share, tune to New York Radio WVOX 1460 AM, listen live online at WVOX.com, or phone the call-in line: (01) 914.636.0110.
I've been trying for a year to interview the globetrotting musician (piano, organ), minister and retired military officer, and we're all blessed she's booked this broadcast. Hallelujah!
Major Harding and her gifts are in great demand, worldwide, to uplift audiences as personal as wedding ceremonies and as public as the National Baptist Convention (for which she is the Dean of Seminars and Training. Major also participates in and heads workshops (like this one) and international missions (like this one in Ecuador, and an upcoming one she recruited me for).
Experiencing Major in action at her house of worship, Walker Memorial Baptist Church (WMBC), and sharing her stage during the World AIDS Day 2006 event: "A Time For Healing", has revealed some secrets to her success and popularity. For example, her extraordinary musical talents, leadership, and Army officer experience are clearly manifested when Major leads her musical troops in Sunday services and special events.
Some facts about this superb musician (organ, pianist) and minister are detailed in her bio at Yahoo! Groups: WMBC Mass Choir. [I've copied it below, and inserted links and bracketed text.]
[Minister of Music and Sacred Arts, Ms. Ouida W. Harding] is a graduate of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta Georgia [Morehouse School of Religion, 2003], with a Master of Arts in Church Music degree. She is a native New Yorker (Harlem) and [has] been appointed to the position of Dean of Seminars [and Training for the Music Auxiliary] for the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc.
A member of the St. Luke Baptist Church (Harlem) for over thirty five years, under the leadership of her father Reverend Walter L. Harding who served as pastor for over 53 years, Ouida comes to us with a thorough understanding of her ministry not as a job or a hobby, but as a Calling.
Ouida's credits her Mother as her first music teacher at the age of 4, and is using opportunities given to her to effectively contribute towards the resurrection of trained musicians especially for our local Baptist community.
And that's not the half of it. Tune in and witness the rest for yourself.
SUPPORT THE SHOW! Contributions and sponsorships to my creative and cultural works are tax-deductible. And with matching funds, you can double, even triple your money! Learn more, contribute here.###
