Champions . . . Plus, by Gary DeVaul, Mark Thallander, and Friends. San Diego, CA: Aventine Press, 2007.
Mark Thallander is a world-renowned organist, musician and educator, but many may not realize that his music emerged from and was influenced by his lifelong involvement in the Pentecostal church. Even as Thallander has made significant contributions in the fields of classical and sacred music, he continues to impact the development of worship in his own denomination, the Assemblies of God. A new book, Champions…Plus, shares Thallander’s compelling story of how he overcame the loss of his left arm and continues to make his mark on the music scene. This book, importantly, also will challenge the assumption, held by some, that classical music and the Pentecostal tradition are mutually exclusive.
During the summer of 2003, Thallander had played at Carnegie Hall for Beethoven’s Mass in C and Haydn’s Te Deum. He and Jeremy McElroy had presented an organ duet program at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, and the Ogunquit (Maine) Baptist Church. Thallander presented a lecture on blended worship at the national convention of the Royal Canadian College of Organists in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and accompanied the choir at the fiftieth anniversary reenactment of the Revivaltime radio broadcast at the General Council of the Assemblies of God in Washington, D.C.
On the morning of August 3, Thallander was guest organist at the First Congregational Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, where Judy Hanlon, a longtime Central Bible College friend, was the guest minister for the service. Thallander was traveling to Ogunquit, Maine, in the afternoon when he was caught in an abrupt violent summer thunderstorm. His journey in the borrowed Toyota 4Runner was suddenly interrupted by a horrific accident when the vehicle hydroplaned out of control exiting the turnpike. In the deafening silence following the explosion of the accident, Read the rest of this entry »
