Music

Music Ministry

River Road Church, Baptist’s music program embraces a wide variety of musical styles. Regular worship services include the “greatest hits” of composers such as Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Faure, selected late 19th-century and early 20th-century English composers such as C.V. Stanford, John Stainer, Herbert Howells, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the best from more recent church music composers such as William Mathias, John Rutter, Craig Phillips, and David Briggs.

River Road Church’s music program is not an accident. It was greatly expanded starting in 1970 when Carl Freeman came to River Road Church as Music Minister. By demanding the best from everyone, he put together a program that is one of the most admired in the Richmond area.

In August 2011, Dr. Robert P. Gallagher joined the church staff as the Minister of Music. He continues to develop the unique and thoughtful musical vision of River Road Church.

Over the years, the music program has grown to include three children’s choirs; a youth choir; the adult Chancel Choir; two bell choirs; the Sanctuary pipe organ installed in 1970; a smaller Chapel organ installed in 1989; and a music suite, built in 1999 as part of an extensive facility expansion that contains three practice rooms, two robing rooms, and a music library. The River Road Church Concert Series has featured such artists as Olivier Latry, principal organist at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, such groups as the Manhattan String Quartet, and such choirs as the Wake Forest University choir.