Harvard Class of 2026
This is week three of Brady’s musical journey celebration. I have chosen a few of my favorite pictures and videos of Brady’s high school years. His talents are now known locally and nationally through his performances and competitions.
“It’s been incredibly inspiring study church music at a place like Harvard, where there are a plethora of scholars and ethnomusicologist studying musical traditions around the world and across history. Believe it or not, gospel music is everywhere! I’ve written papers about gospel music in Australia and composed my own arrangements of hymns inspired by arrangers from Asia – just to name two examples. If you go on YouTube, you’ll see choirs from South Africa to Korea performing gospel music; sometimes the arrangements are similar, but most of the time they are all unique and amazingly creative! Musicians take a shared song like “Amazing Grace” and added to it the uniqueness of their own experiences and upbringings. I’ve had the opportunity to perform my arrangements in several countries; I traveled to Brazil with my acappella group last summer, and the people there loved hearing southern Gospel variations of well-known classics. The hymns provide a framework to connect with other people while still offering something new. It’s a way for me to share the beautiful music of my home while remaining recognizable to a global audience.” Brady Billingsley