Musicians for Life – Mr. Peter Wright
Mr. Peter Wright, director of the MBU Communications Office and director of the MBU Chorale, received his bachelor’s degree in Sacred Piano with a minor in Church Ministries from Maranatha Baptist Bible College. He grew up playing the piano, but says, “As I went through college, I realized I didn’t want to do music all day every day. After college, God led me to an assistant pastorate in which I worked mainly with the youth. Music came along after that. I started working with the choir, and ended up being in charge of the music program at that church.”
Read about his musical journey in the interview below.
What were some lessons you learned in college?
I traveled with the Watchmen for four summers. As I started my junior year, I began to get very materialistic. I got to the point where I would stand at the church door, watch the cars come in, and wonder who I would be staying with. By the end of that summer, I figured God wanted me to be a pastor of some sort, but I didn’t want to be a pastor anymore. I wanted to have that cool stuff, and I didn’t think I could have it as a pastor. I didn’t want to live like that.
In the opening meetings at school that fall, I was thinking a lot, “I don’t want to do what I’m here for – why am I here?” By Thursday night of that first week, I was in turmoil, and I finally said, “This is crazy. I should leave, or I should get right with God.” So, I told God, “Okay. I’ll live like a pauper. I’ll order cheap pizza. I won’t have the cool stuff, but that’s better than all this turmoil that’s going on.” After that, I became a youth pastor, and I had all kinds of opportunities. I haven’t lived like a pauper, but I had to come to a point where I was willing to be a pauper. Much of this was brought about by my music traveling experience.
Who were some of your biggest musical influences?
I started taking piano lessons in 3rd grade, but I didn’t really do my lessons well. I played a lot by ear. I goofed around a lot. (I goof around pretty well). When I was in 10th grade, I had been taking piano lesson for 7 years, and it was not cool for a guy to play piano. I loved soccer and basketball, and I came to a point when I decided that I didn’t want to play the piano anymore, but my dad encouraged me to stick with it. He had let my siblings quit, but he wouldn’t let me.
One night, Rudy Atwood came to our church to play a sacred music concert. He packed the entire church building – even the choir loft. People were everywhere. He was amazing. After everyone went home, I turned the lights on the stage, and I just banged on the piano. The next day, I did the same thing. That was a real inspiration to me. I thought, “This can be used for God’s glory, and it’s really fun!”
Many years later, Atwood suddenly passed away, and I had the opportunity to play in place of him for a concert. I felt so threatened, but it was a dream come true. Rudy Atwood was a hero of mine, and I was able to do what he did for one hour.
So, your main instrument is piano. Do you play any other instruments?
Funny story. I had never played a brass instrument, and when I came as a freshman in college, I tried out for an all guys group as the piano player, and I made it. Then, Dr. Budahl said, “Great, but you also have to play the tuba.” I was shocked.
I went to a practice room to try to figure it out, but I had never played a brass instrument. I would go to band, and with tuba, you just read one line, but in piano, you read two – so I would read two lines at a time. I was skipping lines! And, I had no idea what some of the notations were. One time, we were in the middle of a song, and Dr. Budahl stopped and said, “Tuba, why are you not playing?” And I said, “Well, it looks like I have 8 rests here,” and he said, “Those aren’t rests, those are repeat signs.” I was learning all kinds of stuff you should have learned in junior high band. It was a really big learning curve all at once.
Now I play other brass instruments with my son.
What do you love about music?
I like the challenge of looking at a piece, seeing how difficult it is, and in my mind thinking, “there’s no way I can play this,” and then taking it apart section by section slowly, and working it out over several weeks. I love the progression of seeing a mountain of a piece, cutting it apart, and performing it well. There’s no way I could do it right off the bat, but getting to that point and maintaining it – there’s a real satisfaction to that. And to be able to use music to bring glory to God is like frosting on a cake. All of music is a really cool opportunity to make God happy – that’s a part of the passion of music within me.
You get to experience this “frosting on the cake” through your barbershop quartets as well. How did you get started with those?
My dad has a guitar that he’s played all his life, and both my brothers had guitars. We did a lot of just sitting around, playing, and singing as a family. I’ll never forget the day Dad pulled out a barbershop hymn arrangement. We tried to sing the first part of the song, and we just weren’t getting it, so we stopped and worked on it, and when we finally hit it, we were all shocked! It was great! So, we started singing together. We sang at all of our weddings, and we still sing when we get together.
For fifteen years after college, I sang in a quartet with three other guys called the Outreach Quartet. We made five recordings, and I did much of the arranging. A year and a half ago, Jim Harrison told me we needed to send a group to Washington DC for a teen rally, and he said, “Let’s just do four guys and a piano player,” and I said, “Why do we need a piano player?” That’s when I got a group together here at school. We sing barbershop quartet style mostly old Outreach stuff, but fun songs, too, and we sing for a lot of Harvest Rallies across the Midwest.
Along with that, you also direct Chorale. What’s your favorite thing about directing Chorale?
I love the interaction with the young people. These are young people who want to sing, who have a heart for the Lord, and who are enthusiastic. That is awesome. It’s like a dream to have this much time every week to really look into the nuances, and get interaction from the choir.
I also love the ministering we do with a 50 voice choir, being able to go into churches and do more than just sing. When we go out, we put together a Sunday School and Junior Church team, and they teach and sing with the kids. It’s great.
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Mr. Peter Wright is actively involved in music in his church, and with the quartet and choir at MBU. His musical journey started young, expanded through college, and now continues on. Stay tuned each week for a look into more MBU music professors’ college music experiences.