Cathedral People Profile—Alexa Weber Morales
Alexa Weber Morales is an accomplished singer with a four-octave range, who has performed with chamber choirs and Latin jazz bands. As an elementary school student in Berkeley, she performed with Bobby McFerrin. Alexa recently described how she came to be one of the Cantors at Grace Cathedral’s Sundays at Six services.
“My mother, Christine Leigh-Taylor, is a priest, and was ordained at Grace Cathedral. She asked me to call [former Canon for Music] Christopher Putman, and we arranged for me to sing "Veni Sancti Spiritus" at the ordination. During the service, Bishop Swing preached a beautiful sermon about the importance of being a small fry in the world rather than a big fry in the church, and how the new frontiers of the church were the boundaries of the heart. It was so moving. I started crying, but I had to sing, so I, you know, slapped myself with a tassel and pulled myself together and sang.”
From there, Alexa was invited to sing at the Sundays at Six, a new service that attracts a younger part of the congregation. The music she sings is a blend of traditional hymns and more contemporary songs. There is an immediacy to the service, held in the Quire of the cathedral, and she says the connection she feels to the attendees is unique in the world of church singing.
"I was brought up Episcopalian, confirmed at Grace Cathedral, and church for me has always been about singing and music. But one of my first paid church singing jobs was in a church where the choir was high above the congregation in a loft. People in that choir would knit and read during the service because no one could see us. We’d do these complex madrigals and beautiful music, but we were removed from the people."
The Sundays at Six service is much more intimate, she says. "The music and service are very uplifting and unifying. As a singer in the service, I get to take part in the religious experience of the entire ritual."
To get a sense of the contribution Alexa makes to the services, listen to her singing Angelitos Negros and Wandering Stranger.
The spiritual connection she feels when singing is something she’s felt all her life, and has evolved over the years. "I think it has to do with age, and motherhood, and, honestly, with my work at Grace Cathedral. It’s a wonderful job to try and sing something and have it communicate a larger force. It doesn’t always happen, but to be that channel is an honorable thing to attempt."
For the average churchgoer, part of the attraction in attending services regularly is the comfort in knowing that the service is going to be performed the way it was last time, and the music is going to sound like it always has. When there’s an Afro-Cuban jazz singer as cantor of the service, however, innovation is part of the liturgical fabric. But Alexa says that people who come to the Sundays at Six service are very encouraging of the expanding musical menu.
"If you look at jazz standards, they’re just pop tunes and the musicians are playing with new melodic lines, lyrics, melodic feels. I’m no expert, but it seems that Christianity is being drawn toward secular music. People are looking for music that speaks to their heart and also speaks to their soul and spirituality. You know, we tried doing some gospel stuff, and people loved it. They encouraged us, ‘I love your improvising.’ So it’s just a process of exploring music to see what will touch people."
To find out more about Alexa, click here for her website.
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Alexa with legendary jazz singer Nancy Wilson.
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