Tag: St. John’s Episcopal Church

Newberry delivers full original set in Wytheville concert

August 19, 2026August 19, 2026 Zach Cooley No Comments

It is hard for me to believe Albert Newberry did not come out of the womb playing the piano. There is only one way I can sum up his playing: If he is able to achieve with his future bride what he accomplishes on a piano during any given concert, he is destined for an inevitably rapturous wedding night. Every muscle in his body seems to work in concert to ensure that the exact note he intends emanates from his grand piano. Somehow, it happens without fail every time. The Bland County native divides his time between his Southwest Virginia home and New York, where he teaches piano and plays gigs whenever possible. It was my honor to see this virtuoso of the ivories live in concert at St. Paul Episcopal Church in Wytheville on Sunday, Aug. 9. This was the best performance I have ever seen from Newberry, as a fortunate audience of only a couple dozen people were treated to 21 original compositions that will eventually be released across two albums. “We recorded so much music that we had to split it up into two albums,” he explained. “I have not timed the entirety of the songs all together, so if they end up being too long, I may cut some for the record.” I pray he does not make that decision, because the full expressions of all these compositions would be the ultimate gift to anyone who appreciates exceptional piano music. In an 80-minute concert that flew by as though it lasted only five minutes, Newberry gave us a glimpse into his incredible musical genius. He opened with two original compositions, “Pastorale” and “Toccata,” numbers that were filmed in that same beautiful church for PBS Appalachia. The film went on to win an Emmy Award. Newberry’s playing has an uncanny ability to heighten the imagination. During one number, you could envision a Charlie Chaplin film unfolding before your eyes; during another, a Looney Tunes cartoon came to mind; and still another seemed perfectly suited for a Steve McQueen chase sequence. To observe Albert Newberry at the keys, one might almost believe he has more than two hands playing his own compositions. Watching his hands cross over one another and his arms contort into seemingly impossible positions to execute these genius sounds is jaw-dropping, to say the least. Newberry has also experienced a great deal of personal loss during the past year. He lost a friend in Blacksburg whom he considered one of the greatest appreciators of music he had ever known. “This man was not a musician,” Newberry explained. “But he had a separate room in which he did nothing but listen to records. Most of us have music playing in the background, but he kept a room where he could just simply listen to the music.” For his friend, Larsen Bowker, Newberry dedicated his song “Home.” He also lost his Russian grandmother during the past year and dedicated another beautiful piece to her, entitled “Autumn.” Those were probably the most resonant pieces for me personally during the evening. Having lost my own father around the same time Newberry’s grandmother passed away, I felt those songs deeply, perhaps in a way that allowed me to understand something of what he must have felt while writing them. There were also several groups of compositions, including the six-part “Rhythmic Studies,” the four-part “Disparate Elements” and the three-part “Perpetuum Mobile.” Another of the evening’s more moving pieces was “Piece for Peace,” inspired by the many friends Newberry has in both Ukraine and Russia. “I wrote this when the war involving Russia and Ukraine broke out,” he said. “As the son of a Russian mother, my family and I have many friends and relatives who are affected by this war.” Newberry possesses a quintessential ability to create more emotion with a series of notes than many composers can achieve with lyrics. His music engages the senses and evokes vivid images within the listener’s mind. His talent is unparalleled, and we in Southwest Virginia are fortunate to call a person of his genius, and an equally heartfelt human being, one of our own. As much as I enjoyed his performance last Christmas with guitarist Casey Lewis, I enjoyed this solo performance even more because it allowed me to witness, without distraction, the magic Newberry creates through his own compositions. It was an evening that demonstrated not only his extraordinary technical ability but also the emotional depth and imagination that separate a gifted pianist from a true artist. Both of the albums are produced by Bartosz Lasecki, a composer based in New York. It was recorded in July at Echo Park Studios in Bloomington, Indiana with engineer and owner, Andy Beargie. I will await the release of both albums with bated breath, and I am anxious to see what other incredible work Albert Newberry will produce in what appears destined to be an extraordinarily bright future.

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Bland natives bring eclectic sounds to holiday show

December 23, 2025December 23, 2025 Zach Cooley No Comments

Best friends and musicians extraordinaire Albert Newberry and Casey Lewis performed an eclectic holiday concert at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Wytheville on Saturday afternoon, December 20, blending jazz, country, bluegrass, gospel, and classical traditions into more than an hour of genre-defying Christmas music. The concert opened with one of my favorite Christmas carols, “Sleigh Ride,” delivered instrumentally in an unprecedented fusion of Newberry’s jazz piano brilliance and Lewis’s country-inflected guitar work. The result immediately set the tone for an afternoon that felt both reverent and joyfully adventurous. “This is a very special church for me,” Newberry told the audience in his introduction. “We filmed a series of videos with PBS Appalachia here.” One of those films went on to win a regional Emmy Award. Lewis was also featured in a separate PBS Appalachia series filmed at the Willowbrook Jackson Homestead Museum. “Silent Night” followed, with Lewis’s warm country vocals leading the way. A jazz-inspired instrumental of “My Favorite Things” proved to be an afternoon highlight before the duo leaned fully into bluegrass with the hymn “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem,” once again featuring Lewis on vocals. “Joy to the World” came next in a truly one-of-a-kind arrangement. “I was in a band when I lived in Indiana called The American Pirates,” Newberry explained. “The leader of the band, Aaron Jones, composed his own original arrangement to the song.” The duo then performed that version for the Wytheville audience, showcasing Lewis’s vocals once more. A particularly inventive rendition of “Carol of the Bells” followed, with the first verse performed at a standard tempo, the second at double speed, and the third slowed dramatically. The shifting tempos created a riveting interpretation of an already complex holiday piece. “This was originally a Ukrainian song,” Newberry noted. “Then it became very popular worldwide.” The 26-year-old Newberry—whose career bridges the worlds of international Russian culture and Appalachian roots—has come a long way from Bland County. A graduate of Indiana University and the Mannes School of Music in New York City, where he is now based and works as a teacher, accompanist, and gigging musician, he remains deeply loyal to his hometown. On December 20 alone, Newberry and Lewis performed two shows in Wytheville and spent much of their holiday break appearing at venues across Southwest Virginia, including the Millwald Theatre’s Ghost Light Bourbon Bar, the Draper Mercantile, and several local churches. Newberry’s natural musical ability was further showcased when he invited his father, Randy Newberry, to join him on stage. Randy demonstrated remarkable skill on the harmonica during instrumental performances of Ray Charles’s “Georgia on My Mind” and the jazz standard “Moondance.” Father and son, joined by Lewis, then delivered a deeply moving blues rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Next, well-known Bland County musician Buddy Taylor took the stage to sing lead vocals on Elvis Presley’s holiday standard “Blue Christmas,” followed by the hymn “Without Him.” The stage returned once more to Newberry and Lewis for a hauntingly beautiful version of “What Child Is This,” seamlessly blending classical, jazz, and country influences. Lewis followed with spirited vocals on “Go Tell It on the Mountain” before performing his original gospel composition, “I’m Coming Home”. That number was preceded by the Russian standard “Dark Eyes,” which Newberry performed in honor of his Russian heritage. “I’m half Russian,” he told the audience, “and this is a song you could hear playing in any bar in Russia. It’s also become very popular here in the United States.” Throughout the afternoon, I couldn’t help but notice how Newberry’s vigorous piano playing recalls the spirit of Vince Guaraldi. It felt especially fitting, then, that he closed the set with the classic “Linus and Lucy,” first featured in A Charlie Brown Christmas. It was the perfect ending to an extraordinary performance. There is no doubt that Casey Lewis possesses formidable talent, effortlessly translating his country and bluegrass roots into jazz and blues territory. A 28-year-old husband and father of two with another child on the way, the native Bland Countian works as a machinist at Pascor Atlantic Corporation. Prior to the pandemic, he completed a national tour with acclaimed bluegrass act Cane Mill Road. Yet it was Newberry who left me truly awestruck. The way he snarls his nose as he bears down on the piano—attacking the keys with the ferocity of Jerry Lee Lewis and the refinement of Elgar—makes it clear there is no genre beyond his reach. To witness such world-class musicianship from a Southwest Virginia native now commanding stages in New York and beyond is nothing short of remarkable. His success is well deserved, and we are fortunate that he remains loyal to his hometown, returning often to share his gifts. I know I am better for having finally experienced one of his performances.

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