Rob Schilling and the Glory Express Choir

Local radio personality (and former Charlottesville City Councilor) Rob Schilling has a passion for music, and he lives it out by directing one of the choirs at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, located in the middle of the University of Virginia.

On two recent occasions, the choir that sings regularly at the 11:30 Mass on Sunday mornings has transformed itself into the "Glory Express Choir," going the evangelical route and providing music for fundraising events to benefit the Good News Jail and Prison Ministry.

Last November, the Glory Express sang several numbers at a concert that took place at Charlottesville's First Baptist Church, on traffic-calmed Park Street. A video camera high up in the balcony caught the choir's last song, "Refiner's Fire," composed by Brian Doerksen. Here's the result:

Oddly, the other examples of "Refiner's Fire" on YouTube are nearly all performed by Asian-American musicians. I don't know what conclusion to draw from that.

For those who are interested, Rob has recorded some of his own church music on a CD called Sing a Psalm. The recording includes several psalms that we sing at St. Thomas.