Artist Biography
MINISTER WARREN COOPER
VOCALIST / PRODUCER / CHOIR MASTER / MUSIC MEDIA MINISTER / CREATIVE CONSULTANT
Warren is a native of Philadelphia, PA, USA who has been a professional musician since the age of 9. He was raised and nurtured in Berean Presbyterian Church as the son of its pastor – singing in, playing for and later directing three of the church’s five choirs. Having studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and with many of the Masters of Classical, Sacred & Jazz Composition and Performance, Warren has emerged as a trend-setting pioneer within the genres of Jazz Worship and Sacred Jazz Music; and also as an arranger, composer, director, performer and producer (with a host of CD’s, hundreds of songs and thousands of studio hours to his credit).
Warren ministers nationally in both the Sacred and Secular Jazz Performance idioms. He is the featured vocalist and/or music director for a number of ensembles (including Phases of Praises, The Sacred Jazz, The Alexander Cooper Project, The Presbybop Quartet, The Critical Mass Choir and Anointed Praise) and has been a featured performer at the Philadelphia Kimmel Center, the Washington National Cathedral and the Chautauqua Institution as well as Jazz Festivals, Churches and Arenas around the world. As a Worship Specialist and Vocal Clinician, Warren also conducts Choral Workshops and Worship Development Seminars that explore techniques and strategies for the practical integration of Jazz, Contemporary and Transformational Forms of Worship into traditional frames. As a composer and arranger, Warren has debuted works internationally in the sacred, secular, choral and popular music genres.
In his continuing career of significant service on the local, regional and national levels of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., Warren serves as a consultant to the church nationally as well as for a variety of Parrish and Para-Church Ministry Initiatives. Warren serves the Governing Board of Stony Point Center and the Board of Directors of Philadelphia’s Singing City Choral Society, and is the founder of the Balm in Gilead Jazz Worship Series, born at the Oxford Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA, where he has served as an Elder, Music Minister, Choir Master and Young Adult Ministry Leader. He is also the founding host and producer of the Gospel Music Radio Program OVATIONS, currently in its 18th year of broadcast. The show airs Sunday mornings from 6:00a – 9:00a EST on Temple Public Radio Network in Philadelphia, which broadcasts throughout eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, northern Delaware and internationally @ www.wrti.org.
Having also dedicated more than 20 years to the research of media science and the use of Sound as a mental, physical and spiritual healing agent, Warren has recently released the first in a series of Therapeutic Worship Music CDs entitled Healing Through Worship In Praise. His Contemporary Christmas CD Follow The Star also continues to win popular acclaim. Warren is the Executive Producer and Chief Operating Officer for Music Media Ministry (www.musicmediaministry.com) a Philadelphia, PA based Media Broadcast Production Company that is pioneering new pathways into Church Growth, Church Health and Worship Based Evangelism. In this Ministry and beyond, Warren continues to blaze new trails into the Evolution of Traditional Christian Worship and Liturgy, and into the Innovative Resourcing of 21st Century focused Ministries who are seeking to actively engage their communities in Gospel Witness.
“In these the final days of this age we must fully explore every available option within the disciplines of worship, praise and evangelism – making the opportunity to consider and receive the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ widely and readily accessible to the hearts that will hear. In doing so we must consciously connect the Principle of that Message with the relevant realities of Social Justice, Civic Accountability and Spiritual Transformation. It is only then that our Faith becomes tangible and our Works become relevant. All Art then must speak to these things, as it responds to Christ’s Commission and Brings Healing to Life.” – Warren Cooper
