Red Door Community Concerts series brings unique live music to Oxford
For the past three years, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church has brought music to Oxford with its Red Door Community Concerts. In its fourth year, the series has an eclectic lineup of musicians, from a lute player to a jazz vocalist.
On Sept. 13, the Red Door Community Concerts series kicked off its season with a performance of live jazz music from the Jimmy Leach Jazztet. This was the first of six performances for the season, all of which are free and open to the public.
Sarah Michael, the chair of the arts committee at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Oxford, helped put together the series. This season marks the fourth year of these concerts.
In addition to the live performances, each concert is recorded and is later available to stream through YouTube on the church’s website. A goal of these concerts is to promote diversity within the community.
“The purpose was to provide a variety of diverse musical performances and music during the stress and isolation of the Covid pandemic,” Michael said. “As the series proceeds, the audience members experience music as an art form which connects us all, transcends differences and provides comfort.”
Michael said that each season, the church looks for different musical groups and types of music to provide variety in what they offer. When this series was originally started, Michael never could have imagined it would continue on for this long.
The upcoming lineup for this season consists of Christopher Wilke playing the lute, Estrada do Sol performing Brazilian music, Bruce Murray on piano, John Deaver playing the organ and jazz vocalist Mandy Gaines.
Michael said that they have had people come to the events from Springfield, Middletown, Hamilton, Dayton and Oxford. The concerts take place at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, located at 25 E. Walnut St., and they provide a way to experience live music in Oxford.
“It’s an opportunity to hear professional musicians play in a venue that has wonderful acoustics, and it’s an opportunity to enjoy really, really good music in the community that’s free,” Michael said.
The first concert of the season brought in Miami students, people from Hamilton and Dayton, retired individuals and people stopping by during their lunch break. Michael said it was a very good turnout.
Jimmy Leach, the lead of the Jimmy Leach Jazztet, kicked off the season with a 45-minute performance of live jazz music. The singer and trumpet player, originally from Oklahoma, was raised by church musicians who sparked his love for music.
A friend of Leach’s performed last season, which is how he got involved with the series. Leach started playing cornet in the sixth grade and said he’d been studying piano and singing for as long as he could remember.
Leach likes to take a not-so-traditional approach to jazz music, incorporating different styles into his music. He tends to play a lot of early jazz and 20s music, but he also brings his experience with French, German, Italian and Spanish classical music into his jazz.
The Jimmy Leach Jazztet setlist from Friday afternoon included songs like “Wichita Lineman,” “Moon River,” “Just the Two of Us” and more. Leach was joined in the performance by bassist Chris Berg, pianist Chris Caporale, drummer Jim Leslie and steel pianist Chis Tanner.
“What the great thing about this concert series is … it has quite a different range of things,” Leach said. “... the atmosphere is perfect for what we do.”
Because of his church music background, Leach always likes to incorporate a spiritual into his setlist. At this performance, that spiritual was a piece called “Deep River.”
Leach did his dissertation on Louis Armstrong and said he thinks that Armstrong plays with joy and love. His music is some of the most popular in the genre among young people, but Leach said it can be hard to know what all you like in music until you actually experience it.
“You never know what your new favorite genre is going to be until you kind of get out there and hear it,” Leach said.
Karen Schilling, a member of the church, attended the concert on Friday afternoon because of her love for music. She described the concert as “fabulous,” and has attended a majority of the performances in the series over the past few years.
She first heard about the concert series through her involvement with the church, but said she would recommend it to anyone because she thinks the groups have all done well and the event is free.
“It’s just been a wonderful addition to the community … The range of groups coming in to perform has been fabulous.” Schilling said. “All kinds of different music every month and the acoustics of the church are really, really good so people like to perform there.”
Upcoming Red Door Community Concerts
All concerts are held from 12:15-1 p.m. at 25 E. Walnut St.
- Oct. 25 — Christopher Wilke on lute
- Nov. 22 — Estrada do Sol, Brazilian music
- Feb. 14, 2025 — Bruce Murray on piano
- March 21, 2025 — John Deaver on organ
- June 6, 2025 — Mandy Gaines, jazz vocalist
