Making Music Together

I enjoyed hearing about Sis. JoAnne Gould's lifelong dedication to music and her advice to participate and hone our musical gifts to inspire and support one another in worship.

A Visit with Sister JoAnne Gould

On a Friday this past February, I spent a lovely morning at the home of my friend, Sis. Kristin Atwood. Sis. JoAnne Gould, Sis. Kristin’s grandmother spends many Fridays with Sis. Kristin and her three sons and they have lunch together. It was a treat to share in this hospitality. I had the opportunity to sit in the living room with Sis. JoAnne and swap stories about our love of music. I was keen to hear about Sis. JoAnne’s years of experience organizing and directing Bible School cantatas and Sunday School programs, among other projects that I knew she had had a huge hand in. 

I first met Sis. JoAnne in 2007. I’d flown out to California from my home state of New Jersey to attend the Idyllwild Bible School. As a young adult at Bible Schools and youth conferences, I always participated in choir programs if they were an option! I soon learned that Idyllwild was known for having a themed music program, a cantata, which was rehearsed by many Bible school attendees throughout the week and then sung in entirety on the last night of Bible school.

My first time at Idyllwild was during the era (1991-2008) when JoAnne was directing the cantata. Before and after she served as the director, she acted as pianist and collaborator—formerly with her good friend Sis. Cynthia Magill, from 1967-1990, and more recently again with her granddaughter, Sis. Kristin. In 2009, Kristin stepped into her grandma’s shoes as the Idyllwild cantata director, and JoAnne became the piano accompanist for the yearly program. Just recently, several others have also started playing some of the piano pieces. 

Sis. JoAnne remarked that when she initially took on the role of cantata director, “I cried! I said, I can’t do that. I’ve never done that before.” And yet, she did. 

The role of the cantata director includes much preparation work: selecting, sourcing, and organizing all of the songs involved. As someone (okay, a mom of little kids) who finds it challenging to carve out time to type on my super-functional, lightweight MacBook Air that I can throw in my purse and take on the go, I gawked over the handwritten and photocopied cantata booklets from the 1970s that JoAnne had brought for me to peruse. “It was all done by hand, isn’t that crazy? Cynthia would come down and stay with me, and we would spend several days deciding what to do.” 

 “That’s like a full-time job for a chunk of time!” I exclaimed. 

“I didn’t even try to get involved until my children were older,” JoAnne noted. By then, her three daughters were essentially adults. 

It was fascinating to compare a 1979 compilation of the “Walking in Thy Way” with a 1998 printed copy of the same program, recycled for use by a newer generation.

JoAnne and I discussed how much has changed over time regarding what music is available to us—the breadth of resources, both within our Christadelphian community and in the larger Christian music scene. Changes in technology from 1979 to 1998 (as evidenced below) and much more so from 1998 to 2024 have greatly impacted how easy it is to notate, share, and collaborate on written scores and recorded music. 

Sis. JoAnne’s journey as a musician and follower of our Lord began when she started piano lessons at age eight and continued to study the instrument formally until age sixteen. Around that same time, she was baptized and started playing piano at Sunday Meeting. Sitting down at her piano these days, she gravitates towards old classical pieces learned when she was younger, saying, “I like to go back and see if I can still play them!” 

In addition to playing the piano, JoAnne also plays the organ and spends time at her home practicing organ for Sunday Memorial Services at her ecclesia, Verdugo Hills. Sis. JoAnne often plays the organ while another brother or sister plays the piano. It’s an experience that has (at least, for me, as a visitor) become a bit of a trademark of the music at the Verdugo Hills memorial service. Regarding getting an organ and starting to use it regularly at the ecclesia, she shared that, in addition to many of the members really enjoying the sound, “So many of our pianists were hesitant and afraid, and when we did it together that helped them to feel more confident.” 

I love this idea, which came up more than once in my visit with Sis. JoAnne of (and this is my paraphrase), “Just do it with me, and it will be okay! We’re in this together.” This concept resonates with me so deeply when I consider all the joyful experiences I have had making music with a friend or group. We all need people who can come alongside us and say, “Just do it with me!” 

“I’ve always enjoyed making music with people,” Sis. JoAnne went on. “Including playing for people that are singing. Years ago, we had a trio, Bro. Jack Collister, Sis. Teri Carlson and I, all playing the violin, cello, and piano. We played for many things, and it was just a lot of fun.” 

These days, Sis. JoAnne remains an active member of the Verdugo Hills Ecclesia. For many years, from shortly after she and Bro. Dick Gould were married in 1954 until the early 1980s, and the Gould’s were members of the Reseda Christadelphian Ecclesia. Among the artifacts from JoAnne’s incredible collection of Californian Christadelphian history are several copies of the Reseda Sunday School programs JoAnne headed up.

At the time, Bro. Dick was the Sunday School superintendent. In a similar vein to “Just do it with me,” Dick implemented the strategy of co-teaching, always assigning two teachers to a class. Sharing the work this way made it more likely for teachers to volunteer, as they had someone else to lean on and collaborate with. Co-teaching also made for easy plan-sharing and substituting when one teacher was traveling or needed to stay home for the week. 

Sis. JoAnne shared, “When I was growing up, and until this time, Sunday School programs were always a mixture of kids getting up and reciting poetry, playing an instrument, or classes doing a little skit or something. So, one year, I said, “Wouldn’t it be fun if we did something altogether? We picked out a musical and did it together, and it was fun, and that’s basically what we did from there on out.” Sis. JoAnne did not necessarily write the musicals. I’m sure all the children and families involved at that time appreciated these efforts as much as I appreciate brothers and sisters who undertook similar feats for my kids. 

Another way Sis. JoAnne has brought about musical praise within the Southern California ecclesias and the larger Christadelphian community is through her work on the Spanish Christadelphian Hymn Book. The original version, published in 1980, was a collaborative project by Sis. JoAnne and her friend Sis. Cynthia Magill. After the songs were compiled by brothers and sisters who were more fluent in Spanish, the project was turned over to the duo. Sis. JoAnne explained:

“Cynthia wrote the music by hand, and I typed up the words. I worked in an office then, and we had a Remington Selectric typewriter. It had a ball on it that you could change, and I bought a Spanish ball, and I stayed after work to type the words on it. So that’s how that hymn book came about, and it took a while!” 

I asked Sis. JoAnne, during our time together, “What advice or encouragement do you have for someone interested in music and wants to use their gifts within our community?” 

The key points she shared were: 

Be willing to participate!

The more you learn, whatever it is that you’re involved in, the more you can contribute. In other words, hone your craft. 

You don’t have to be afraid like you’re the show’s star giving a big performance. When you share your musical gifts, ideally, it just feels cooperative. You’re praising God and worshiping and supporting other worshipers in being able to express their praise. 

I was greatly encouraged by spending this time with Sis. JoAnne. Though she would probably think her accomplishments are unremarkable, I am learning that a gift we can give each other is to say out loud, “What you are doing inspires me.” By doing so, we combat the forces of discouragement that are always at play (including our own harsh inner criticism) and build each other up, ensuring that we all have enough heart to keep going.

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV). 

Jessica Gelineau,
Simi Hills Ecclesia, CA