The Glide Ensemble sang at the Giant’s Celebration of Life for Willie Mays. Barry Bonds and Spike Lee were chatting when the Glide Ensemble returned to the field and opened the event with two songs. Fire fighters danced and sang along with the Ensemble as they performed. Glide Ensemble Director, Vernon Bush, and Dennis Hersey sang solos. And more than one celebrity was observed filming and photographing the choir. Learn more >>
Hello Legacy Ensemble! We are super excited to have you back with us on July 28th. Rehearsal for this Celebration will be July 24th from 6-8pm in the Glide sanctuary. We are covid testing before rehearsals and celebrations. Feel free to test at home or come early to test onsite in room 206. The wardrobe is undecided, but we will let you know at the rehearsal.
It really does help to know how many are planning to be at the Celebrations so please use this link to sign up
The songs for the 28th are:
We are so looking forward to having you.
Current and past Glide Ensemble members are invited to join in our legacy choir which sings once a month. Please RSVP below to learn more and receive updates.
Under the musical direction of Vernon Bush, the Glide Ensemble performs every Sunday in the Glide Memorial Church Sanctuary at 9:00 and 11:00 am for our legendary Sunday Celebrations.
From its humble beginnings on Christmas Day, 1966, when it was only 10 singers and jazz legend John Handy, the Glide Ensemble grew to include more than 100 voices and eight musicians. Beginning with the first choir director, Faith Winthrop, the Glide Ensemble has benefitted from the direction of such talented leaders as Donnell Hickman, Ronald Sutherland, John F. Turk, Jr., Clifford Coulter, and Vernon Bush, and has teamed up with a host of notable musicians such as Sammy Davis Jr., Leonard Bernstein, Marvin Gaye, Bono, Bobby McFerrin, Maya Angelou, and Joan Baez.
We are looking to add more unique voices.
Choose a song that really speaks to you in a soulful way
Make a 3-5 minute video of yourself singing the song from start to finish
Send the video, via email, to the attention of the Glide Music Program: churchoffice@glide.org
Every Sunday, at Glide Memorial Church, the drums pulse and the brass rise and fall as the Glide Ensemble take center stage with their signature opening song, “Pass Me Not Oh Gentle Savior.” They beckon San Francisco, and the world, for a transcendent spiritual experience that heals and saves lives. Touching thousands of people every year, the Glide Ensemble draw together those with disparate spiritual paths and life circumstances to sing of liberation, truth telling, love and hope.
Dreamed into reality in the late 1960s by Rev. Cecil Williams, the Glide Ensemble ensures music remains one of the pillars of Glide Memorial Church’s ministry. Starting with Glide Memorial Church’s first “Happening,” a contemporary worship service that brought jazz music into the sanctuary and hippies dancing in the aisles, music has always been a part of the movements of justice Glide Memorial Church has embarked on. Gone were the dirge-like hymnals; in came the joyous, explosive gospel music of the Black church alongside the rich traditions of jazz, rock, folk and blues.
This music, steeped in protest and visions of a more just and loving world, spirited Glide Memorial Church’s participation in the Anti-war and Civil and Human Rights battles of the 1960s and ’70s. The music has bolstered our work with the Black Panthers and the United Farm Workers, been proclaimed alongside Gay Liberation and Marriage Equality, and sung out against Apartheid, domestic violence, economic and social injustice, poverty and hunger.
From its humble beginnings on Christmas Day, 1966, when it was only 10 singers and jazz legend John Handy, the Glide Ensemble and Change Band has grown to include more than 100 voices and eight musicians. Beginning with the first choir director, Faith Winthrop, the Glide Ensemble and Change Band has benefitted from the direction of such talented leaders as Donnell Hickman, Ronald Sutherland, John F. Turk, Jr., Clifford Coulter, and Vernon Bush, and has teamed up with a host of notable musicians such as Sammy Davis Jr., Leonard Bernstein, Marvin Gaye, Bono, Bobby McFerrin, Maya Angelou, and Joan Baez.
Much like today, the Ensemble embodied an activist spirituality that provided the congregation and the community an antidote to the layers of repression that characterized many of their previous church experiences. A new world was emerging right outside Glide Memorial Church’s door and Cecil, his rag-tag, multi-colored singers, and Change Band brought that energy right into the sanctuary. This tradition is carried into today, where no one is rejected; everyone is accepted. Anyone, regardless of vocal talent, is able to join this egalitarian body and break the mold of a stale and sedate church every Sunday.
Beyond Sunday, the Glide Ensemble has brought their music out into the community, from prisons and the projects to stadiums and television, from the streets of the Tenderloin to the silver screen. They have sung before both presidents and the homeless, celebrities and nobodies. From Market Street to as far away as Shanghai, China, the Glide Ensemble has taken our embrace of social justice to the world.
Perhaps more than anything, the gift of the Ensemble will always be its ability to summon forth the powerful feelings of community, support, faith and love from the Glide Memorial Church Sanctuary every Sunday, week in and week out, without exception. For many, it may just be Glide’s greatest gift of all.
Listen to the Glide Ensemble, under the direction of Vernon Bush, at
both the 9:00 and 11:00 am Glide Memorial Church Sunday Celebration on Facebook Live or YouTube.
