Bolton Landing couple records spiritual CD

When G. John Dorman and his wife, Leigh Anne, decided to record a CD to benefit Blessed Sacrament Church in Bolton Landing, the Latin word "offero" immediately came to their minds.

"Pay it forward," the meaning of the word, "is something we live by - in our family life with our two teenage daughters, Lyndsey and Lily, and through our work," explained Mrs. Dorman. "My husband is a therapist at a local private psychiatric hospital and I am the director of two local rape crisis centers."

In their spare time, Mr. and Mrs. Dorman perform as a musical duo and parish and private functions, including weddings. Mr. Dorman plays piano and organ and arranges all the music, and Mrs. Dorman sings.

Hymn-list
They called their album "The Offero Project," choosing music, they said, "based on the hymns we perform at every Mass."

Most of the 14 songs on the CD were taken from the "Break-ing Bread" hymnal. Selections include "Here I Am Lord," "Amazing Grace," "Unless a Grain of Wheat" and "Grateful."

"Some were chosen by parishioners and others just because we loved them," said Mrs. Dorman.

The album showcases a musical style the couple refers to as jazz/standard. "When you hear a song like 'We Will Rise Again,' it's hard to imagine it ever being done or felt that way," Mrs. Dorman noted. "To us, there is a story in every piece of music, and we hope our passion comes across to the listener as much as it seems to when we perform in person."

Set to be released the week before Christmas, the Dormans are planning to donate a portion of the proceeds of the profits from the sale of the 500 CDs to their parish.

"Had it not been for the love and support of so many of our friends at Blessed Sacrament, 'The Offero Project' would not have been, and so we are donating 25 percent back to our church," said Mrs. Dorman.

The idea of creating a CD first surfaced after Mr. Dorman, who was previously the music minister at Sacred Heart in Lake George, saw an ad in the newspaper seeking a part-time organist for Blessed Sacrament Church in Bolton Landing.

"The Blessed Sacrament family welcomed us with open arms in the summer of 2007, [but] it wasn't until the summer of 2008 that we began to realize that we were touching the hearts of so many people," Mr. Dorman told The Evangelist. "Parishioners and visitors would take time after Mass to share with us how they had never heard the hymns done like that."

Visitors also shared where their home parishes were located: Connecticut, Pennsylvania, downstate New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massa-chusetts, Maine and Florida.

"We both felt so blessed to have been given the opportunity to do what we love, and to have so many share how the music had touched them," recalled Mrs. Dorman.

But "each week, three or four people would ask, 'Do you have a CD?'" Visitors wanted to share the couple's music with their home parishes.

Yes, they could
Kathleen Sousa, Blessed Sacrament's parish life director, told the couple, "You need to make a CD."

"Even though it had always been a dream to record, we never thought that might be possible. Kathie kept encouraging us. Over and over again, she assured us we could do it," said Mrs. Dorman.

In August, the couple finally got to work. For 12 weeks, they drove each Saturday to Cotton Hill Studios in Albany, worked for five hours on the album, and then drove back to Bolton Landing in time for Blessed Sacrament's 5:30 p.m. Mass.

"We would then drive back to our home in Glens Falls, exhausted but so excited that we were actually recording music that brings so much joy to us, and that we were going to have that opportunity to share that with others," mused Mrs. Dorman.

(12/17/09) [[In-content Ad]]