A concert on July 31 at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown offers a rare chance to hear new songs by composer, pianist and organist Mark Miller, sung by baritone Julian Wamble and based on poems by Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar and other writers.
Mr. Miller, a summer Island visitor since his teens, is widely known as a composer of church music. He’s a full-time professor in the subject at Drew University in New Jersey, where he also is composer in residence, and a part-time lecturer on sacred music at the Yale Divinity School.
An accomplished singer with a supple, lustrous voice, Mr. Wamble works as an associate professor of political science at George Washington University and is a scholar of the Harry Potter saga, hosting an analytical podcast and even teaching a popular seminar called Harry Potter and the Politics of Social Identity.
The two musicians first crossed paths at a Drew choir rehearsal, Mr. Miller said.
“I heard Julian sing, and immediately asked him to sing a solo, and he became the teaching assistant of the course,” he said.
As they kept working together, Mr. Miller said, Mr. Wamble became his muse.
“I probably don’t write anything that [isn’t] heard by him first, and he gives me his opinions,” Mr. Miller said.
Friday’s concert marks only the second time the two have presented Mr. Miller’s art songs, after a church debut in New Jersey, they said.
Poems by Langston Hughes inspired many of the songs, including The Negro Speaks of Rivers, As I Grew Older and I, Too, Sing America.
Mr. Miller looked back to William Wordsworth for The World Is Too Much With Us, and worked with contemporary American lyricist Lindy Thompson on two other songs.
Mr. Wamble also wrote lyrics for a song called The Sacred In-Between, inspired by a sudden insight during an autumn train ride.
“The words just came to me: ‘There’s something in between summer’s warmth and winter’s sting,” he said.
Friday’s concert is titled Joy, Justice and Resilience, reflecting the artists’ mission to uplift their listeners with the power of music.
“We want to spread these messages of resilience [to] whatever power that seeks to separate us and make people feel like they’re less-than,” Mr. Miller said.
His church music, too, places unity over division.
“When we write music these days, it might be used in a specific context that might be Christian or religious. We also make it open enough to basically embody the values that we want to use of justice, peace, love, forgiveness, hospitality, without putting any other names on,” Mr. Miller said.
Friday’s concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown, with $20 suggested for admission.
Mr. Miller also is music director for the August 9 Festival of Worship in Word and Song at the Trinity Park Tabernacle, with guest preacher Sen. Raphael Warnock, and performs this coming Sunday’s service at the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury with Mr. Wamble in the choir.
This article appears in July 31, 2026.