A musician from an Arnold church and a retired information technology director from Festus hope to inspire people with the music they have teamed up to create and share with others.
Bobby Schroeder, director of music ministry at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Arnold, and Daniel Burroughs, a St. John’s parishioner, have combined their talents to record Schroeder’s piano music.
They also have created a website, bobbyschroeder.com, to promote Schroeder’s music, specifically the 64-year-old musician’s latest CD called “Hymns of the Heart,” which the two released in December. The duo also produced a single titled “My Heart Belongs to Jesus” and three children’s CDs – “Sing a New Song,” “Sing Another Song” and “Sing the Joy.”
The recordings may be downloaded or purchased from the website, and the music is available for purchase on most streaming platforms.
“I truly believe God married our gifts together – my musical gifts and his technical gifts – to create this,” said Schroeder, who lives in Ellisville. “I am very thankful for that.”
More to come
The two plan to stay busy this year creating more CDs, which will showcase Schroeder’s improvised piano music.
Burroughs, 72, said the two want to publish a CD featuring what he calls “comfort hymns,” as well as a Christmas CD near the end of the year.
“We both feel this is a great team” said Burroughs, who worked in IT at universities in New York and Michigan before moving to Jefferson County in 2012. “He said the holy Spirit put us together. My skills complement what he doesn’t have, and his skills complement what I don’t have. Together, we can make some pretty neat stuff.”
Schroeder and Burroughs also are working on an ambitious project involving St. Louis area organs.
Schroeder, a concert organist, has played numerous large pipe organs in churches around the area.
“I have been blessed to play at weddings at every major denomination’s large church across St. Louis,” Schroeder said. “That has been a blast.”
Some of those churches have great organs, which led Schroeder to the idea of making a CD featuring 12 songs played on some of them.
Schroeder said he also wants to produce an accompanying book with the CD that would tell the history of each organ.
The pair hope to start the organ project this spring and produce the CD and book shortly after the recordings are made.
“I don’t know quite what it will look like, but I have an idea,” Schroeder said. “I have tons of arrangements on hymns, and I would probably spend about an hour on an organ to figure out which kind of arrangement to do on the organ. I think it would be so much fun. I love going into different churches and seeing what they have as far as the style and sanctuary.”
Forming partnership
Burroughs provided computer and networking support from 1988-2001 at The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in Kirkwood before landing a job as the chief information officer at Concordia University in New York, where he worked for five years. In 2006, he moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., for a job as chief information officer at a different Concordia University until 2011.
After retiring, Burroughs moved to Festus and began working part time as the IT director at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Arnold, which is where he met Schroeder.
“We struck up a good relationship, and I helped him with technology,” said Burroughs.
He and his wife, Brenda, have four grown children and 12 grandchildren.
Burroughs has since retired from his part-time role at the church, but before that, Schroeder talked with him about producing a CD.
Schroeder said he recorded a CD called “Heart of the Spirit” in 1997 but did not enjoy the studio recording experience.
“There is something that happens when you push a button, and someone is sitting there at a machine recording you and you are on. That was hard to all of a sudden be on and create something original,” Schroeder said. “There was a lot of pressure.”
To avoid the pressures of recording in a studio, Burroughs said he got Schroeder a Zoom H6 portable digital recorder to place under the church’s Yamaha grand piano. That way, Schroeder, who improvises most of his work, can be alone while recording his music.
Schroeder then gives the memory card from the recorder to Burroughs, who mixes and masters the tracks at his Festus home to create the CDs and other recordings to stream on outlets like Spotify and Pandora.
Burroughs said they created BLS Music Ministries LLC, and Burroughs has registered with different music industry organizations as a producer.
“We make a great partnership,” Burroughs said. “Bobby is so non-technical, and I am very technical. He is so artistic, and I am not artistic. We make a great team.
“When he plays, I am amazed that more often than not Bobby’s recordings are one take. I would bring them home, listen to them and say, ‘Wow, that is good.’”
In addition to the CD Bourroughs helped with in December 2020, he reproduced 16 children’s worship songs
Schroeder and his wife, Julie, had recorded in 2003. Those songs are divided onto the three children’s CDs that are for sale on the website.
“The style of these songs are still current today,” said Schroeder.“(Burroughs) is kind of finding a new market for them, which is pretty cool.”
Schroeder and his wife of 44 years have three grown children and six grandchildren.
Since starting the website and making Schroeder’s music available on streaming services, Burroughs said they have sold about 200 of the “Hymns of the Heart” CD and 80 childrens CDs.
The pair said they are not looking to earn large profits from their music-producing endeavors. They just want to share Schroeder’s music with as wide an audience as possible.
“I’m kind of amazed at what Dan has been able to do,” said Schroeder, who says his music style is a mix between traditional Lutheran hymns and Southern Baptist gospel. “I would never have known these different avenues and how to get the songs on them. It is cool that it is getting out there, and it is not necessarily folks into Christian music. A lot of people are just looking for instrumental piano music.
“I just hope it is getting to people who enjoy that style of music.”