River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond’s West End is known far and wide for excellence in all areas: gorgeous classical architecture, a pulpit ministry recognized for consistently thought-provoking messages, well-oiled church governance in the best of Baptist tradition, a superior religious education program and pretty tempting Wednesday night suppers.
The jewel in the crown is the music program. It remains a classical, hyper-traditional musical experience — vocal, organ and instrumental — complementing the formal, liturgical approach of worship. It is all about quality. It is unapologetically high church with warmth and a Baptistic flavor.
Carl Freeman in the sanctuary of River Road Church.
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For 42 years E. Carl Freeman Jr. has provided the musical heart for River Road Church. As minister of music, he has been organist, choirmaster and a caring minister. He has created a program of excellence recognized by his professional colleagues in Richmond and far beyond. He does it with grace and aplomb which makes the unknowing think it was effortless. But it has been exhausting work in planning and executing the weekly worship, the long-running concert series, the special events and the usual requirements of weddings and funerals.
Carl Freeman has been engaged in such hard work for well over a half century. The Roanoke choir boy was introduced to the world of music through several key persons. His aunt encouraged him and provided a piano for practice. At age 7 he took lessons from “a caring, warm and nurturing” piano teacher. His high school choral director gave the boy an opportunity to be the accompanist for the school’s glee club and the organist at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Roanoke served as the boy’s first organ teacher. The fact that two of those Roanokers had attended Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore surely influenced the boy to enter the acclaimed school. Today there is an endowed scholarship in Freeman’s name at Peabody.
Carl Freeman as a young choir boy.
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Freeman studied organ under Paul Callaway, organist and choirmaster at the National Cathedral in Washington. He started his church music career at Methodist and Lutheran churches in Maryland; and in 1958 he became director of music and organist of the noted University Baptist Church in Baltimore, where the highly-gifted Vernon Richardson was pastor.
“I was 22 years old and Dr. Richardson took a big chance hiring a young whippersnapper. He gave me an opportunity to grow. I am sure that I made mistakes. I was young, brash and — not fearing the devil himself — I dived in with both feet!”
Richardson must have liked what he saw and heard. In 1965 he became pastor of River Road and told the young musician to “never make a move from University Baptist without letting him know.” One day Freeman received a call from Willie Reams, a River Road member, asking advice on the proposed organ for the Richmond church’s new sanctuary. It was not long before he was invited to come to Richmond and talk about possibilities. The beauty of a Richmond springtime, the vision of the people and pastor for their church and the appeal of building a music program conspired to attract Carl Freeman to River Road Church. He was 32 years old.
River Road attracts people who appreciate church music which has achieved the test of time. The late Robert Woodward, a Virginia Baptist minister, valued high worship. He once exclaimed of Carl Freeman, “You have brought ecstasy to my soul!” James H. Slatton, pastor emeritus, recalled the first time he, as pastor, presented the offering plates: “I had the sensation as the organ music soared into the Doxology that I was going to be swept right up into the air!”
Robert Dibble, minister of education, sees his colleague up close and personal. He observed: “Carl holds no double standards: what he demands of himself, he expects from others.”
Carl Freeman remembers the sudden death of Vernon Richardson at age 56 as “a changing moment.” “I came in September ’68. The new sanctuary building was finished in the fall of ’69 and Dr. Richardson died in December 1970. He was only in the new building for a little over a year. I took him to the hospital one afternoon and during the next Sunday morning service one of the ministers whispered to me that he had died. With the exception of the passing of my parents, his death was the most difficult thing I had experienced. It was a crushing blow.”
Freeman has worked alongside two other pastors at River Road: Jim Slatton, who also supported the strong music program, and since 2004, Michael J. Clingenpeel, who recognizes Freeman as “a competent, gifted musician who is committed to excellence.” The pastor once stated: “He knows that what he plays and directs is an offering to God, not simply a gift to the congregation. Carl cares about the people of the congregation and it is authentic.”
Over the four decades, Carl built a choir from 13 members to one that fills two stalls, created a concert series which has brought top musicians to the city and designed a state-of-the-art music suite.
Barbara Jackson joined the church in 1970 and quickly became dedicated to the choir and its director. She acknowledges that he is a hard taskmaster. “Illness was never an excuse for failure to show up. If I pleaded a bad cold and sniffles, he responded, ‘Were you dead?’ ” Barbara and a small army of loyal choristers have moved quickly to the director’s instructions. She confesses — and the others likely would agree — that it all has been wonderful: “The Sunday performances, the Thursday rehearsals, the concerts, the parties, retreats, trips ….”
Barbara and the rest of the congregation also have watched Carl Freeman “grow from ‘musician-first’ to a minister in the finest sense of the word.” She says: “His caring attention to each person, his gracious listening to each voice bending his ear, his words of comfort, his laughter, his vision of they all could become — all of this defines Carl Freeman.”
On Sunday, September 26, the congregation salutes the choirmaster. It will be a not-to-be-missed Sunday at River Road Church, Baptist.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies, located on the campus of the University of Richmond. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.