BYU music professor honored

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    By Matthew Pruitt

    Before Mindy Gledhill, before Cherie Call, before Julie de Azevedo ? there was Ron Simpson, and he knew them and he taught them.

    His influence on these artists and countless others was recognized Tuesday, July 25, during the 2006 Pearl Awards, while a number of other artists who have come after him were also honored.

    Pearl Awards are voted on by the Faith Centered Music Association and given each year to artists and industry leaders who represent the best of the LDS music industry.

    Simpson said it was an honor for him to be given the Lifetime Achievement award by his peers.

    ?These are people I?ve worked with for years and years in most cases,? he said. ?And to be honored among them is something special.?

    As a songwriting professor at BYU, Simpson cherishes the opportunity to have guided many of today?s LDS music performers to where they are now. Simpson has been at BYU since 1984 and has enjoyed teaching such artists as Julie de Azevedo, Cherie Call, April Meservy and Mindy Gledhill.

    ?I take a lot of joy from their success,? Simpson said.

    Mindy Gledhill, of Lumen Records, who received the Inspirational Recording Pearl Award this year for the song ?Emma,? first attained success in her music career with Simpson?s help.

    ?Before I met him, I didn?t know how to write a song,? said Gledhill, 25, a BYU senior from California majoring in media music. ?[Without Simpson] I don?t know if I?d be doing music.?

    Simpson?s tutelage prepared Gledhill to audition, even with a migraine, for the song that won her a Pearl Award.

    Another of Simpson?s former songwriting students, Cherie Call, of Highway Records, attributes much of her success to his class.

    ?He taught me so much about writing lyrics,? said Call, Pearl Award winner for Contemporary Recording of the song ?Holding On,? from the album ?Beneath These Stars,? which also won an award. ?I?d always loved writing songs, but I think all the pieces fit together when I was in that class.? She added, ?He could be the biggest influence on me as a songwriter.?

    Aside from Simpson and his students, national acts William Joseph and Billy Dean attended the Pearl Awards.

    Joseph received six awards at Tuesday?s ceremony.

    It was fitting for an artist signed by Warner Bros.? major recording label, Reprise Records, and whose instrumental performance Tuesday received a standing ovation.

    Joseph began playing the piano at age 5, but it wasn?t until after his LDS mission to Australia that he got his break in the industry.

    ?When I came home, I was eventually introduced to David Foster [a senior vice president of the Warner Music Group and previous producer for Celine Dion, Barbara Streisand and Whitney Houston],? Joseph said.

    Joseph showed up early, with a friend who wanted to introduce Joseph to Foster, at a rehearsal before Rod Stewart and Reba McEntire?s concert in Phoenix. Joseph asked Foster if he could play the piano and Foster consented.

    ?Thirty seconds into it Dave started conducting to the rest of the band members that were on stage, and the next thing I knew I was totally playing with a world class band,? Joseph said.

    Foster was so pleased with Joseph?s performance, he invited Joseph to open that night for Rod Stewart and Reba McEntire.

    ?That meeting with David Foster ? it changed my life,? Joseph said.

    That same song, titled ?Within,? is the song that won him the 2006 Pearl Award for Inspirational/Contemporary Instrumental Recording.

    Billy Dean didn?t receive any awards; however, he gave a memorable performance of his hit single, ?Let Them Be Little,? with Marvin Goldstein on the piano. He subsequently sang, with Goldstein and Thurl Bailey, ?I Am a Child of God,? an arrangement on their nominated album, ?Friends & Brothers.?

    Dean, who is not LDS, was drawn into the album after seeing his long-lost friend, Goldstein, in the Atlanta airport.

    ?Marvin had an organization called ?Peace with Music,? and I just thought that whole brand right there of peace with music was something I wanted to be a part of,? Dean said. ?I was in between record labels, I had just left Capitol Records, which meant I was free to do any kind of project I wanted to do.?

    Both Dean and Goldstein knew Bailey, so they contacted him to form a group.

    ?We said, now how cool would it be if we had a Jewish Mormon, an African-American Mormon and a southern-country-redneck Baptist all get together, and try to blow down some boundaries and stigmas and just do music,? Dean said.

    Dean enjoyed his visit to Utah and even joked during the program about wanting to get baptized after seeing how great the music is here.

    ?Tonight was a pinnacle for me to be here at BYU, to see the curriculum, the product that?s coming out of here, the support for music ? music having a social conscience about it,? he said. ?It was just me listening and being at the right place at the right time and doing what God said do.?

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