The heralded Kurt Carr with the Kurt Carr Singers and the Choir of Life has been making disciples of all nations through the power of song. Kurt and his seven-voice ensemble make music that is truly multi-cultural and international in scope, and One Church is easily one of the most adventuresome and exciting entries into the lexicon of modern Gospel.
 "I've felt God impressing on me that it was time to really reach out to the world with our music," says Kurt, "so it was very important to me to draw on the talents of people of different races, ages, nationalities, and doctrinal backgrounds-all to solidify the theme and the truth that we really are one church in Christ. I think there's something on this
album that all believers will be touched by."
One Church is Kurt's first release since 2000's Awesome Wonder. Awesome Wonder is a multi-award winning, gold certified album. In the interim between that breakthrough album-winner of six of Gospel music's coveted Stellar Awards-and One Church, Kurt picked up four more Stellars for his role as producer of the self-titled, debut album of 2003's Gospel sensation and New Artist of the Year, Byron Cage.
As gifted a songwriter as he is an artist, instrumentalist, producer, arranger and conductor, Kurt has twice written the Stellar Songs of the Year; Byron Cage's smash, "The Presence of the Lord Is Here," as well as his own group's classic, "In the Sanctuary." So broad in fact is the reach of Kurt's music that "In the Sanctuary" has, to date, been translated into nine different languages and recorded by more than 20 different acts the world over.
Kurt's family was not deeply involved in church when he was a child, but at the age of 13 he found himself drawn there on his own, quickly becoming active in the music program. And while music was his original passion in the church, the forming of a personal relationship with Christ would follow over the next several years.
"I think the Lord brought me along in a gradual sort of way until I was around 17," Kurt recalls. "I began to realize that there was a greater meaning and higher calling to what I was doing. I heard Him telling me that this was what I was supposed to do with my life, and that He was going to use me for His purposes, and I accepted that and Him. But I never for a second dreamed He would ever use me to this magnitude. It's been quite amazing to me."
Kurt went on to obtain a degree in music from the University of Connecticut, focusing in the classroom on classical music, but all the while absorbing the sounds of the street and the world around him as well. His first national recognition came when he spent seven years as pianist and musical director for James Cleveland, who had discovered him when he was playing one year at the annual conference of the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA), as well as a year accompanying Gospel's equally legendary Andrae Crouch.
Kurt's abundance and range of talent, coupled with those high-profile associations, led to the position of Creative Director at Los Angeles' renowned West Angeles COGIC Church, where he worked with luminaries from both the Gospel and secular music industry, including Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Denzel Washington, Lynn Whitfield, and Kirk Franklin.
He formed the Kurt Carr Singers in the early '90s, releasing the first of his now five albums. Though it would be several years and three projects later, Kurt emerged as a serious force to be reckoned with when his song "For Every Mountain," released initially on his own album, No One Else, was covered by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, and won a Grammy Award in 1995. Wildly popular, the song was recorded by more than ten other artists and today is considered a standard of the church.
No One Else scored well on the charts, but most significantly, it set the stage for the explosive success of its follow-up, Awesome Wonder. With One Church now poised to carry the Kurt Carr to even greater heights, Kurt-who received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Ohio 's Aenon Bible College in 2001-is focused ultimately on a refreshingly humble and simple-but-profound lifetime goal.
"When it's all finished, and the Lord has called me home, there's just one thing I hope people will be able to say about me," he concludes. "And that's, `Well done, kid.'"
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