The Morgan Hill Presbyterian Church (16970 DeWitt Avenue)
recently announced a new worship leader for the church’s
Contemporary Worship Service, held Sunday mornings at 10:45. Daniel
Dupre comes to the position with a wide variety of professional
experiences.
The Morgan Hill Presbyterian Church (16970 DeWitt Avenue) recently announced a new worship leader for the church’s Contemporary Worship Service, held Sunday mornings at 10:45. Daniel Dupre comes to the position with a wide variety of professional experiences.
Dupre has a vast experience with music: 25 years with more than 1,500 bookings as a performing artist in a broad range of styles and venues, including radio and television. He plays guitar, piano, bass and mandolin, with a strong emphasis on vocals and styles of music from Celtic folk to modern Christian alternative rock. He has also had some classical training on piano and studied cello under Robert Grant, cellist with the San Francisco Opera.
Born in San Jose but now a resident of Fremont, the new worship leader is no stranger to Morgan Hill. His grandparents retired to a home on Dunne Avenue in the 1960’s, and he has an aunt presently living in the city.
Dupre was raised in a large Roman Catholic family and remembers listening to the choir at Mass and being drawn to God through music. He felt called to the priesthood, attending St. Joseph’s and St. Patrick’s seminaries until disillusionment with the Catholic clergy caused him to discontinue these studies in 1980.
While performing as a secular musician in San Francisco a few years later, he met two Protestant pastors who told him about the new church they were starting. After they attended a gig he was playing, he attended their church. He had a conversion experience which brought him back to Christ.
While continuing to play in secular groups, Dupre began his new career by spending 17 years at Crossroads Church in Fremont as a church musician and later as music director. Since 2004 he has served as Worship Leader at Christ the King Episcopal Church in Campbell.
There he has been responsible for a Sunday night service known as Access Cafe, featuring drums, bass, guitars and vocals. He describes its appeal to a “younger group” which enjoys Christian rock music. Dupre intends to continue leading this service for a while because “people pour their hearts out while experiencing God and spontaneous fellowship.”
Dupre’s secular employment is as senior district manager for Know Chess! Inc., a Fremont firm which provides after-school chess instruction to 1,600 students around the Bay Area. He enjoys seeing children “occupied constructively,” pointing out that “Chess is healthy for kids’ intellects: it teaches important life skills like critical thinking and creative problem solving.”
Dupre hopes his music at Morgan Hill Presbyterian “will move people to worship God while displaying cultural relevance for people who are not necessarily attending church now.”
The church’s pastor, the Rev. Mark Inouye, comments favorably on “the transition to contemporary and modern/post modern music. Daniel’s ‘new’ church music will be helping our congregation move to be more relevant in our community.”
Morgan Hill Presbyterian Church also has a traditional worship service Sunday mornings at 9. For more information call the church at (408) 779-2820.
