Songwriter Graham Kendrick's offer for big project

BRITAIN'S leading worship leader and songwriter Graham Kendrick will be offering a big international audience a big budget album and TV project 'Millennium Chorus'. Among the artists participating on the recording and the TV show are Boyz II Men, Michael W Smith, Bob Carlisle, Michael Crawford, the American Boys Choir with two more "major mainstream artists" to be announced shortly. The album is produced by veteran American inspirational producer Greg Nelson.
Said Nelson about the project, "Here is an attempt to tell the message of Christ in a socially relevant way, using players the world knows." The project began when Kendrick, who had been writing a Christmas production and had been thinking about the millennium, met British entrepreneur Graham Lacey, who had also been mulling over the end of the century. Said Kendrick, "He wanted there to be a piece of music out there that tells the story of Christ and he was looking for a writer." In January 1998 Kendrick and Lacey joined forces with Kendrick focusing on songwriting and Lacey planning the video/TV project. The 15-song project is not a musical. Said Kendrick, "'Millennium Chorus' is comprised of stand-alone songs framed by the overall lyrical theme of a journey from creation's dawn to new creation's dawn. Two or three cuts will be easily accessible to everyone, whatever their religious beliefs. What I hope I've actually accomplished is not to compromise on the real story, but to try to put it in non-religious ways."