Crown & Covenant hasn’t produced a psalm recording for children since 2007, and that was a video to teach sign language. The last children’s psalm CD for listening was released in 2002. Lord willing, in the first quarter of 2016, Crown & Covenant will have a new offering for children: the I Am: Kids Sing Psalms album.

Designed to encourage little ones to become more familiar with psalms so that they can participate more fully in worship and build their Scripture memory, this CD should help children make a connection between these worship songs from the Old Testament and the incarnate Savior who appears in the New Testament.

The Selections

Each psalm selection is paired with an “I am” saying of Christ. Project leader Lynne Gordon, with consultant Lori McCracken, chose psalms that were singable for children’s voices and that reflected what the Messiah said about Himself. All selections are from The Book of Psalms for Worship.

On the CD, a child recites the scripture, and then the choir sings the psalm. For example, when Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (John 10:14 ESV), the related Psalm is 23C, whose first verse is “The Lord’s my shepherd; I will lack nothing. He makes me lie down in pastures green. He leads by calm streams, And He revives me; He guides in right ways For His name’s sake.”

The Singers

The 25 choristers on the CD were chosen from four of the choirs of the Pittsburgh School for the Choral Arts (PSCA): Vivo is the boys choir, Harmonia and Via are two of the girls training choirs, and Concentio is comprised of girls in grades 7-12. Artistic Director Kathryn Barnard rehearsed and directed the singers.

The CD was recorded over two Saturdays in the auditorium of Covenant Fellowship RPC in Wilkinsburg, Pa., and has a sweet sound that reverberates naturally in the rich room acoustics. All of the singing is a cappella in both unison and harmony. The RPCNA’s own Eden Smith, who is a senior member of the PSCA’s touring choir, joined the children and added her alto to the mix.

The PSCA is known in Pittsburgh for its music education and outreach, but also for its tours. Beginning in 2005 under the name Oakland Girls Choir, the choir strives to teach the joy of singing as well as musical excellence. “We feel privileged to team up with them on this project,” said Lynne Gordon. “We have a recording with high-quality voices.”

More information about the PSCA can be found at pghchoralarts.org.

The Artwork

Artist Deborah Alexander created the artwork for the I Am CD.

Alexander is a young Christian illustrator based in Pittsburgh, Pa., and a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art. On her website, she wrote that in everything that she does, she hopes “to show that the things which are good are also beautiful.”

For this CD cover, Alexander began her illustrations by sketching rough concepts on tracing paper. Most of the exploration and revision happened in this pencil stage, she said. She then transferred the finalized sketch to illustration board that she textured with layers of gesso, a white paint mixture that usually contains chalk and gypsum. Next came a base of watercolor, and then shading and details with colored pencil.

“The gesso layer on the board causes the watercolor to be a little bit more forgiving, and also catches the paint and pencil in surprising patterns,” explained Alexander.

“It is difficult to get crisp edges for fine detail with this method,” she said, “so for this illustration I’ve created the art for each object separately, and assembled them digitally.”

To learn more about her work, visit www.alexillus.com.

The Release

The I Am CD will be available for $12 at crownandcovenant.com and by digital download for $8.