By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — Maybe we can simply call it showmanship but there is a great deal of Broadway flair in a musical presentation by Pepper Choplin. Without question, those attending the worship service at Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church on Nov. 9 — and a mid-afternoon concert — were captivated and entertained.

Choplin is a world-renowned composer and arranger mostly of sacred choral music, although his work is increasingly embraced by school-based choral groups, too. He was in Blowing Rock at the invitation of Rumple for the church’s annual “Composer Weekend” organized by music director David McCollum and pastor, Kathy Beach, with other leaders of the church.

Originally conceived in 2020, the launch of the workshop series was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, Joseph Martin was the guest of the church. This year it was Choplin. Next year, McCollum announced to the choir this past week the guest composer will be Mark Hayes on Nov. 8, 2026.

As bright lights in the world of sacred choral music go, it doesn’t get much brighter than Martin, Choplin and Hayes. At Rumple on Nov. 9, Choplin delivered with divine inspiration and an abundance of humor.

I soon realized that mechanical reasoning was not my forte.

The workshop weekend consisted of three parts. First, a nearly three-hour rehearsal session with Rumple’s sanctuary choir on Saturday, Nov. 8. Second was a 5-anthem performance of Choplin’s compositions at the 11 a.m. worship service. And finally, there was a 2 p.m. free concert on Sunday, Nov. 9, featuring Choplin on the piano accompanying often cleverly hilarious solo vocals, as well as a 2-anthem performance by the Rumple sanctuary choir.

Not His First Choice?

A native of Raleigh, N.C., Choplin got his undergraduate degree at UNC-Greensboro and his Master’s in Music Composition at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Some of us wanted to be astronauts or President of the United States, when we grow up. At a very young age, music composition wasn’t Choplin’s first choice of careers.

“When I was ready to turn five years old, I started taking piano lessons. I enjoyed music and I always wanted to create something. As a small kid, I determined that I was going to be an inventor and read all the inventor books. But I soon realized that mechanical reasoning was not my forte. So, I gravitated toward music and said, OK, I’ll be a composer. So, I had that dream from a pretty young age,” said Choplin.

There was nothing in Nashville worth changing who I really was.

“I studied piano and banjo at first, then got more serious about it in college. I took some composition lessons then decided to get my master’s degree in composition,” he said. “I also toyed with the idea of becoming a songwriter. I went to Nashville a couple of times, interested in either country music or Christian music. I discovered there was a greater need for good choral music than there was for one more person to compete in the world of country music.”

To make it in country music, Choplin learned you pretty much had to be on site, in Nashville, rather than trying to do it remotely.

“Country music is alive and well, and even growing, but there was nothing in Nashville that was worth changing who I really was,” said Choplin. “When I was in Nashville, I saw this look in just about everybody’s eyes, like they were thinking, ‘Gosh, I hope this works so I get paid and get another job.’

“Everyone starting out,” he added, “is pretty much self-employed in a business that doesn’t pay a whole lot. Even songwriters… unless you are at the very top getting the big hit, you can’t make a living being a songwriter.”

Choplin recalled a very intentional decision on his part.

“I found a great need for good choral music and music that has a heart about it. Music that is personally moving. So, I was having some success in that market, gravitated toward that and found a real opening for my music,” said Choplin.

Messages With Meaning

One of the songs performed by the Rumple choir during Composer Weekend and in a recent Rumple worship service is Choplin’s “We Are Not Alone.” It’s one of those combinations of lyrics and melody that will rattle around in your head for seemingly days after you hear it.

“The reason I did that… I really enjoy writing words. I found that I was writing a page full of words in any given song. The choir might be getting (what the words meant), but the congregation was hearing the song and its words just one time. So, unless they listened very carefully that one time, they weren’t getting the message.

I was feeling the heartbreak.

“So, I challenged myself to write a song with as few words as possible. As I was thinking about that, I heard a country song that triggered something in me. The song wasn’t about ‘We are not alone,’ but in the middle of the song the guy singing said, ‘You know in this world, we are not on our own,’” Choplin recalled.

And that led to inspiration.

“Mmmm, I thought. We are not on our own,” said Choplin. “We are not alone. Now that is a worthy thought. What if I repeated that over and over again and that is all you said, basically, in the whole song? At first I thought that it might get boring, but then recalled that composer Ravel did ‘Boléro’ and it was over eight minutes of the same musical phrasing, repeating. Dum-da-da-da-dum. So, I figured I could do it for two and a half minutes! Every time I thought I would put in some more words, I would stop myself and say, ‘No, you are going for as few words as possible. So just stay on that.’ Which is what I did, then put a little Celtic countermelody on top of it, which is the solos. The ‘We Are Not Alone’ phrasing goes up at times, into a different chord.”

Songs From The Heart

Like most composers, Choplin has a back story to every song he writes. That is arguably what makes his music so accessible. It is personal.

One of his most powerful songs is aptly titled, “One Song.”

“We had a new Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh and I wanted to do a big concert. They had just opened it and we were the second choir to sing there. I invited one of my friends to be part of it with his church choir. He checked with his pastor and they said, OK. I asked another friend (at another church), who checked with his pastor and they said OK, too. But when one of the pastors heard that the other church was going to (participate, too), then he said, no, we are not going to be in the same choir with that other church.”

Choplin said he was very disappointed. He thought, why can’t we work together on this wonderful story to tell.

“The music was called, ‘Once Upon a Tree.’ It was about the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ,” recalled Choplin. “When the one pastor said they wouldn’t work with the other church, I was haunted by that. So, I woke up with this melody in my head. I was feeling this heartbreak. So, I put that heartbreak into ‘One Song,’ thinking one day perhaps we can sing together, joining together in one song.

“There is some special language, like ‘When God’s family is wounded by holy war.’ Holy war is in all lower case,” said Choplin, intimating the local nature of the conflict. “There are lots of things we can fight about, but I have a yearning for us all to be working together.”

Understanding Variety

In one sense, Choplin’s body of work unifies music across many different genres.

“I wrote quite a number of songs that have a sort of folk element about them. I think that was just my Southern heritage coming through,” said Choplin. “When I would hear the open fifths and that kind of music structure, there was something in my DNA that just resonates with it. It was actually very convenient because it was when ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’ was out and everyone was loving the film produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring George Clooney. The music was performed by the fictitious Soggy Bottom Boys.

“I grew up playing banjo so that was part of my scene, too. I’d go up to North Wilkesboro to Merlefest,” Choplin recalled. “I didn’t perform. I just went several times and was soaking up everything. I’d hear something like the blues and start thinking, ‘I should write a blues song for the church.’ So, I later did and it turned out pretty well.”

Embracing Influences

The old Negro spirituals have been enthusiastically embraced by church and school-based choirs and choral groups through the years. They have even influenced modern-day composers and Choplin has not been immune.

“I came along at a time when church music was changing dramatically, going from traditional to contemporary. I have always looked for something that had energy, even if it didn’t fit the mold of a contemporary praise band,” said Choplin.

Churches are open to spirituals when they might not be open to rock music, especially in the choral realm.

“African American spirituals have an energy about them,” he noted. “I found that churches are open to spirituals when they might not be open to rock music, especially in the choral realm. Spirituals have an intrinsic, homegrown feel to them, like they have been through the ages rather than something that someone had created just this year. I found that my choirs really enjoy something with that approach to it, with the rhythm. In fact, they are more open to rhythm if (the song) is like a spiritual.”

For the former African American slaves to have composed and written such beautiful Christian-inspired music while being persecuted and under such extreme hardship conditions is something to be admired.

“That is an aspect of it, too. Some of those songs, it is not just that they are spirituals but people listen and say to themselves, ‘I can relate to that.’ They think of ‘Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.’ That is strong… When you hear, ‘In the morning when I rise’ that is part of ‘Give Me Jesus’… Desperation is not limited to one race or background. When you hear a song like ‘Go Down Moses,’ it just feels really real, to me.”

I am expanding into music for community choirs and school groups. I’ve done some settings for the words of John Muir, who is widely known as the father of our National Parks. When he writes, ‘The snow is melting into music,’ I have to do something with it.

Choplin says he is always looking for new things we haven’t experienced yet.

“In Africa, there is a lot of that influence in choral music now. There is a raw energy about it. Take my song, ‘Fill-a Me Up.’ That has kind of an African feel to it.”

Well established in the market for church and choral music, Choplin says he isn’t stopping.

“I am still doing church music, but I am expanding into music for community choirs and school groups,” he said. “I’ve done some settings for the words of John Muir, who is widely known as the father of the National Parks. His writings are very, very poetic. He was a biologist, but with phrases like, ‘The snow is melting into music.’ When I hear things like that, I have to (do something with it).

I did one titled, ‘Like a Lighthouse’ for a church on the coast but it turned out to be a pretty good seller. It was sung widely in Oklahoma!”

“So, I am working on that,” he added, “but I also have a piece coming out that sings Pi, it’s 3.141596 and it pitches up the scale. Because of the pitch it sounds like a Broadway piece but it is a school piece. We’ll see what they do with that, but it is published.”

When asked about how many songs he has published, you learn how prolific Choplin has been in producing songs under his “brand,” intentionally.

“I think it is around 360, but there are plenty of songs I have written that haven’t been published. A lot of those unpublished songs have been commissioned to write for a specific church. They wanted the song composed tightly to their theme, so there may not be a wider, universal appeal because it doesn’t apply to everybody. That said, I did one titled, ‘Like a Lighthouse’ for a church on the coast but it turned out to be a pretty good seller. It was sung widely in Oklahoma!”

Understanding Markets and Branding

Unlike some other composers, Choplin doesn’t publish songs under different pen names.

“I tried it, but I wasn’t writing nearly as much as Joseph Martin, for instance,” Choplin said. “Plus, as I was trying to get established.  If something did well, I wanted MY (emphasis added) name to be on it because I was trying to build my brand.  I write in different styles but I wasn’t changing the name because I figured I needed the notoriety.”

Blowing Rock and the High Country have a special place in Choplin’s heart.

“Growing up, this was a favorite place to come as a kid. A little bit of skiing! I love it up here. If I could figure out a way to get a place up here… I’m probably coming in late. I should have bought something in 2020 rather than 2025 or 2026. Real estate prices are pretty high. I was just talking to a friend here and he said the value of his condo has almost doubled since he bought it in 2020.”

Choplin may not be buying real estate in Blowing Rock any time soon, but you can bet that the members of Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church and its sanctuary choir will welcome him any time he wants to visit again.