Unity, Beauty & Service: Jack Lenz’ 3 Themes for Every Artist

In this episode, Cloud9 interviews Canadian producer, composer, and musical director Jack Lenz. Born in a small Saskatchewan town, Jack first learned about the Baha’i Faith while attending university, through his fine art professor and renowned artist Otto Don Rogers. Soon after, he found himself on the road with other young Baha’is writing music and performing for Jalal, a band formed to share the teachings of Baha’u’llah through music across Canada. This landed him a gig touring with the 70’s musical duo Seals & Crofts, and found him sharing the same teachings to even larger crowds around the world.

Having learned much from his experience on the road, Jack returned to Canada and began scoring, producing and arranging music for motion pictures, television series, documentaries, award shows and news programs. Jack wanted to find a way to express Baha’i concepts in melody and song, so he turned to writing sing-able songs for children, which soon became household staples for Baha’i children around the world.

Arts, crafts and sciences uplift the world of being, and are conducive to its exaltation. Knowledge is as wings to man’s life, and a ladder for his ascent. Its acquisition is incumbent upon everyone. The knowledge of such sciences, however, should be acquired as can profit the peoples of the earth, and not those which begin with words and end with words. Great indeed is the claim of scientists and craftsmen on the peoples of the world. Unto this beareth witness the Mother Book in this conspicuous station. – Baha’u’llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, pp. 26-27.

In this interview Jack shares his theory about three universal themes for artists, inherent and embedded in Baha’u’llah’s teachings: unity, beauty and service. We discuss these themes and how he strives to weave them into his own work as a composer, how he’s learned to rely on prayer and call on spirits and souls in the next world to guide his creative process. We talk about the importance of routine to excel in one’s craft, and learn about an exciting new songbook project that he’s just completed, as well.

You can contact Jack via his website.

Check out Jack’s extensive discography.