Martha Munizzi will turn Gallo Center into a place filled with worship

By LISA MILLEGAN
lmillegan@modbee.com

last updated: September 04, 2008 03:55:38 PM

Don't expect an ordinary concert when gospel singer Martha Munizzi comes to the Gallo Center for the Arts next weekend. There might be an altar call.

"It's definitely a worship experience — a lot of high praise," she said during a phone interview from her Orlando, Fla., home. "We'll have a lot of fun. We really want to see what God wants to do in the place."

She believes good worship music should bring encouragement and hope and be uplifting.

"Those are the kind of songs that I love for worship," she said. "Songs that are scriptural, songs that make me celebrate and build my faith and stir my faith and really take us into God's throne, where we hear from him."

Munizzi has been singing since age 8 and is known for her cross-generational, multi-ethnic praise and worship music. As a child, she performed with her family in concerts and crusades around the United States and Canada.

At 16, she and her sisters formed the praise ensemble Testament, which performed at church events throughout Florida. During that time, she met her husband, Dan, a bassist and keyboardist with the group, whom she married in 1987. He got her excited about black gospel music from artists like Andraé Crouch and Fred Hammond.

"Fred Hammond was a tremendous inspiration in my life," she said. "The songs that he's written have been blessings."

Other gospel artists she admires are CeCe Winans, Kirk Franklin and Donnie McClurkin.

Munizzi and her husband took a job directing music at the Orlando-area church FaithWorld in 1993. By the time they left in 2001, the congregation had grown from 25 members to a megachurch of more than 5,000. Since then, the Munizzis have operated their own record label, Martha Munizzi Ministries.

While Munizzi spends much of her time performing at churches, this isn't the first time she has sung at a performing-arts center. She thinks a new trend is that more Christians will get involved in mainstream media, including TV and movies.

"Churches are branching out beyond their four walls," she said.

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