Daniel Reynaud
Nothing Is Wasted, Brandstater Amphitheatre, March 23, 2011
Dell Lawrence
Assistant editor, Fine Arts Series
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
Academic by day, artist by night: Daniel Reynaud at the launch of his album Nothing Is Wasted. Credit: Heath Bennett.
Daniel Reynaud is an academic by day—an associate professor, he is dean of the Faculty of Arts and Theology—and, at least at the launch of Nothing Is Wasted in the Brandstater Amphitheatre on March 23, an artist by night.
The album touches heavily on Daniel’s life experiences. “The songs come straight from recognising the things that don’t go right for me are the most helpful to me,” he said in his introduction. It is fitting then that the album title comes from knowing God works through mistakes and for that reason, no experiences, good or bad, are wasted.
As a performer, Daniel is laid back but engaging, humorous but contemplative. His songs are powerful, but it is not the delivery that makes them so. Rather, their power comes from Daniel’s conviction and sincerity. In the words of Beethoven, “The real artist has no pride.”
Daniel is an excellent wordsmith, often including in his lyrics puns and clever twists on well-known sayings to provoke thought within his listeners.
The launch of Nothing Is Wasted proved a fun, moving and spiritually enriching experience. It is difficult to balance entertainment with ministry, but Daniel accomplished exactly that.
Nothing Is Wasted, released on the Psalter Music label, is available for $20 from the Adventist Book Centre in Cooranbong. All profits from the sale go to Kidz4Him, a ministry of Rob and Sheree Moodie that cares for the thousands of children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in Zambia.