Keyboardist Cory Henry Talks Creating Community Through His ‘Church Experience’ Residency

Keyboardist Cory Henry has clocked a big year so far in 2025. His album Church won the Best Roots Gospel Grammy, his first win following several nominations.

Henry also released two new records, Divine Time and A Wonderful Holiday, and brought his acclaimed The Church Experience Residency to Los Angeles at Inglewood’s The Miracle Theater.

Church and The Church Experience are rooted in Henry’s Brooklyn church upbringing. He started The Church Experience in his native New York City two years ago and has now moved the event to his adopted hometown of Los Angeles.

Henry has a pair of special holiday Church Experiences coming up on November 16 and December 21. As it’s the season of giving, check out Cory Henry’s Live In Love Foundation, whose mission “is to spread our love for humanity by fighting against, preventing and eradicating homelessness, hunger and poverty.”

Of all the milestones Henry has marked this year, speaking with him, it’s clear that the community he’s built around The Church Experience, and especially The Apostles Community Choir he put together for the monthly event, are the things he’s most excited about.

“It’s really beautiful to witness,” Henry told JamBase. “Especially because I think church, the connotation of church, to most people gives off that you have to be a certain kind of way to be in. And we’re breaking that whole thing. You don’t have to be a certain way. You don’t have to look a certain way. You don’t have to act a certain way.”

Openness and inclusivity are pillars of Henry’s Church Experience and people are getting on board.

“I had a Muslim lady come tell me she said, ‘You brought me closer to God,'” Cory recalled. “And then I saw and talked to three Jewish men in the back raising their hands, crying. Then I got an Indian dude in my choir who didn’t grow up in church at all. I like to isolate those things because it’s literally proof every month for me now that it’s bigger.

“I’m very big on making sure that people know that it’s not a traditional event,” he added. “You can go to Sunday morning church if you want that. But what I’m building is a little bit different. All the things that I love about church, I’m kind of trying to get away from the bad things I don’t like about church and build a spiritual space, or just a music space rather. Build a music space that’s based on spirituality because I don’t see that. I haven’t seen that anywhere.

“It’s powerful to be in this position, and I don’t take it lightly,” Henry revealed. “I’m very humble and happy and blessed and grateful to God to be in this position.”

The diversity that Henry’s inclusivity brings is reflected in The Apostles Community Choir, something he is very proud of.

“I called for any singers that wanted to be a part of the Apostle Choir, and within about three to five days, about 30 people signed up,” Henry recounted. “Of course, there was somebody who I heard say on the internet not too long ago about choirs being a thing of the past. But I got a choir full of people from different ethnic backgrounds, age groups, and they all come sing together. It’s really beautiful to witness.”

The Apostles Community Choir also includes singers of all levels, from established artists to those who sing for fun or to praise God.

“I think about some of the artists because I was very shocked at the response, that artists would be a part of this,” Henry explained. “Because normally I imagine that artists are like, ‘We ain’t trying to be a part of no choir. We got our own things to do.’ So there’s a very great community of artists that are high-level singers, and then great people who are from the community that sing at churches and doing other things. The choir sounds amazing every month. I’m so proud of my choir. It’s amazing. I’ve been wanting a choir for about 15 years. Yeah, I’ve been talking about having a choir for a very long time. So I’m very happy about everybody that’s part of this choir. Shout out to the Apostle Community Choir.”

The choir made its debut appearance at The Church Experience in July as part of the ever-evolving Church Experience. Another aspect of the residency Henry highlights is that each Church Experience is new musically.

“Every month we do different stuff, so we’re actually going to highlight some music that is not even out yet,” Henry said. “I’m making a new record right now, and I wrote about 14 or 15 new songs. I think this month we’re going to just play about three or four of those. One that we have played before, but still, this music is not out officially yet. But I will say, I love all my music, but this new music I’ve written this year is kind of different than all the rest, and it’s some of the best of it. And I’m really proud of it.”

Henry also detailed The Church Experience he has planned for next month, which falls days before Christmas.

“December 21st is the next one. And I think we’ll be playing A Wonderful Holiday album, and I got some other Christmas songs or holiday songs that I haven’t performed in a long time, the jazzier ones. And hopefully I can get my group The Heavyweights or another ensemble to be a part of that. And I think that’s going to really be nice for the holidays. I’m looking forward to that.

“I’m looking to have a give-back portion attached to probably the December 21st show, where people are bringing toys or coats or some combination of that—socks or something like that. We’re probably partnering with an organization. And I think that really hammers home what I’ve been doing already, but attaching it to Church and this experience and the community stuff is, as I said before, a good deal. So we’re planning for that as well.”

Henry’s latest record, A Wonderful Holiday, isn’t your typical holiday album. It’s a Cory Henry record. So it’s funky and full of soul. He also recorded it with fellow members of Stevie Wonder‘s touring band when they had days off while touring with the legendary artist last year.

One of the standout tracks on A Wonderful Holiday is “Santa Blues,” which Cory said was his favorite at the time as well.

“That’s like, when have you ever heard a Santa diss record? Everybody be loving Santa so much. Yeah, I’m not with that right now. I let him know.”

Be sure to check out info on Cory Henry’s upcoming holiday Church Experiences and other concerts below. The keyboardist is a highly collaborative musician who is currently playing with Marcus King at the Blue Note Los Angeles. He also recently joined Billy Strings’ band for their “Meet Me At The Crypt” Halloween concert in Baltimore and guested on the guitarist’s Apple Music Nashville Sessions.

“I’m always inspired when I play with Billy, because those guys can really play,” Henry said. “Yeah, they can really play like high level. I haven’t spent a lot of time in that world, but when I listen to his music and the music that we made together and stuff like that, I start to make a few similarities, connections to it, and I’m able to kind of get into the vibes and the energy of the room and the musicianship. Everything was just lots and lots of fun. I had a great time.”