Graduate Course in Congregational Song 2023

Join scholars Dr. James Abbington, Rev. Dr. Julie Adkins, Dr. Wilma Bailey, Dr. Zebulon Highben, Roger Holland, Dr. Charlotte Kroeker, Rev. Dr. James Marriott, Rev. Dr. Don Saliers, Dr. Rene Schmidt and Rev. Dr. Paul Westermeyer in this biennial exploration of the songs of our faith.

Click here for prospectus.

Application Information:

Applications for credit should be submitted to Brite Divinity School.

Applications for auditors should be submitted to Church Music Institute. Cost for auditors is $475.

Click here for further application information and to apply.

**Deadline for applications is Wednesday, May 3, 2023.**

Faculty Information:

Dr. James Abbington is Associate Professor of Music and Worship at Candler School of Theology. Dr. Abbington's research interests include music and worship in the Christian church, African American sacred folk music, organ, choral music, and ethnomusicology. Dr. Abbington serves as executive editor of the African American Church Music Series by GIA Publications (Chicago). He served as co-director of music for the Hampton University Ministers' and Musicians' Conference. In 2010, Hampton's Choir Directors'-Organists' Guild honored Abbington by naming their Church Music Academy after him. He has also served as the national director of music for both the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the NAACP.

Dr. Wilma Ann Bailey is the Minnie Vautrin Professor of Christian Witness and Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic Scripture, Emerita, at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana. She grew up in New York City and attended public schools before entering Hunter College in the Bronx and graduating from Herbert H. Lehman College (same school, different name). She earned an MDiv from Goshen Biblical Seminary, now called Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS); she received an MA and PhD in religion, with a focus on Hebrew Bible and a minor in anthropology, from Vanderbilt University.

Bailey’s scholarly works and popular publications have usually focused on issues of peace and justice, women, and ecology. She has traveled widely in eastern and western Europe; Asia; Africa; North, Central, and South America; and the Caribbean. Her introduction to numerous cultures and languages has enriched her life immeasurably.

She currently lives in Indianapolis, where she attends Shalom Mennonite Church.

A conductor, composer, and scholar of sacred music, Dr. Zebulon M. Highben serves as Director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel and as Associate Professor of the Practice of Church Music at Duke Divinity School. He conducts the Duke Chapel Choir, edits the Music from Duke Chapel choral series, teaches courses in church music and hymnody, and oversees the Chapel’s extensive music program, which connects students, community members, staff singers, instrumentalists, and professional colleagues in myriad worship services and concerts.
As a composer, Zebulon is frequently commissioned by churches, schools, and arts organizations. More than sixty of his choral compositions, hymns, and liturgical pieces are published by eight major domestic publishing houses (Augsburg Fortress, Boosey & Hawkes, Colla Voce, E.C. Schirmer, GIA, Kjos, MorningStar, Santa Barbara) and by Gehrmans Musikförlag in Sweden. Compositional honors include awards from the American Composers Forum, The American Prize, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, ASCAP, and the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.

Roger Holland is a conductor, composer, pianist, and singer specializing in African American Music. He is a Teaching Associate Professor in Music and Religion and Director of The Spirituals Project at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he received the Master of Divinity degree, Roger also served as Artist-in-Residence and director of the Union Gospel Choir for over 13 years. In 2015 Union awarded him the Trailblazers Distinguished Alumni Award, the first given to a graduate whose ministry is music, for his contributions to the legacy of African American music. He received a Master's Degree in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, also in New York, and completed his undergraduate work at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey where he majored in Music Education with a concentration in piano and voice.

Roger is the newly appointed editor of the In Spirit and Truth series published by GIA Publications, Inc., which reflects the aesthetic of Black Catholic worship. In addition, he serves as Liturgical Music Consultant for the Archdiocese of New York Office of Black Ministry and Music Director for their special masses at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Dr. Don Horisberger holds degrees from Capital University (B.M.) and Northwestern University (M.Mus. and D.Mus.) where he studied with Karel Paukert, Wolfgang Rübsam, and Margaret Hillis.  He also studied organ and church music as a Fulbright-Hayes scholar to Germany.

His career spans service to churches in multiple denominations, with 30 years at The Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest, IL where he led adult, children’s, and handbell choirs, taking the adult choir to five week-long residencies at major English Cathedrals.  In addition, he was Associate Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus as part of his 40 year association with the CSC as singer, bass section leader, German coach.

Now semi-retired in the Madison, WI area, Don continues as guest conductor, recital organist, clinician, and lecturer.  A member of the Association of Church Musicians in Madison, he recently conducted a choral festival and played on member benefit recitals, and he continues with occasional church work, especially at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Madison.

Dr. Charlotte Kroeker came to Dallas from the University of Notre Dame where she held a faculty research position in church music. She is the author of The Sounds of Our Offerings: Achieving Excellence in Church Music, Alban Press, 2011, is editor of Music in Christian Worship, Liturgical Press, 2005, and has published numerous articles on church music.

Dr. Kroeker is trained as a performing pianist and pedagogue, spending most of her career as a college professor and administrator. Born and raised in the General Conference Mennonite Church, she has served as organist and/or choir director in Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist congregations, concurrent with her academic appointments. Dr. Kroeker has spent the last 15 years studying foundational issues for effective music in worship. In this process, she has received grants from the Lilly Endowment, Louisville Institute, Wabash Center, Indiana Arts Commission, the University of Notre Dame, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, and private donors to fund research and to convene conferences, workshops, and focus groups of university/seminary faculty, church musicians, pastors and laypersons. Dr. Kroeker oversees program development and strategic planning for CMI.

Rev. Dr. James Marriott is the Assistant Professor of Music and Department Coordinator (Chair) of Music at Concordia University Texas.  Holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in Parish Music from Concordia Nebraska and Concordia Wisconsin, respectively, he earned a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, with an emphasis in liturgical inculturation. He was also ordained into the pastoral ministry through Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He frequently lectures and performs across the United States, using workshops and hymn festivals as an opportunity to demonstrate the cultural diversity of the church. Jim and his wife, Kristi, have been married for almost twenty years and are blessed with two children, Joel and Kirstin.

Rev. Dr. Don E. Saliers returned to Candler in 2014 as Theologian-in-Residence after retiring in 2007 as the William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship. For many years he directed the Master of Sacred Music program at Emory, and was an organist and choirmaster at Cannon Chapel for 35 years. Before joining the Candler faculty in 1974, Saliers taught at Yale Divinity School, and has taught in summer programs at Notre Dame, Boston College, Vancouver School of Theology, St. John’s University, and Boston University School of Theology.
An accomplished musician, theologian and scholar of liturgics, Saliers is the author of 15 books on the relationship between theology and worship practices, as well as more than 150 articles, essays, chapters in books and book reviews. He co-authored A Song to Sing, a Life to Live with his daughter Emily Saliers, a member of the Indigo Girls.

Dr. Rene Schmidt is Director of Libraries and Associate Director of CMI. Dr. Schmidt has primary responsibility for all of the CMI libraries. In addition, Dr. Schmidt assists in administration and future planning in his role as Associate Director. Dr. Schmidt, a musicologist, church musician and educator is well equipped to serve the musicians, clergy and congregations among CMI’s clientele. Originally from Minnesota and the son of a Lutheran minister, Dr. Schmidt holds degrees from Luther College, Southern Methodist University with masters in organ and harpsichord, and the Ph.D. in musicology from the University of North Texas where his doctoral dissertation focused on the Christmas Cantatas of Christoph Graupner. Equally at home as a scholar, educator, church musician, and volunteer for historical projects in the community, Dr. Schmidt is the recipient of numerous awards from entities such as the Dallas ISD, the Dallas Symphony, and Preservation Dallas. His long, dedicated service to Christ Episcopal Church in Oak Cliff was accompanied by teaching in the Anglican School of Theology for over a decade, and numerous leadership positions in the Dallas Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Rev. Dr. Paul Westermeyer is Emeritus Professor of Church Music and Cantor at Luther Seminary, where he directed the Master of Sacred Music degree program with St. Olaf College. He has been the President of the Hymn Society, Editor of The Hymn, and Dean of the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. His life’s work has been devoted to church music and the role of the church musician. His writing includes Te Deum: The Church and Music, The Church Musician, and the Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship.