The Church Music Institute is a program for church music directors that has been around for over 35 years. Like so many things, it was paused by the pandemic, and returned after a two-year hiatus this year. There was a real sense of energy as students returned from previous years and reconnected with old friends. It was my first time, but I appreciated the history and camaraderie of the institute. Many of the attendees were experienced music directors, and some were organists serving a church for the first time; one was a recent conservatory graduate who had an interest in church music.
We spent the week in sessions with the director, Wayne Wold, and the featured clinician, Tom Trenney. Wayne is a well-known organist, composer, and church musician who has served many churches. Among his more interesting positions was a long tenure as organist at the chapel at Camp David, where he met several presidents, and even led one of them as they sang in the choir! Tom Trenney is well known in church music circles as an organist and choral director. I’ve had a few chances to work with Tom over the years, and I always learn a lot from his gentle and creative approach to leading a church music program.
The institute features ten worship services—two each day—all planned and led by the attendees (except for the first one). From small chapel prayer meetings to full-length services with a sermon, we each gained quite a bit of experience planning and delivering meaningful worship experiences with a variety of music, readings, Psalms, and prayers.
The high point of the week was a hymn festival–not too different from the one we just had on June 26! The students served as the choir, and Tom as the organist, and we led a congregation at Grace Lutheran Church in Winchester through a collection of hymns organized around the theme “Will You Come and Follow Me.” As you can see from the picture, the student body included many more men than women, so we had to be a little bit creative with the voicings of some of the music.
I want to thank the church for the opportunity to attend workshops like this. I always come back renewed and full of new ideas for making music here at WPC. With inspiration like this, I’m sure we can keep our musical offerings fresh, energetic, and meaningful for a long time to come.
Pictured above - The students and faculty of the Church Music Institute at the Hymn Festival. I’m in the second row, second from the left. To my left is Wayne Wold, the institute’s director, and at the other end of that row is Tom Trenney, our clinician.
