Often when we think about summer we think about slowing down, vacations, time off, our regular activities cease to exist for the time being. Teachers often are told silly things like “you don’t work in the summer”…and church musicians too – you might look up on the chancel or stage on Sunday and see a different set of eyes looking back at you or maybe your choir is not there and you have a soloist instead. It is true that we all need space for rest in the summer but here at WCUMC we have been doing so many other things. Musical and creative and interesting – just not our normal routine. That’s what makes it fun.

First this summer Dawn (WCUMC’s traditional worship associate/handbell director), Valerie (WCUMC’s children’s music director/modern worship associate) and I spent a week at the beautiful Lake Junaluska. Lake Junaluska Music & Arts Week was an incredible week of creating, learning, studying, and dreaming. Valerie took Nina to the children’s music area and watched the amazing James Wells create music with the kids, Dawn played in the bells learning from some of the greats in our country around handbell ringing, and I studied rehearsal techniques from colleagues in all the choirs/levels. We worshipped every morning and came back to Mooresville filled with the spirit, filled with even more appreciation for each other, and a tighter team to lead you into the new year.

After returning from Music and Arts Week Valerie worked tirelessly to pull together the music camp for kids which was a huge success and Dawn has been working with brand new ringers in some new experiences with new faces! They are learning so much and having the best time!

The Praise Team and I are working on some technical things – making our in ear monitors work better for us, tightening up our harmonies for sunday mornings, and learning some new praise songs that have the theme of general praise! We realize that a lot of our songs are medium tempo or slower so we have been working on some fun upbeat songs that can be led by our excellent female voices. We are excited to share them with you.

Traditional worship has enjoyed a time of rest with guest soloists from the choir. They each have done songs to draw us in and pull on our heart strings as many of the songs are from our memories and childhoods. Thank you to each of them! Our choir will be back in full force with a kick off date of August 14th. Stay tuned for more information!