Church Music Institute

John delRe & Kelly Macklin

Week 1: June 16–21, 2024

Sessions on shape-note traditions in history and practice and the compilation of songbooks. Optional pre-conference Shape-Note Sing in nearby Boyce, Virginia, on Saturday, June 15.

John delRe and Kelly Macklin have lived in the Shenandoah Valley for 37 years and they raised two children and a flock of sheep on a small farm. They are masons and carpenters. They have been singing shape-note music for 35 years in large and small groups, from Warsaw, Poland to Portland, Oregon, and Maine to Georgia. They have sung mostly from “The Sacred Harp,” one of the many shape-note tunebooks that were published in the early to mid 1800s. From 2010 to 2012 they compiled and printed their own tunebook of 450 tunes, using tunes from the Shenandoah Valley as a basis for the book. Since 2013 they have sung from both “The Shenandoah Harmony” and “The Sacred Harp.” They have done numerous workshops and presentations about the shape-note tradition in both current practice and history. In 2011 they were awarded a Virginia Folklife Society master status.

Dr. A. Steven Jennnings

Week 1: June 16–21, 2024

Sessions on African-American Spirituals and Gospel and their use in worship.

Dr. A. Steve Jennings was born in Newport News, Virginia, where he attended the area public schools. He earned his Bachelor of Music Education in 1980, his Master of Music Education in 1987, and his Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Education in 2004. He did post-graduate work in special education and taught special education in the Winchester/Frederick County area, in both private and public schools, for ten years. In 1993, Dr. Jennings became the choral director and special education teacher for students with learning disabilities and emotional handicaps at the newly opened Sherando High School in Frederick County, Virginia, where he taught for 30 years, retiring in June 2023. Steve was the director of the Shenandoah Valley Chapter of the Sweet Adeline International Inc., in Winchester, and Choral Director at Woodstock Christian Church in Woodstock, Virginia, was an adjunct professor of music at Lord Fairfax Community College from 1997 through 2000, and was a member of the chamber choir Musica Viva of Winchester, Virginia, from 2001 through 2003. He is currently director of music at Market Street United Methodist Church in Winchester, Virginia, and also the lead singer in the 50’s Jazz Band “Jump Alley.”

Dr. Jennings has been sought after as a choral adjudicator, coach and guest conductor throughout the East Coast. In 2007, the Sherando High School Choral Department, under the direction of Dr. Jennings, toured Italy singing in Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. In 1995, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2008 and 2011, Sherando’s Concert Choir was selected to perform at the White House in Washington, D.C., during the Christmas holiday season. In 1997 his concert choir performed with U.S. Navy Band on national television for the “Lighting of the National Christmas Tree.” In 1997, 2000 and again in 2014 the Sherando High School Concert Choir was selected to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and in 2009 they were asked by the National Park Service to perform at the 150th celebration of John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry. In 2007 Dr. Jennings was awarded the Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award at Yale University. In 2013 the choral department of Sherando High School performed again at Carnegie Hall as a guest for the New York Music Festival, and in 2014 they performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a guest for the World Projects Corporation’s International Music Festival.

Paul Vasile

Week 2: June 23–28, 2024

Sessions on “Sharing the Song: Leadership Skills and Resources to Inspire Congregational Voices”

Paul Vasile (he/him) is a church musician, consultant, teacher and composer who finds his greatest joy in collaborative and community-centered ministry. Committed to creating expansive and hospitable experiences of music making wherever he goes, Paul’s leadership builds trust, invites spaces of creativity, vulnerability and play, and supports practices of reflection and holistic learning. Recognized as a multitalented musician and liturgist, he is helping to strengthen, energize, and liberate faith communities through the ways they worship and sing together.

Currently based in Washington, D.C., Paul serves as an interim musician and offers consulting services and creative resources to congregations in seasons of discernment, challenge and transformation. With over 25 years of ministry experience in ecumenical contexts, his skills make him a unique resource to congregations in transition or those experiencing anxiety or conflict. From 2016 to 2023, Paul also served as the executive director of Music that Makes Community, a nonprofit that shares “paperless” (oral tradition) leadership practices and songs. He traveled across North America modeling distinctive approaches to communal singing and learning at retreats, conferences, seminaries and in congregations of all sizes.

Paul is an inspiring teacher and has been a guest lecturer and worship leader at St. John’s College, Baylor University, The Candler School of Theology, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Princeton Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary (NYC) and Vanderbilt Divinity School. He has also curated notable concert series, arts events and educational programs exploring the intersection of music and spirituality. He has led a Hymn Festival for The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, as well as a workshop for the Christian Congregational Song Conference in Oxford, England.

Committed to expressing and exploring faith in new ways, Paul composes sacred music that expands and enriches the church’s language of praise and prayer. His music is represented in the hymnals “Glory to God,” “All Creation Sings” and “Voices Together,” as well as The Hymn Society resource, “Songs for the Holy Other.” Through a long association with the international theater collective Compagnia de’ Colombari, he has also composed and arranged music for innovative, site-specific performances. For the last decade, he has collaborated with artistic director Karin Coonrod in the creation of Judith, a chamber opera inspired by the Old English telling of a story from the Apocrypha.

Omaldo Perez

Week 2: June 23–28, 2024

Sessions on Latin hymnody, invigorating congregational song of all styles, and leading a hymn festival.

Omaldo Perez is the director of music and worship arts at Christ Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wisconsin, where he supports and encourages congregational singing and directs a concert series. Before his post in Madison, Omaldo served Lutheran and Roman Catholic congregations in New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Washington, Ohio and Illinois. His passion for the church’s rich musical heritage has found expression in all these contexts.

A native of the Dominican Republic, Omaldo remembers the immense sense of joy music provided to him even as a young child. An alumnus of Brooklyn College (City University of New York), he received his degree in performance (classical piano) and has subsequently pursued studies in organ, voice, conducting and other musical traditions. His interests range from early baroque practice to improvisation.

In addition to being a church musician, he is also an active teacher and clinician. Omaldo has presented workshops, lectured, and led worship for regional and national conferences of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM) and the Institute of Liturgical Studies (ILS). As a writer, he has contributed to Sundays and Seasons—a resource for liturgical planners and musicians, The Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (“In Tempo” and “CrossAccent”) publications, and the Prelude Music Planner blog of Augsburg Fortress. He was a contributor to the hymnal supplement “All Creation Sings.”

About Sessions

From the perspective of church music, the last few decades have seen exponential growth in the resources normatively used in worship. Today’s average mainline denominational hymnal offers a salutary sample of the world’s many singing traditions. We can confidently say that the contributions of the global south to our hymnody have enriched our singing and reshaped our understanding of what it means to be part of God’s Communion of Saints. As we continue to live into this expanded body of song, we must grapple with the fact that, in many instances, our training in the Great Western Classical tradition has left us (conservatory-trained musicians) ill-equipped to tackle this newer repertoire confidently.

In our time together at the Church Music Institute, we will focus on the hymnody and popular music from our neighbors to the south. We will broadly examine how musical embodiment manifests in the praise and lament of Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Brazil. As time allows, we will also listen to and survey the oral traditions and popular music from this large and diverse cultural block. We will gain a functional acquaintance of the many regional stylistic sources and performative idiosyncrasies of each geographical area represented. Finally, we will apply this knowledge during our hands-on sessions, trusting everyone attending will take home various techniques to help enliven their playing.

Dr. Heather Ankerbrand

Monday to Thursday Each Week, 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

Handbell Director/Clinician and CMI Assistant Director

Heather Ankerbrand will lead sessions on handbell technique, repertoire and their use in worship, and will give opportunities for attendees to conduct. She will also lead a session on congregational psalmody. Heather earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance – Organ from Shenandoah Conservatory, is director of music and organist at Front Royal Presbyterian Church, and has been active in the Winchester Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Dr. Wayne L. Wold

Various Sessions

Various Sessions on Hymnology, Hymn-Leading and Hymn Choosing

Wayne L. Wold is director of the Church Music Institute at Shenandoah Conservatory and serves as an adjunct associate professor of music at Shenandoah University; director of music at First Lutheran Church in Ellicott City, Maryland; professor emeritus at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland; and is an active composer, author, performer and clinician.