2024 Clinicians
Handbells
Handbells
Brenda Austin is in demand, nationally, as a conductor and clinician because of her dynamic and energetic approach to connecting musicians through handbells. In 2019, Brenda joined the team at Hope Publishing Company in Carol Stream, IL as Editor. In 2023, she was named Music Director for Embellish handbell ensemble. Before joining Embellish, she served as the Artistic Director for the Detroit Handbell Ensemble since 2016. She has served First United Methodist Church in Eaton Rapids, MI, as Director of Music since 2003. Brenda graduated with degrees in Vocal Performance from Western Michigan University and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. She studied with Craig Arnold, Steve Zegree and Eph Ehly. Additionally, she has had more than 90 titles published for handbells and sacred choral since 2015.
Technology
Technology
Jeff Barnett is the Director of Worship Sales at Sweetwater. He has 25 years' experience in worship technology as a live sound and recording engineer, system designer, installer, educator, and musician. Jeff works with thousands of churches and worship artists from all over the world, including Jesus Culture, David Crowder, Shane & Shane, and many more. Jeff enjoys working in his home studio and singing with his a cappella group, Smooth Edge 2. Jeff and his wife Brit are proud parents of six kids and are still trying to figure out where the youngest one's left shoe is. (If you find the shoe, please let him know.)
Songwriting
Songwriting
Jared Billups serves as Gathering Pastor for Highland Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. He is passionate about worship leadership and the creation of songs for the local church that speak to the stories and circumstances of the people within his community. Jared facilitates an annual songwriting retreat among the worship leadership team at Highland and is exploring new opportunities to record and release songs written to greater impact the local church.
Composer
Composer
Dr. Brandon A. Boyd enjoys a versatile career as a conductor,
in addition to appearing regularly as a composer-in-residence,
collaborative pianist, and presenter for conferences, conventions,
collegiate choirs, church choirs, choral symposiums, and
festivals. He is the Director of Choral Activities and Associate
Professor of Choral Music Education at the University of Missouri,
where he conducts MU University Singers and Choral Union. In
addition to his conducting duties at the university, he teaches
undergraduate and graduate courses in choral conducting and
choral music education.
Ministry
Ministry
He is the Ben H. Williams Professor of Church Music and Director of the Church Music Program and the Center for Christian Music Studies at Baylor University where he is a member of the undergraduate and graduate faculties and directs the Baylor University Men's Choir. With a passion for building bridges between Christian musicians, he continually looks for ways to create meaningful dialogue among all who are committed to serving the church through music.
Composer
Composer
A native of Indiana, Craig Courtney began playing the piano at the age of three and the cello at the age of eleven. He received a Bachelors and a Masters degree in piano performance at the University of Cincinnati, studying piano under Raymond Dudley and chamber music under Walter Levin of the LaSalle Quartet. During that time, he was a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda Honorary Music Society. Following a three-year stay in Milan, Italy, where Mr. Courtney studied the piano with Illonka Deckers, performed for the Associazione Musicale "Gustav Mahler", and worked extensively as a vocal coach, he was invited to join the music faculty of the famed Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, serving as piano teacher and accompanist for the woodwind and brass department. It was during this six-year period, while serving in the music ministry of the Salzburg International Baptist Church, that Mr. Courtney began directing a church choir and composing sacred choral music, due to the unavailability of English language music. In 1985, his compositions came to the attention of John Ness Beck, through the publication of his octavo, Thy Will Be Done, initiating a close working relationship between the two men which continued until Mr. Beck's death in 1987. In making plans for the ongoing of Beckenhorst Press, Mr. Beck appointed Craig Courtney to assume his responsibilities as staff composer and editor.
Preacher
Preacher
Ron serves as pastor of Greater Bosqueville Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. He was born and raised in Houston, Texas and graduated from Willowridge High School. He graduated from Baylor University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in management. In the fall of 1996, he began attending Baylor’s George W. Truett Seminary, where he earned a master of divinity degree in theology. Ron currently works at Baylor University in the Paul L. Foster Success Center as the Strategic Intervention Program Manager.
Children's Music
Children's Music
Whitney Head teaches K-5 music at Elizabeth Elementary School in Shelby, North Carolina. She is passionate about shining God’s light in the public-school setting and enjoys working to provide a loving, joy-filled space for her students. Whitney is certified in Orff-Schulwerk I and II and strives to create engaging curriculum that promotes student creativity. She has written for Growing in Grace and Chorister’s Guild and has presented at conferences in Alabama and North Carolina. She is a member of Parkwood Baptist Church where she plays bass on the worship team and teaches an ESL class. Prior to teaching, Whitney served in full-time ministry in Alabama and on the mission field in El Salvador. She earned a Master’s degree in Music Education from Samford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Church Music from Samford as well.
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Dr. Monique Ingalls serves as Associate Professor of Church Music at Baylor University. Dr. Ingalls is dedicated to building collaborative research networks for the study of Christian music and religious music more broadly. She co-founded the “Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives” conference, a biennial international gathering which meets in Cuddesdon, Oxford, UK (congregationalmusic.org). She is senior series editor for the Congregational Music Studies book series with Routledge Press. She also was co-founder and first president of the Religion, Music, and Sound Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology.
Organ
Organ
In August 2023, Dr. Jens Korndörfer was appointed Associate Professor of Organ at Baylor University in Texas. Previously, he served as Director of Worship and the Arts and Organist at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta and directed the organ program at Georgia State University.
Praised as “a virtuoso in the grand Romantic tradition” who creates “performances that are deeply musically satisfying as well as exciting” (The American Organist), Korndörfer is regularly invited at the most prestigious venues and festivals around the world.
Composer
Composer
Lloyd Larson earned a B.A. from Anderson University of Anderson, Indiana in 1976 and a M.C.M. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Louisville, Kentucky in 1979. He has done additional graduate work at Southern Baptist Seminary, The Ohio State University, and Northern Baptist Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. Since 1982, Lloyd has been an active composer and arranger for several major publishing companies of church and school music. His compositions and arrangements include well over 1,500 published works—including choral anthems, numerous extended Christmas, Easter and nonseasonal works, keyboard collections, vocal solo and duet collections, instrumental works for solo and ensembles, orchestrations, and handbell settings. It is Lloyd's work in his local church that continues to be the catalyst for much of his writing where he is actively involved in various roles of music leadership.
Conducting
Conducting
Conductor-teacher Kristina Caswell MacMullen has devoted her career to sharing music and inspiration with students and audiences. Her collaborations with fellow musicians continue to confirm her abiding hope for the future and an unflagging belief in the power of choral music.
Handbells
Handbells
Jill Mahr holds a B.M. degree in flute performance and music education with a jazz minor from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. She earned a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance at Northwestern University, where she studied with Walfrid Kujala of the Chicago Symphony. Jill teaches flute and handbells at St. Olaf College.
Reading Session Clinicians
Reading Session Clinicians
Joseph Martin, a native of North Carolina, earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Subsequently he earned a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the University of Texas, Austin. He is a member of the staff of Shawnee Press, Inc. as Director of Sacred Publications, with responsibilities for overseeing the editorial and creative direction of the company and also coordinating the recording and production aspects of future sacred publishing efforts.
Composer
Composer
For 37 years, Rev. Russell Mauldin has sustained his music career in Nashville as one of the most prolific and best-selling composers in church music with millions of choral books sold and confirmed performances on six continents. Working also with major artists and orchestrating for Inspirational film compositions, he is a Grammy nominated record producer and five-time GMA Dove Award winner. He has also owned and lead several music industry businesses through the years.
Worship Leader
Worship Leader
Ken is one of the most creative and authentic artists performing today. For five decades, he has used music as a vehicle for creating conversation through storytelling and reflection. Ken custom designs each performance, integrating new and old music with his gift of improvisation to suit the occasion. With an ever-growing circle of friends around the world, Ken's vocal and piano artistry and imagination have reached audiences of 50 to 50,000 people in 49 United States and in more than 15 countries on four continents. Ken is a team player…loves working with event planners, spiritual leaders, teachers, and other artists.
Global Worship
Global Worship
Originally from Recife, Brazil, Maria serves as Lecturer in Church Music at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and as Music Director at Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana (First Mexican Baptist Church), in San Antonio. Before joining the Baylor faculty in 2020, she taught for seventeen years at Baptist University of the Américas, also in San Antonio. Maria holds a Master of Music (1991) and a Bachelor of Music (1987) degrees in Music History and Literature from Baylor University, a Certificate of Graduate Studies in Musicology (1998) from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in Church Music (2021) from Baylor.
Technology
Technology
Kent Morris is the Live Sound Market Manager for Sweetwater and a forty-year veteran of the live event arena. He has spent decades on the road with countless artists such as Paul Baloche and Israel Houghton. He’s overseen hundreds of AVL installations in every type of venue imaginable. An in-demand writer, Kent has penned thousands of industry articles for hundreds of print and online publications. He's the live sound engineer for In Touch Ministries where he mixes each week for First Baptist Atlanta (Dr. Charles Stanley). Kent and his wife Melani are based in Georgia and have two adult sons.
Congregational Song
Congregational Song
David music in a retired professor of Church Music at Baylor University, where he taught from 2002-2020. He is the author of numerous publications on hymnody and Christian music history. Music has authored more than 2000 articles for journals and scholarly publications.
Worship
Worship
Stephen Newby currently holds The Lev H. Prichard III Endowed Chair in the Study of Black Worship and Professor of Music and serves as Ambassador for The Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University.
He formerly served as Minister of Worship at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA, as Director for the Center for African American Worship studies at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, TN, and he held a tenured Professor of Music post at Seattle Pacific University, where he also served as Director of University Ministries, Director for the Center for Worship, and Senior Advisor to the University President for Missional Excellence. He has more than three decades of University level teaching and administration to his credit.
Piano
Piano
Brad Nix is a widely-recognized composer, orchestrator, and arranger, and has written for many of the nation’s major publishers. He currently serves as Choral and Keyboard Editor for the Lorenz Corporation, and has well over 200 choral pieces in print, as well as many piano folios and orchestrations. Brad frequently travels throughout the country as a clinician for reading sessions and conferences, and his music has been heard in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall in New York City to the famed St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in central London, as well as countless churches all over the world. Brad received his DMA degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He and his wife, Pattie, along with their three children, are proud to make their home in Bastrop, TX.
Children's Music
Children's Music
For over thirty years, Keith has demonstrated his great love and devotion for working with children through directing younger and older children’s choirs and his frequent engagement as a children’s choir clinician throughout the Southeast United States.
Keith Pate has served Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, as Minister of Music, since 2003. Keith holds a Bachelor of Music from Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama (1984), and a Master of Church Music from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (1989).
Composer
Composer
Kyle Pederson is a Minneapolis-based composer, lyricist, pianist, and educator. He enjoys working at the intersection of the sacred and secular, and his lyrics and music invite the choir and audience to be agents of hope, grace, and compassion in the world. Pederson was awarded the American Prize in Choral Composition in 2019, and the ACDA Genesis Prize in 2020. Pederson has an undergraduate degree from Augustana University, a Masters Degree in Education from University of St. Thomas, and an MFA in Music Composition from Vermont College of Fine Art. His work is commissioned, performed, and recorded by community, school, and professional choirs around the world and is published by Walton, Santa Barbara, ECS, Hal Leonard, Beckenhorst, Carl Fischer, and Alfred.
Composer
Composer
Jennifer Brooke (JB) Taylor, an Ohio native, has served as a church musician for nearly 35 years with experience as a pianist, organist, and choir director for churches in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota, Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee. She also has been a piano teacher for over 25 years, teaching hundreds of students in her home studios and at universities, national institutes, and a community music school.
Children's Music
Children's Music
Terry Taylor is Managing Editor of Growing in Grace Children’s Music Curriculum, a comprehensive faith-based resource in use in over 1000 churches and schools in 40 states. From 1980-2012 Terry served as a full-time Minister of Music. He received a BCM from Belmont University and a MCM from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Terry is widely respected for his creativity, advocacy, and leadership in music ministry with children. He is the founder and director of the Children’s Freedom Choir and Music City SoundTracks, which reach out to socially and economically challenged children in south Nashville.
Youth Choirs
Youth Choirs
Ben Turner is the Director of Music Ministries at Christ United Methodist Church in Plano, TX and a native Mississippian. Ben is a graduate of Mississippi College with a Bachelor of Music Education and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting. He has 17 years of experience in church music, having served four different churches in Central Mississippi and DFW.
Ministry 2024 ELCM Award Recipient
Ministry 2024 ELCM Award Recipient
Dennis Worley has lived and worked in the Nashville, TN area for 43 years. During that time, he has been involved in the Christian Music Industry, serving as a music publisher, producer,