2025 Clinicians

Shannan Baker serves as postdoctoral fellow within the School of Music. Her appointment immediately follows the completion of her Ph.D. in Church Music from Baylor University. Dr. Baker endeavors to find ways to connect contemporary worship research with the practice of the church. Primarily, this has occurred through the creation of contemporary worship workshops where students are encouraged to connect their classroom learning with practical applications in a band-led worship style. Dr. Baker has experience playing multiple instruments including drums (her emphasis for her BA), piano/keys, acoustic guitar, and bass guitar, which allows her to communicate with the various band members. Dr. Baker is a Michigan native, who now lives in Waco and serves the local church through the many gifts with which God has blessed her.

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.)

Allison Blumenthal serves as the Elementary Design Editor for Growing in Grace. A native of Rochester, New York, she is an elementary general music educator, collaborative pianist, piano and elementary voice teacher, musical theater and choir director, composer, and curriculum editor. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the State University of New York at Fredonia, and both a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano and K-12 Music Teaching Certification from Louisiana State University. Prior to her time at Growing in Grace, Allison taught public school elementary general music in Tennessee and Louisiana, served as a church music director in Georgia, and as a church pianist in all three states. In addition to her role at Growing in Grace, she is an adjunct collaborative pianist at Middle Tennessee State University, has a private studio of piano and elementary voice students, and serves at St. Paul’s Episcopal church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee as the director of Junior Choristers, pianist for Senior Choristers, and as a member of the adult choir. She and her husband have a house full of rescue cats and a three-legged dog named Clover.

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.

Noted by The New York Times for playing the organ with flair, French-born musician Daniel Brondel is the Associate Director of Music at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, where he plays Masses each week that are streamed on the Internet and broadcast live on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He is also the Associate Director of the Cathedral Choir, and he manages the organ recital series. He performs solo recitals in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Europe, and has also appeared as soloist in piano concertos of Mozart and Rachmaninoff, and organ concertos of Poulenc and Jongen. He recently accompanied the Sistine Chapel Choir during their visit to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and he has collaborated with famous opera stars, including Renée Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Michael Fabiano, Isabel Leonard, Matthew Polenzani, Susan Graham, James Valenti, Danielle de Niece, and Joyce DiDonato.

Pepper Choplin is a full-time composer, conductor and humorist. He has gained a reputation as one of the most creative writers in church music today. With a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, he went on to earn a Master of Music degree in composition from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Ryan Flanigan is a melodist, church music director at Resurrection South Austin, founder of Liturgical Folk, and the theological artist in residence at Baylor University. As an artist rooted in the Christian Story, Ryan works to create beautiful and believable sacred music for church folk and the world. He believes the Church can be a credible artistic witness of God's beauty, truth, and goodness to the whole world, not only Christians, and not just through words. Ryan’s melodies are accessible and rooted in the inherently joyful sounds of the American folk traditions. 

Karen Gosselin, a native Oklahoman, is currently a State Missionary, Coordinator for the Alabama State Board of Missions, Worship Resources Office. She is responsible for serving the needs of the local church and associations through the ministries of worship and music. She provides opportunities for students to express their faith through auditioned Children’s Honor Choir, OneVoice Student Honor Choir, and MIX Music Camp for the state of Alabama as well as other events. She also leads the Alabama Baptist Singing Women. She has published writings for Growing in Grace and Lifeway’s Children’s Music Series, and devotions for The Chorister of Chorister’s Guild. She has taught music education in elementary and secondary public schools and churches as well as music methods, voice, and choirs in the college sector.

Scotty Gray devoted thirty-five years to graduate theological education serving as professor, acting dean, vice president for academic affairs, and for ten of those years was executive vice president of Southwestern Baptist Theological seminary. For some 10 years, during his academic career, he chaired site visits to universities and seminaries for regional and national accrediting agencies. Prior to his academic career, he served as minister of education and music in churches.

MOLLY IJAMES is from Flint, MI, and holds a B.S. in Music Education from Bob Jones University. For six years she was a music teacher and church pianist in various churches and Christian school ministries, which grew her heart for the music needs of the local church. She moved to Greenville, SC, in 2006 to work for SoundForth Music and began studying composition with Joan Pinkston. With additional composition influence from Dan Forrest, Craig Courtney, and Alice Parker, her writing for the choral and keyboard fields blossomed quickly. Her first published anthem, "The Holy Heart," was published with Beckenhorst in 2007. She continued to write and gained several composition awards, one in the John Ness Beck Foundation and another from the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, early in her career. Her published works grew in the SoundForth, Beckenhorst, Alfred, and Lorenz catalogs, and she received many favorable reviews from J. W. Pepper and Creator Magazine. She was named choral editor of SoundForth in 2011, and in September of 2012, when Lorenz purchased SoundForth, she was charged with the official Editor role for all of SoundForth's choral and keyboard publications.

She currently resides in Greenville, SC and travels frequently for Lorenz and SoundForth. She is a regular composer for the Rivertree Singers, ChurchWorksMedia hymns and choral arrangements, and BJU annual choral recordings. She is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, and a Fellow of Melodious Accord.

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. 

Dr. Chris Johnson became the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of San Antonio in August of 2018 after serving as Co-Pastor for one-year.  He served as Pastor of Chalk Bluff Baptist Church, Waco, Texas from 2009 until July, 2017 when he accepted the call of First Baptist Church, San Antonio.  While pastor of Chalk Bluff, Chris developed comprehensive local and international missions endeavors, launched men’s and young adult ministry programs, oversaw the planning of new construction projects, and demonstrated his passion for discipleship through leadership and example. 

Beth Judd is nationally recognized as a leader in the field of handbells, having served for the past 40 years as conductor and clinician for seminars, workshops, festivals and denominational worship and music conferences. She has been Secretary/Treasurer of Area 9, national Music Chairman and President for AGEHR/HMA, as well as participating on countless committees and task forces furthering the art of handbell ringing. Beth was the associate conductor of the Dallas Handbell Ensemble and the first conductor and artistic director of the Concert Bells of Fort Worth, and was a conductor at the International Handbell Symposium held in Toronto. She is retired from full-time Music and Arts Ministry in the church after many years of conducting singing and ringing choirs for all ages, overseeing liturgical dance ensembles and art gallery ministries, coordinating concert series, and managing all aspects of liturgical worship. Beth is also honored and humbled to serve as a volunteer for Hospice Austin in patient care and family bereavement.

Angela Leonhardt is the music specialist at Hidden Forest Elementary in San Antonio where she was named the NEISD 2018 Elementary Teacher of the Year. She holds Master’s degrees in music education and Administration with principal certification. She received her Orff certification from Trinity University and Orff Schulwerk apprenticeship at Anderson University. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Central Texas Orff Chapter in the posts of Recording Secretary, Treasurer, VP and President and on the Curriculum Oversight and Review Committee for AOSA.  Her service to NAfME-Texas includes President, the council of chairs for K-12 Music and Music in Our Schools Month. She serves as an adjunct professor on the music education faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Trinity University teaching courses in music technology, diverse learners in the music classroom and music and related arts. She has also served on the editorial review board of General Music Today, a NAMfE publication.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Eric Nelson serves as director of choral studies at Emory University, where he teaches graduate choral conducting and choral literature. He conducts Emory's 40-voice Concert Choir and its 180-voice University Chorus. In 2004, he was the recipient of a "Crystal Apple" award for excellence in teaching at the university. He is also the artistic director of the Atlanta Master Chorale, a 60-voice adult chamber choir specializing in a cappella repertoire. Dr. Nelson’s choral compositions and arrangements are sung regularly by ensembles throughout the United States. He is the editor of the “Atlanta Master Chorale Choral Series,” a division of Morningstar Music Publishers and ECSchirmer. His compositions are also published by Colla Voce and Augsburg Fortress. He holds degrees in voice and conducting from Houghton College, Westminster Choir College, and Indiana University.

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.

Marty Parks, a luminary in Christian music, crafts compositions that resonate with spiritual depth and melodic beauty. With a career spanning decades, his musical prowess encompasses a diverse range within the Christian music landscape. Parks’ extensive catalog includes inspiring hymn arrangements, powerful anthems, and engaging worship songs, reflecting his commitment to offering a rich tapestry of musical expressions for the faith community. His contributions extend beyond individual compositions to encompass choral collections and orchestral arrangements, showcasing his versatility and dedication to elevating the worship experience.

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Marty Parks cherishes the city’s beauty despite infrequent visits. With a supportive wife, Vicki, and four children, Brandt, Jarrod, Stanford, and Sarah Beth, family is a source of joy.

Marty Parks holds degrees from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. With nearly 30 years composing and orchestrating for choirs, he’s grateful for the journey, although he occasionally questions past choices. Having served congregations in Texas, Tennessee, and Mississippi as Music Minister or Worship Pastor, he values the profound connection with God’s people. Passionate about music conferences and composer weekends, he finds joy in real experiences with genuine people and a real God.

ALLEN POTE (b. 1945) was born in Halstead, Kansas, and educated at Texas Christian University, where his diploma was in Church Music. A Fulbright Scholar, he studied in Brussels, Belgium, and took advanced work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. For twenty-two years he served as a full-time Director of Music in churches in Texas and Florida. He is currently a full-time composer living in Pensacola, Florida, where, with his wife Susan, he is co-director of the Pensacola Children's Choir, an organization of over 200 singers which has achieved national recognition. Most of his compositions today are available from Hope. As of 2007, the Hope website catalog listed 76 separate Allen Pote titles. He has collaborated with Tom Long for several very successful children's musicals, including RESCUE IN THE NIGHT, THE ROCK SLINGER AND HIS GREATEST HIT, ONCE UPON A PARABLE, MALICE IN THE PALACE, CHIMES IN THE NIGHT and LIFE OF THE PARTY.

Andrew Pressley is the creator and director of KidsCore Worship, a music and worship curriculum for children that emphasizes rich content and congregational involvement. He serves as an Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church in Lindale, TX. He is a Graduate of the Fine Arts Center of Greenville County (Jazz Guitar) and has a music degree (Classical Guitar) from Anderson University as well as a Master of Divinity in Church Music (Composition) from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Andrew married Meghan in 2016. They have one daughter, Eliza, and two sons, Isaac and Jude.

Dave Ray is a pastor, worship leader, recording artist, and author from Houston, TX. With his wife, Jess, he is the founder of Doorpost Songs, one of the leading providers of children's worship resources in the country. He serves on the staff of WoodsEdge Community Church. He and Jess have three kids, a mini-golden doodle, an eyelash crested gecko, and an angelfish named Gabriel.

Born and raised in Ohio, Michèle began her musical career with the flute and studied composition and flute performance at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.  She began ringing and directing handbell choirs in 1991 and in January, 2002, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to join America's premier professional classical handbell ensemble, Sonos. In addition to touring extensively with Sonos, she teaches handbell lessons and workshops and regularly appears as clinician at regional handbell events.  As a Handbell Solo Artist, she is increasingly in demand to take the stage across the United States, Canada, and abroad, having played bells in 37 US States and 9 countries. 

Heather Sorenson is an internationally known composer, arranger, and orchestrator whose works are performed in churches, schools, universities, concerts, and competitions worldwide. Initially recognized for her skill as a pianist, she is now widely known for her choral and instrumental works, with hundreds of compositions in print through various publishing houses including Hal Leonard, Shawnee Press, Alfred Music, the Lorenz Corporation, Hope Publishing, Lillenas, Fred Bock Music, and others. Eclectic in her musicianship, Heather easily maneuvers the contemporary, traditional, and classical genres of music. Her ability to navigate such a wide diversity of style and venue earns her the ualification of being one of the most versatile musicians in the industry. Her recent commissions include works for Texas A&M University and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, in addition to many privately-funded commissions. Her latest extended commissions are Requiem and These Ancient Words, large works that live in both the concert hall and the sanctuary.