Music, music, music!

Paul and I went to a church music conference this week near Indianapolis. We had such a great time learning new things, meeting new people, hearing lots of new music, and just generally being inspired! Another nice thing was the fact that we were without children!!! Thanks to Grammy Peterson for watching the kiddos this week! It was a mini-vacation for us.

One of the main draws for us to go to this particular conference this year was the clinicians that were going to be there. And they did not disappoint! So this post is mainly going to be about the people we met at the conference.

We didn't expect to see anyone we know, but we saw Greg Habegger (in the red) who grew up in Paul's church in Muncie. The man on the right is Fred Coleman, who is the head of the church music department at BJU. The Muncie connection is strong there too - he used to be the music pastor there years ago. We've used some of his music in our church recently, so it was nice to meet him. He's a super nice guy!
Okay, this is me and Mark Hayes, a fabulous composer and arranger. He has arranged oodles of choral music and some simply fantastic piano pieces. This picture was taken almost immediately after I told him that he looks like my cousin!!! :)
Me and Joseph Martin, another wonderful composer and arranger. He knows everybody in the music business, it seems like, and has great stories to tell. A very classy guy and a great sense of humor! He was the first Christian musican to record for the Yamaha Disklavier. He signed my book with the phrase "Happy scales to you"! This is Paul Leddington Wright. He is a famous organist and conductor from London. And he's also a terrific story-teller (what is it about musicians and story-telling???). We had dinner with him the first evening. Before dinner we were led in prayer by the pastor of the hosting church, and he instructed us to hold hands with those around us. So I got to hold his hand during prayer! Right before this picture was taken, I had told him that my claim to fame was that he held my hand during prayer! :) He's a very nice gentleman - he even has an office in Buckingham Palace because he runs some ceremony for the queen every year!!!
Ahhh...here's the whipped cream on the whole conference...Keith Getty. Along with Stuart Townend and his wife Kristyn, Keith has written "In Christ Alone", "The Power of the Cross", and many other new hymns. He describes himself as a modern hymn-writer. I attended his workshop entitled "Hymns, Worship and Christian Thought" and it was absolutely wonderful. He is truly writing hymns which embody his goals of 1) teaching the doctrine of God and 2) using melodies which are singable and memorable. He is very passionate about music in the church.
One quick postscript to an already too-long post...Keith Getty's parents were at the conference as well. This was their first trip to America - they are all from Ireland. So Paul especially talked to Mr. Getty (Keith's dad) quite a bit during the conference. What a sweet man! He is just a proud father who is so happy that his son's music is having an impact on people. When we said goodbye to him, Paul said something to him like "If we're ever in Ireland, we'll look you up!" And Mr. Getty said "Oh, yes, please do!" And he gave us his phone number!!! How great is that?!