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Composer Symposium 2018 – from the Rearview Mirror

Well, another Composer Symposium is in the record books. And this year provided continued evidence that we must be doing something right – because the level of the music presentations was higher than ever before. I offer kudos to every registrant who chose to present.  It’s a brave thing to do.  And I offer congratulations to those of you who took home faculty recognitions  and publisher awards.  It gets harder every year for the faculty to decide who receives these acknowledgments, as the quality of the competition improves continually.

Rest assured, as always, it was a motley crew in attendance.  If you don’t believe me, just check out the photo!

My thanks to Joe Martin, who cooked up this conference in his fevered brain some thirteen years ago. It is only with his uncontainable energy that such an event could survive, let alone thrive, this many years.

He couldn’t pull it off, however, without the help of Dawn Young and Michael Smith, who make sure we are all where we are supposed to be, when we are supposed to be there, and with all the microphones working.

And with the closing of long-time partner, Pine Lake Music, the Symposium is indebted to Pastor James Ward and Antioch-Lithonia Missionary Baptist Church for their gracious hosting of the event, now for the second year.

It didn’t hurt us to have Joel Raney, David Schwoebel, Brad Nix, and Stephen Bock join us on the faculty this summer. They brought their wealth of knowledge, experience, and wisdom to the week’s sessions, to the benefit of all.

So – for those of you interested in composing for the church, whether it be choral music, instrumental music, contemporary or traditional music, I hope you will consider joining us at one of the Composer Symposiums in the near future.

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