We hope you enjoy this Prelude visit with composer John Carter as he discusses his new collection of original piano works which include textual meditations written by his wife, Mary Kay Beall. Download printable sheet music at Prelude Music Planner or order print copies at Augsburg Fortress.

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[Editor's note: Last week we heard from Karol Kimmel on building your youth choir program, with ideas about scheduling, worship suggestions, and continuing education. This week: more ideas from Kimmel on choir visibility, rehearsal punctuality, recruitment, and team-building.]

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[Editor's note: This week begins part 1 of a 2-part article by Karol Kimmell about children's choirs, with applications for all ages: this week part 1 includes attendance/scheduling, liturgy and worship suggestions, and continuing education ideas.]

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[Editor's note: Rally Day and the startup of choral seasons is upon us, but there's still time to get organized for fall! Thanks to Anne Krentz Organ for writing these seasonal pointers, helpful whether you're highly organized or running last-minute. Either way, we're here to help with Prelude's ever-growing resources. Blessings to you in your music ministries this September.]

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This is Part Two of a two-part series featuring interviews with Jeffrey Brillhart and Zebulon Highben, summer clinicians for the Augsburg Fortress 2013 Music Clinics. This week, enjoy some of Zebulon Highben’s thoughts on questions posed by Jane Knappe.

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This is Part One of a two-part series featuring interviews with Jeffrey Brillhart and Zebulon Highben, summer clinicians for the Augsburg Fortress 2013 Music Clinics. This week, enjoy some of Jeffrey Brillhart's thoughts on questions we posed.

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August is the time many church musicians begin planning for Advent through Pentecost. There is a multitude of composers to choose from for new music and, of course, well-known favorites. As we begin our preparations, we try to reflect the readings and prayers of a day through our organ selections, choir anthems and hand bell repertoire. However, there are many compositions of a general nature that fit many different contexts. One of these is Organ Music by Women Composers before 1800 - VIV 303. We know that women have been composing organ music for at least five centuries. Calvert Johnson, the editor of the volume writes in the preface, “The first organist, Thais, was the wife of Ctesibos, the inventor of the organ, in the third century BCE, at Alexandria, Egypt, but very few organ compositions by women before 1800 have survived. There is considerable iconographic evidence from antiquity of the activities of women organists, many of them Christian, because their sarcophagi depict the organ.”

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We choose music for worship to help us tell the story of Christ to each other. We tell this story over and over – never tiring of the details – because the subject is so rich. We tell how God loved us so much that he sent his Son into our world. We tell how Jesus loved us so much that he died for our sins. We tell how Jesus conquered death and extends his grace to us. We tell how Jesus the Christ is at work in our lives and in our community.

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I find warm-ups to be essential to any choir rehearsal for two major reasons: 1) they are an opportunity to teach musical concepts in isolation that will be used later in the rehearsal on the choir’s repertoire; and 2) they help transition the voice and the body from a day’s worth of speaking and slouching, preparing them for the very different set of demands placed upon the singer by the act of singing.

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Introducing African Hymnody

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