Both Bruce and Chris started on Aug. 15, 2022. Please call anytime to make an appointment.
As the result of a year long national search, the Moravian Music Foundation Board of Trustees is excited and enthusiastic to announce the hiring of two leadership positions!
Dr. Bruce Earnest, Jr.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
PH: 605-670-8180
Christopher Ogburn, Ph.D.
DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING
RESIDENT MUSICOLOGIST
PH: 336-725-0651
Dr. Bruce Earnest, Jr. comes to the Moravian Music Foundation from the University of Mobile where he was Vice President of Advancement and a member of the graduate faculty. He has also served as Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dean of Graduate Programs, and Associate Dean of the Alabama School of the Arts.
Bruce Earnest
Doctor of Musical Arts
Master of Music in Vocal Performance
Bachelor of Arts in Music/Arts Administration
Bruce Earnest is co-founder of the International Performing Arts Institute in Kiefersfelden, Germany and Fairhope, AL, and founder of the International Performing Arts Scholarship Guild. As a specialist in resource development, community engagement, international education, and donor cultivation, Bruce has been involved in building non-profit and educational arts organizations for more than 30 years.
He has served in music and worship ministry in the United States and Germany for 22 years.
Earnest earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern Mississippi. He holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Miami, a Bachelor of Arts in Music Administration from Westfield State University, and has studied planned giving and philanthropic communication at the Heyman Center for Philanthropy at New York University.
Bruce and his wife Darla are the parents of Lukas, 15, and Rosalie, 10, and look forward to being a part of the Winston-Salem community and the North American and worldwide Moravian communities.
Christopher Ogburn, Ph.D. is originally from Tobaccoville, NC, and was raised in the Moravian Church. As a former intern at MMF, while in college, he completed several projects related to the Foundation’s music collections.
Christopher G. Ogburn
Ph.D. in Historical Musicology
Master of Philosophy in Music
Master of Arts in Music
Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance and Minor in English Literature
Ogburn earned his Master of Philosophy in Music and Master of Arts in Music from The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY. He went on to study and complete his Ph.D. in Historical Musicology, September 2018, at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY. His dissertation was Strauss and the City: The Reception of Richard Strauss’s Salome, Elektra, and Der Rosenkavalier within New York City, 1907–1934. Ogburn earned a Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance and Minor in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
Chris Ogburn taught and lectured at Manhattan College and LaGuardia Community College,
before joining the faculty of Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, NC as Instructor of Music. Chris has deep ties to the area.
He and his wife, Erin, are excited to be moving to Winston-Salem and to raise their daughter, June, in this community
“Each of the leaders coming to the Moravian Music Foundation brings a depth of knowledge and experience, primed to lead the Foundation to exciting new ventures, while staying closely connected to our home in the Moravian Church. With the staff team already in place, and the dedicated members of the Board of Trustees, Bruce and Chris are well set up to succeed! I look forward to cheering them and the Foundation on to deeper service, both within and beyond the Moravian Church.”
– Nola R. Knouse, Director
The Board of Trustees is looking forward to working with these leaders as we restructure the leadership team to allow each to focus on the many strengths and talents they bring to the Foundation. Both new leaders are deeply committed to serving all constituents and stakeholders: amateur and professional, students and faculty, musicians and musicologists,
performers and audience members, Moravian bands and world class orchestras; and committed to serving our Northern, Southern, and Canadian Province Moravian churches and educational institutions, as well as non-Moravian churches and institutions. Look for exciting new programs and opportunities to engage with the work of the Foundation as we build on a history of excellence!
Erik Salzwedel, David Blum, and Sarah Wright will continue in their positions in the Winston-Salem office. Barbara Strauss continues to lead a sub-team of catalogers in Winston-Salem, Raleigh, and Bethlehem, nearing completion of the GemeinKat Project, which allows us to share the MMF catalog of archival holdings on Worldcat.org, the online searchable database.
INTERIM ASSISTANT
in the Bethlehem office
In the Northern Province, Jan Harke has accepted the position of Assistant in the Bethlehem office through the end of 2022. She will oversee MMF’s archival holdings and sustain and manage the Foundation’s partnerships, client relationships, and services for the Northern Province.
The MMF office in Bethlehem oversees two-thirds of the total archival music collections in MMF custody, and it continues to be an important hub of research, service, and program activity for the Foundation. Upon Gwyneth Michel’s retirement at the end of August, Jan will be in the office two days each week, and may be reached at 610-866-3340.
The Moravian Music Foundation was founded in 1956 upon a musical heritage spanning the globe and dating to the early reformation. After 66 years, much has been accomplished, but there is more to discover and share. The future years will bring introductions of new ways of sharing Moravian music and expansion of the Foundation’s role in education.
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