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Jesus, Still Lead On

The 26th Festival is in two parts. Part 1 was held online in July, 2021.
Registration for Part 2, live in-person in Bethlehem, PA in July, 2022 is open now!

Welcome (excerpted from the 20th Moravian Music Festival)

Our gathering for this week of music represents the culmination of three years of planning.  Whether you have come to sing, to play, or to listen, we wish for you a joyous and rewarding experience…

The Festival Committee has worked hard to make this Festival an enjoyable and enriching one.  But you are the most important part of this Festival — you make it happen!  Each one of you brings something special to be shared with others.  Fifth generation born Moravians will sit next to those who never heard of Moravian music until they registered for this Festival, and all will have something valuable to contribute to the whole.  Together we will sing, we will sound brass and reed and string, we will eat and worship, laugh and learn.

Thank you for attending the Festival.  May this week be a blessing to all who have gathered here.

The 1999 Festival Committee
Jan Stein and Marian L. Shatto, Co-Chairs

Notes from Nola … The Moravian Music Foundation celebrates …

Continuing my series on the Moravian Music Foundation’s mission statement, what do we mean by “celebrating”?

The Moravian Music Foundation preserves, shares, and celebrates Moravian musical culture.

What do we celebrate in our world? Anniversaries … birthdays … all sorts of special occasions … maybe a new job, or a promotion, or a retirement … all sorts of transitions. Accomplishments of many kinds merit acknowledgment and celebration. And a lot of these include music – from a family singing “happy birthday” to bringing in a dance band.

Celebrating is certainly part of Moravian history and culture. Think of the annual remembrances that are common to all Christian churches – the birth of Christ; the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ; ascension; congregational anniversaries. All of these are in our Moravian world, as well as several others. Think of the special Moravian commemorations – the martyrdom of John Hus (July 6); the renewal of the Moravian Church (August 13); the acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as the Chief Elder of the Moravian Church (November 13). Special services have been held for these Moravian festivals for many generations, and there is a wealth of hymns and anthems written especially for these days. And many Moravian congregations have special celebrations for groups within the church. Some have a “workers’ lovefeast”, acknowledging the many contributions of members to the life and work of the church throughout the year. The Southern Province has an annual Children’s Festival in August, and music is certainly a part of that every year. Some still celebrate the “choir festivals” – single brothers, single sisters, married people, and so on.

But what, especially, does the Moravian Music Foundation do to “celebrate Moravian musical culture?” Our “celebration” work covers a lot of activites. Some of these are …

• holding Moravian Music Festivals every four years. (Note: Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the 2021 Festival was held online with a Part II set for July 26, 2022 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania). Watch for updates, and plan to come …
• holding Moravian Music Weekends. We’ve now hosted 8 of these at Laurel Ridge Camp, Conference, and Retreat Center in the mountains of North Carolina, and we’d love to hold these at other locations as well. Interested in one in your area? Let’s talk about how to make it happen.
• sponsoring the Unitas Chorale in Pennsylvania and the Moramus Chorale in North Carolina. These two groups of singers rehearse and perform Moravian music and other music complementary to it – perhaps music by composers the Moravians knew and loved, or music written on Moravian tunes or texts. Both groups welcome new singers at any time, and our office can put you in touch with the directors (Gwyn Michel with the Unitas Chorale and Drake Flynt with the Moramus Chorale).
• providing music and programming assistance for other groups wanting to perform music from our collections. Many professional and amateur musical groups (and individual performers) contact our office each year asking about music, and we help by suggesting music to fit their programming wishes, their available musicians, and so on. We make the Lending Libraries available to all who contact us (a future post will say more!), or we sell our own publications. We’re happy to provide background information and program notes.
• helping Moravian congregations celebrate special occasions – providing music and liturgy suggestions for the services of dedication (or re-dedication) of or a building; for a special anniversary; for a vacation Bible school; for a children’s hand chimes group; for almost anything a congregation wants to celebrate with music!
• helping congregations, Moravian and many other denominations, who want to hold a Moravian lovefeast or candle service. We can send music suggestions, practical ideas for how to hold it, information about obtaining candles or lovefeast buns, suggested orders of worship, and so on.

When you think of celebrating, then, you may already think of music. And we hope that as your congregation or organization thinks of future celebrations, you’ll remember that the Moravian Music Foundation is here to help with music suggestions for almost any occasion!

Next time? The Music Lending Libraries managed by the Moravian Music Foundation – What’s in them, who uses them, and how can you use them?

Musically yours,

– Nola

Ready to do it again? We’re not – quite. But we’re working on it! Excitement is building among our staff and leaders as plans are shaping up, two years out.

Do you have the dates on your calendar? Better yet, do you have them memorized? July 18-24, 2021, in Bethlehem, on the campus of Moravian College and Central Moravian Church.

What’s going on, this far in advance? Let me give you some hints.

Program Leadership. We have much of the musical leadership in place, including these:

John V. Sinclair, choral conductor   Allen Frank, concert band conductor   Rebecca Kleintop Lepore, Festival organist and rehearsal accompanist   Donald Kemmerer, trombone choir conductor    Jan Harke, handbell conductor   Joni Roos, chamber music coordinator   Myra Jones, children’s program coordinator  Randy Gibbs, choral assistant

New to this Festival will be two additional morning ensemble opportunities – Worship Ensemble, to include anyone with any instrument who wants to learn more about playing and leading worship; and Steel Drum Ensemble, to explore and enjoy the wonderful steel drum tradition. Leaders for these two morning activities haven’t yet been put in place.

Nuts and Bolts. Hank Naisby is chairing the local arrangements team, which includes such logistics as facilities, publicity, coordination of the children’s program, workshop topics and locations and leaders, hospitality, airport transportation, tours, and so on, and so on. The committee is already meeting, setting work schedules, making plans, getting the right people on board, reviewing costs, and so on, and so on…

MMF Office Work. Erik Salzwedel and Sarah Durham in the Winston-Salem office are already hard at work on the in-house details – online registration plans, income and expense accounting, publicity plans (with publicity chair Bryan Hay). Nola and Gwyn are looking at the layout and appearance of the registration form itself – how to include all the necessary information and still have it be eye-catching and appealing?

And your part … Everyone has a to-do list, and here’s yours:

1. Put the dates on your calendar.
2. Put the dates on your congregation’s calendar. (Don’t schedule a choir trip or mission trip or vacation Bible school that week, please! Remember there will be all sorts of wonderful activities for children and youth!)
3. Ask your church to start putting money aside to send your music director, organist, band director, brass choir, handbell director, children’s choir director, etc., to the Festival on at least a partial scholarship. The experience will energize their ministry within and beyond the congregation!
4. Make sure you receive the registration information (scheduled to mail fall 2020), and if you need extra copies to pass along to friends, just ask! (And remember – it’s not only for Moravians!)

See you at the Festival … just two years from now …

The Moravian Music Foundation preserves, shares, and celebrates Moravian musical culture.

Next time: GemeinKat Progress Report!

Each evening will begin with a band prelude (6:45pm), and culminate with featured concerts by the Chorus and Orchestra, Concert Band, Chamber music ensembles. The Festival will also have an Anthem Sing, a Singstunde, a Lovefeast (of course), and a partnership concert with the Salem Band.

Dr. John Sinclair, Festival Chorus and Orchestra Conductor, is professor of music at Rollins College and Artistic Director of the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, FL. Chris Wormald, Festival Concert Band Conductor, is one of the most recognized educators and brass band conductors in Great Britain, with countless accolades and awards. In 1991, he started the Smithills School Senior Brass Band and has led them to national and international brass band championships.

Loveliest Immanuel: An Elegant Evening is the first concert on Monday, July 24, 7:30 p.m., Trinity Moravian Church, 220 E Sprague St, Winston-Salem, NC, featuring Jill Bowen Gardner, Jake Gardner, Marika Kyriakos, Jonathan Sidden, Mary Siebert, Glenn Siebert, and Mary Wilson in a program of vocal solos, duets, and other small ensembles.

Tuesday, July 25, 7:30 p.m., Salem Band performs on Salem Square, Salem’s Shining Stars: Best of the Salem Band.

Joining Our Voices is an Anthem Sing with the Moramus Chorale, Wednesday, July 26, 7:30 p.m., Home Moravian Church.

On Thursday, July 27, 7:30 p.m., Calvary Moravian Church will host the Festival Concert Band and Chamber Ensembles Concert, in the sanctuary, 600 Holly Ave NW, Winston-Salem, NC;

Home Moravian Church will present the Festival Children’s Choir in concert on Friday, July 28, 2:00 p.m.

Sing, O Ye Heavens! The Festival Chorus and Orchestra in Concert is 7:30 p.m., Williams Auditorium, Winston-Salem State University. There is ample free parking on campus.

On Saturday morning, July 29 at 9:30 a.m., there will be final performances of several instrumental groups, along with some hymn singing. The program is titled Mit Freuden zart: Singstunde and will feature the Festival Trombone Choir, Festival Handbell Choir, and Chamber Ensembles at Home Moravian Church.

For more information, please visit www.MoravianMusicFestival.org
and follow the “25thMoravianMusicFestival” on Facebook, where you are invited to join each of the Festival’s public concerts.
Festival app – download Eventbase and search for Moravian Music Festival – to have the week schedule with you at all times.