Presenters

Confirmed presenters and leaders are listed below. Continue to check here for updates as we build our exciting line-up.

Ensemble-in-residence

VOCES8, our ensemble-in-residence, will present a concert, help to lead our Hymn Festival and be on site to present workshops on choral music. 

Hymn Festival
Concert
Workshops
Friday Seminar

Plenary Speakers

Ordained on March 20, 2004, CeCee Mills has served in the Virginia and North Carolina Synods. She currently lives in the city of her birth, Greensboro, NC with her only child, Joshua Mills. She completed her seminary studies at the Lutheran Theological Center in Atlanta which at the time was an extension of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia. She is a certified coach, Ventures Stewardship facilitator, Healthy Congregations facilitator, and Bowens Family Systems Theory enthusiast/student. She also participates as a facilitator and activist in social and racial justice efforts.

Plenary
Workshops

Workshop and Worship Leaders

Marsha Anderson serves at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Raleigh, NC, as lead pastor for faith formation, outreach, and congregational care. She has also served parishes in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, and spent some time as a chaplain on mental health units in California. Marsha participated in the 30-day Spiritual Exercises as the keystone of her sabbatical in fall of 2023.

Workshops

Linda Borecki has taught Lutheran worship studies since 2004, first online and later at Concordia University, Portland, OR, as an adjunct professor, until CU’s closure in 2020.  Her greatest joy is sharing historical stories of Lutheran liturgy, which she snuck into every In Tempo issue as editor from 2020 through 2024. She also serves as Director of Worship at Christ the Vine Lutheran Church, Damascus, Oregon, an average congregation with above average good-natured musicians.  She has won no awards or honors since college except for ALCM’s coveted “Interview of the Year” award for her interview with Martin Luther, In Tempo, 2024, no. 3, still available at alcm.org. 

Workshops

Ellen F. Davis is Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School. The author of eleven books and many articles, her research interests focus on how biblical interpretation bears on the life of faith communities and their response to urgent public issues, particularly the ecological crisis and interfaith relations. Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2009), integrates biblical studies with a critique of industrial agriculture and food production. Biblical Prophecy: Perspectives for Christian Theology, Discipleship and Ministry (Westminster John Knox, 2014), explores the prophetic role and word across both Testaments of the Christian Bible. Her most recent books are Preaching the Luminous Word (Eerdmans, 2016), a collection of her sermons and essays, and Opening Israel’s Scriptures (Oxford, 2019), a comprehensive theological reading of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. A lay Episcopalian, she has long been active as a theological consultant within the Anglican Communion. Her current work explores the arts as modes of scriptural interpretation.

Workshops

Katie Deaver serves as the General Manager of ONE LICENSE. Deaver’s love of music and religion has allowed her to serve in a variety of music ministry settings, as well as to study and teach religion, feminist theology and ethics. She lives in beautiful Marquette, Michigan and is an alumna of Luther College (BA) and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (MATS, THM, PHD).

Workshops

 

Chad Fothergill is a keyboardist and historian who serves the church as a musician, teacher, writer, and composer. He is author of Sing with All the People of God: A Handbook for Church Musicians and has contributed both writings and compositions to several worship resources. Chad presently serves as chapel organist at Duke University Chapel, assists with weekday liturgies at Duke Divinity School, and is cantor to the Lutheran Summer Music community. Prior to his appointment at Duke, he was interim co-director of the Institute of Liturgical Studies at Valparaiso University, past editor of the ALCM journal CrossAccent, and taught at Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Delaware.

Workshops

Zebulon Highben serves as Director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel and as Associate Professor of the Practice of Church Music at Duke Divinity School. He conducts the Duke University Chapel Choir and the Duke Chapel Schola Cantorum, edits the Music from Duke Chapel choral series, teaches courses in music and liturgy, and oversees the Chapel’s extensive music program, which connects students, community members, staff singers, instrumentalists, and professional colleagues in myriad worship services and concerts.

Workshops
Conference Choir Director

David Jernigan serves as the organist and choirmaster of Christ Church, Raleigh, where he oversees a robust music program made up of child/youth choristers, enthusiastic adult volunteers, and highly skilled professional singers. He has conducted choral residencies and services at many notable churches in North American and Europe including Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, Notre Dame, Paris, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, St. Thomas 5th Ave & St. John the Divine, NYC. David holds degrees in organ performance and sacred music from East Carolina and Yale Universities.

Workshops

Mark W. Johanson serves as Minister of Music & Worship at Christ Lutheran Church in Charlotte, NC. A church musician since the age of 12, Mark leads the 11-member Music/Worship/Tech staff at Christ Lutheran which oversees scores of volunteer musicians and worship leaders serving in both traditional and contemporary worship. Before his current position at Christ Lutheran, Mark had the opportunity to work as the associate minister of music at Christ Lutheran under Mark Glaeser. Having worked in both LCMS and ELCA congregations, Mark holds a strong desire for finding unity across synodical lines, seeking ways for Lutherans to be united in their ministry and calling for the sake of the Kingdom. He earned the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Valparaiso University, studying collaborative piano with Joseph Bognar and organ with Lorraine Brugh. He was a past Dean of the Charlotte chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and holds membership in the AGO and ALCM.

Workshops

Florence M. Jowers is Professor Emerita of Music at Lenoir-Rhyne University, Hickory, NC, where she served as University Organist and Founding Conductor of the Lenoir-Rhyne Youth Chorus, a professional children’s choir of one hundred voices. She has concertized throughout the southeast and abroad and has been heard on “Pipedreams,” the NPR radio program. Florence is a graduate of Stetson University, DeLand, FL, and earned a master’s degree in organ performance at the Yale University School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. She has served as director of music and/or organist in diverse congregations during her career and in retirement she enjoys practicing on the Taylor and Boody organ at Christ Lutheran, Staunton, VA, and is supply organist at churches in the Shenandoah Valley near Staunton where she and Paul reside.

Workshop

Karol Kinard Kimmell, a lifelong Lutheran, recently retired after 26 years (1998-2024) as Director of Youth & Children’s Music at All Saints’ Episcopal in midtown Atlanta, with a full graded choir & handbell program for PreK -12th. She serves as Co-Director and faculty member for two annual summer conferences: Lutheridge Music Week, Arden, NC – a week of renewal and learning for church musicians – and the Choristers Guild Institute – a three-summer certification program for Children’s Church Choir Directors providing pedagogy and choral methods training. In August 2019, Karol led a children’s choir at the opening worship of the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee, WI. Karol has served as organist, choir director, and pre-school music teacher in NC, SC, and GA in Lutheran, Episcopal, and Presbyterian congregations and schools. She directed the Elementary Choruses at Atlanta’s Paideia School for eight years and in 2009 conducted the North Carolina Sixth Grade All State Chorus. Karol attended Wittenberg University and Lenoir-Rhyne University, receiving her BME (organ) from Lenoir-Rhyne. She is certified in Orff Schulwerk, Kindermusik, Musicgarten, studied voice at the Mannes School of Music, and sang with the Riverside Church Choir in NYC.

Workshops

James Marriott is Pastor at Faith Lutheran in Georgetown, TX, and Associate Professor of Theology and Music at Concordia University Texas.  Holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in Parish Music from Concordia Nebraska and Concordia Wisconsin, respectively, he earned a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, with an emphasis in liturgical inculturation. He was also ordained into the pastoral ministry through Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He frequently lectures and performs across the United States, using workshops and hymn festivals as an opportunity to demonstrate the cultural diversity of the church. Jim and his wife, Kristi, have been married for twenty-one years and are blessed with two children, Joel and Kirstin.

Workshops

Jerusha Neal’s scholarly work examines the action of the Spirit on the performative borders of body and culture. Her research interests focus on postcolonial preaching, climate stewardship, preaching and gender, and a theology of the Spirit in sermon performance. Her most recent book, The Overshadowed Preacher: Mary, the Spirit, and the Labor of Proclamation (Wm. B. Eerdmans), asks the sticky question of what is meant when preaching is described as “anointed.” It challenges preachers to leave behind false shadows and be overshadowed by the Spirit of God. It received a 2020 Christianity Today “Jesus Creed Book Award for the Preaching Life.” Neal is an ordained American Baptist minister with broad ecumenical experience, most recently serving as a Global Ministries missionary to the Fiji Islands through the United Methodist Church. During her years in Fiji, she served as Dean of Studies at Davuilevu Theological College, the oldest theological seminary in that nation. A former actress and playwright, she has authored a collection of dramatic monologues, Blessed: Monologues for Mary (2012). Neal has spent her ministry preaching in cross-cultural spaces and bridging denominational communities. God’s work in these in-between locations has convinced her that preaching matters now more than ever. Serving as keynote preacher for such events as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, the Young Preacher’s Festival and the Homegrown North Carolina Women’s Preaching Festival, Neal is committed to encouraging the voices of young preachers—and particularly the voices of women—in the risky proclamation of gospel hope. In 2020, she was awarded the “Exemplary Teacher of the Year” award from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.

Worship

The Raleigh Ringers is an Emmy-nominated, internationally-acclaimed concert handbell choir based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The group has been dazzling audiences with unique interpretations of sacred, secular and popular music, including rock ‘n’ roll tunes that the group has become noted for, along with original compositions written just for The Raleigh Ringers.

 

 

Concert
Friday Seminar

Edmund F. Tompkins began as Director of Music/Organist at the Episcopal Church of St. John in the Wilderness, Flat Rock, NC, in February 2025. Prior to that, Ed served for 21 years as Minister of Music and Organist at Morning Star Evangelical Lutheran Church in Matthews, NC. He is a graduate of Duke University and Scarritt Graduate School and studied organ with Bob Ivey, Robert Parkins, Fenner Douglass, and Wilma Jensen. Ed has served on planning teams and boards for many music organizations, including Handbell Musicians of America, Choristers Guild, American Guild of Organists, and American Choral Directors Association. Ed is sought-after as a handbell clinician and director for festivals and music camps. He and his wife Judy live in Hendersonville, NC. Judy is recently retired from being an elementary teacher at Grace Academy in Stallings, NC. Daughter Mandy and her husband Kemper Gibson and their children Lila and Liam live in Hendersonville. Son Lucas lives in Charlotte.

Workshops

Tom Trenney, composer, conductor, organist, preacher, and teacher, has been blessed to serve as Minister of Music to First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, since 2009.  In 2019, he was invited to become Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choirs at Nebraska Wesleyan University.  Tom’s choirs have been honored to perform for state, regional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and they have been award winners in the American Prize for choral ensembles.

Workshops
Hymn Festival
Worship

Paul D. Weber is a pastor of the North Carolina Synod (ELCA) and Professor Emeritus of Church Music at Lenoir-Rhyne University, Hickory, NC, where he conducted the A Cappella Choir, the College Singers, and the Chapel Choir, and along with his wife Florence, implemented the university’s sacred music program. Paul has composed a wide range of pieces, from large choral works with orchestra to hymns in the collection, So Great a Cloud of Witnesses, A Paul D. Weber Hymnary (Augsburg Fortress). He was awarded the Raabe Prize in 2003 by the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. His works are published by MorningStar Music, Concordia Publishing House, and Augsburg. 

Workshop