Welcome to Shenandoah Conservatory’s Church Music Institute, held for two weeks each summer as part of a three-year cycle of an intensive study of the skills and knowledge required of a musician working in the church. Plan now to join us for two memorable and inspirational weeks in the Shenandoah Valley!
Week 1: June 18–23
Scott Allen Jarrett
Week 2: June 25–30
Giovanna Reyes-Mir
Lori Horne Pendleton
Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord
Choirs of Voices and Handbells
The Program at a Glance. . .
This year’s Institute provides significant hands-on experience: each participant is given time on the podium with helpful feedback in rehearsals and Master Classes.
Adult Choirs – Scott Allen Jarrett
• Preparing the Conductor
Studying and understanding the score
Conducting Master Classes
• Preparing the Choir
Voice building for choirs
Rehearsal techniques
• Accompanying the Choir
Adapting accompaniments to the organ
Working with instruments
• Exploring the Repertoire
Symposia on the Fauré Requiem
Reading sessions
• Rehearsing and Performing the Repertoire
Singing the Psalms: a survey of different methods
Concert: Fauré Requiem and Music from the English Choral Tradition
Children’s Choirs – Giovanna Reyes-Mir
• Preparing the Choir
Warm-ups for music in different styles
Vocal technique for music in different styles
Working with the boy’s changing voice
• Exploring the Repertoire
Reading sessions
Seniors’ Choirs – Lori Horne Pendleton
• Inspiring and Working with Senior Citizens
• Providing Musical Opportunities for Seniors
• Building Community with Seniors
Handbell Choirs – Lori Horne Pendleton
• Administering a Handbell Program
Starting a handbell choir
Organizing a handbell program
• Preparing the Handbell Choir
Ringing techniques
Rehearsal strategies
• Utilizing Handbells in the Liturgy
Psalms, responses, hymns
• Exploring the Repertoire
Combining handbells with other instruments
Reading sessions
Services and Concerts
• Vespers/Evening Prayer: Daily Services with music and liturgies from different traditions
• Hymn Festival: Christ was born for this! – Sunday evening, June 18
• Choral Concert: Fauré Requiem and Music from the English Choral Tradition – Friday evening, June 23
• Fiori Musicali: A Concert of Vocal and Organ Music – Sunday evening, June 25
• Closing Service: Make a Joyful Noise with Children’s and Handbell Choirs – Friday afternoon, June 30
Featured Artists
Scott Allen Jarrett has established himself as one of today’s leading young orchestral and choral conductors. Based in Boston, Jarrett is the Director of Music at Marsh Chapel and the Director of Choral Activities, ad interim at Boston University. He celebrates his twelfth season with the Back Bay Chorale this year. From 2004 to 2015, he was Director of Choruses and Assistant Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony in North Carolina.
Jarrett made his conducting debut with Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society last season at Jordan Hall, leading the performance of A Bach Christmas. He has since been named one of the Society’s Vocal Advisors, a position in which he assists Harry Christophers in the building of the chorus and regularly conducts Handel & Haydn musicians in performances throughout the Boston area.
He is a also regular collaborator at Trinity Wall Street (NYC), guest conducting in their Bach cantata series and their recent Britten celebration, serving as recording producer, and joining Music Director Julian Wachner in conducting Ives’s Fourth Symphony at Carnegie Hall. Jarrett also sang the role of Jesus in Ginastera’s Turbae et Passionem Gregorianam at the same performance, marking his solo debut at Carnegie Hall.
Increasingly in demand for his expertise with the vocal works of J. S. Bach, Jarrett conducted performances of the B Minor Mass with Miami-based Seraphic Fire, served as Music Director of the Adams Vocal Master Class at the Carmel Bach Festival in 2011, and, in the summer of 2013, served as Director of the Conducting Master Class with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival. In 2005, Jarrett founded “The Bach Experience” with Boston University’s Marsh Chapel Choir and Collegium, featuring regular performance of cantatas and the two passions.
Beyond the works of Bach, Jarrett has a passion for the heart of the classical and romantic repertoires, particularly the 19th century German tradition extending from Haydn through Schumann and Wagner. Jarrett’s dynamic performances of Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten, and Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht have brought to life rarely heard masterworks. In 2011, Jarrett established the Living Composer Series at Marsh Chapel, affording a regular interaction with contemporary music and an eagerness to engage in and practice new music. The Back Bay Chorale’s premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’s Anything Can Happen and the recent commission of Julian Wachner’s Come my dark-eyed one are exciting new additions to the choral/or
Scott Allen Jarrett is the Conductor of the Conservatory Choir and Choral Artist-in-Residence at the Shenandoah Conservatory. A resident of Boston, Jarrett is Director of Music at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel and Music Director of the Back Bay Chorale. He was named Resident Conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society chorus in 2016 during the Society’s bicentennial season. In the spring of 2015, Jarrett completed eleven years as Director of Choruses and Assistant Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony (NC). He travels weekly to Winchester leading Conservatory Choir rehearsals and supporting the continued development of a rich choral culture at the Conservatory, within the University, regionally and beyond.
This season Jarrett leads performances of Brahms Nänie, Mendelssohn Die erste Walpurgisnacht, the Mass in C and Symphony No. 1 of Beethoven, Haydn Die Schöpfung, Handel Israel in Egypt and Jephtha, Bach cantatas, 7, 75, 10, 125, and 74, James Kallembach’s Most Sacred Body, the Howells Requiem, and a performance series with the Handel and Haydn Society of Monteverdi’s sacred works including the Selva Morale e Spirituale and the Vespers of 1610.
He is a also regular collaborator at Trinity Wall Street (NYC), guest conducting in their Bach cantata series and their recent Britten celebration, serving as recording producer, and joining Music Director Julian Wachner in conducting Ives’s Fourth Symphony at Carnegie Hall. Jarrett also sang the role of Jesus in Ginastera’s Turbae et Passionem Gregorianam at the same performance, marking his solo debut at Carnegie Hall. He leads performance of Handel’s Jephtha in March of 2017 as part of Trinity’s new survey of Handel oratorios.
Increasingly in demand for his expertise with the vocal works of J. S. Bach, Jarrett was named Director of the Vocal Fellows Program and Assistant Choir Master at the Oregon Bach Festival in 2016, following many summers at the Festival working with founder Helmuth Rilling and now with Artistic Director Matthew Halls. Jarrett conducted performances of Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Miami-based Seraphic Fire, the first guest conductor in that organization’s fifteen year history. In 2005, Jarrett founded “The Bach Experience” with Boston University’s Marsh Chapel Choir and Collegium, featuring regular performance of cantatas and the two passions. Through these appointments, he has conducted more than forty of Bach’s cantatas and multiple performances of each of Bach’s major works.
Beyond the works of Bach, Jarrett has a passion for the heart of the classical and romantic repertoires, particularly the 19th century German tradition extending from Haydn through Schumann and Wagner. Jarrett’s dynamic performances of Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten, and Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht have brought to life rarely heard masterworks. In 2011, Jarrett established the Living Composer Series at Marsh Chapel, affording a regular interaction with contemporary music and an eagerness to engage in and practice new music. This season includes performance and recording for commercial release of James Kallembach’s Most Sacred Body, an extended cantata for chorus and string orchestra commissioned by Marsh Chapel. The Back Bay Chorale’s premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’s Anything Can Happen and the recent commission of Julian Wachner’s Come my dark-eyed one are important new additions to the choral/orchestral repertoire.
Off the podium, Jarrett is active as a baritone and keyboard player. His recent recitals of Debussy and Fauré with tenor Nick Phan in September 2016 with the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago were meet with critical acclaim. He can be heard as organist on Seraphic Fire’s recording of the Monteverdi Vespers and as pianist on their 2012 Grammy-nominated recording of the Brahms Requiem. He served as accompanist for Helmuth Rilling and the late Robert Shaw, and through his long-time collaborations with his mentor Ann Howard Jones, served eight summers on the conducting staff at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He is a baritone in the professional chorus of Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society and may be heard in the bass section of their most recent recordings for the CORO label.
Giovanna Reyes-Mir is an accomplished choral conductor with over 15 years of experience. She is also a sought after church musician, professor of voice, and professional opera singer with over a decade of experience in the Greater New York area. Her extensive knowledge of vocal technique, style, and lyric diction has led her students and clients to great success in prestigious programs and international renowned opera houses.
A native of Puerto Rico, Ms. Reyes-Mir has appeared in full productions and in concert with The Casals Festival Orchestra, Coópera: Project Opera of Manhattan, Orlando Opera, Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium, International Institute of Vocal Arts, Modus Opera Company, Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico, Opera de Puerto Rico, Cleveland Heights Orchestra, Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theatre, Brooklyn Conservatory Orchestra, etc.
Before moving to Manhattan, Ms. Reyes-Mir was the Assistant Director of El Coro de Niños de San Juan (The Children’s Choir of San Juan). She has also served as Adjunct Faculty at The County College of Morris, Assistant Director of Music Ministry at Resurrection Parish, and maintained a private voice studio in New York and New Jersey. Currently, Giovanna is the Director of Music Ministry at First Presbyterian Church of Winchester. She received the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Lori Horne Pendleton is the Minister of Music and Minister to Senior Adults at First Baptist Church in Winchester, VA. A native of Newport News, VA, she holds Bachelor and Master Degrees in Vocal Performance from Shenandoah University, with additional studies at the University of Urbania, Italy and University of Colorado, Boulder, CO. She taught voice at Shenandoah Conservatory and conducted choral ensembles for twelve years. She studied conducting with Grammy Award-winning conductor, Robert Shafer, as well as directed his choirs while he was on sabbatical in 2004. She is a life-long church musician and has been leading in ministry at First Baptist for nineteen years, where she directs the music program that includes choirs of all ages, two adult handbell choirs, and small ensemble groups, and where she has developed an extensive ministry to Senior Adults.
The Seniors of First Baptist Church are very active: the 34 members of the Singin’ Seniors travel and sing various concerts throughout the year; the Ageless Adventurers have different activities every month including lunches out at various restaurants, shopping and sightseeing trips; and quarterly Bible studies and book clubs are offered during the day.
J. Thomas Mitts, director of the Church Music Institute and Associate Professor of Organ and Director of Church Music at Shenandoah Conservatory, has been acclaimed as a “sensitive soloist who precisely spelled out the virtuoso passages” in his “spell-binding” appearances on festivals and concert series in the United States, Europe, and Russia. Dr. Mitts also serves as Organist/Choirmaster at Augustana Lutheran Church in Washington, DC, a church whose worship life is propelled by dynamic music and liturgy. He was formerly associated with Adas Israel Congregation, also in DC, as organist, pianist, and choral conductor. There he produced arrangements of music from the Holocaust and a performing edition of music for the Sabbath by Salamone Rossi, which he later conducted for the Jewish Service of the national convention of the American Guild of Organists in 2010.
Academic Credit
Undergraduate or graduate credit is available for participating in the Institute, which can be applied to academic or continuing education programs. A Certificate in Church Music may be earned with the successful completion of the three-summer cycle of courses. See the Registration & Fees page for details.
For more information
Contact the Director of the Church Music Institute, Dr. J. Thomas Mitts, at cmi@su.edu, or call (202) 425-4586.