2008 Organist Workshops

Are you a Lutheran organist wanting to become a better musician AND learn some Lutheran theology AND meet some other organists? If so, take a look at attending one of the 2008 Organist Workshops at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN. They have recently posted their 2008 schedule on their website. This summer they are offering Organist Primer and Level 1. You don’t have to be an organ savant to attend - Kantor Resch and Kantor Hildebrand work with you at your current skill level.

If you’re wondering what it’s like, read my review here. If you’re a pastor or leader in your church, why not suggest that your organist attend? Why not offer to pay their way?

Kantor Resch put it this way in a paper he wrote for the 2001 Good Shepherd Institute’s conference on Christ’s Gifts in Liturgy: The Theology and Music of the Divine Service.

Parishes should encourage their church musicians to take full advantage of these opportunities for growth and offer significant financial support. Such an educational benefit for a valued member of the staff is not an extra, not a fluff benefit. I have seen the results of such continuing education every summer for twenty years on this campus. Annually about forty-five organists come, see, hear, learn, and are immersed in something that for most of them is new. After five days of being immersed in theology and practice, students leave with insights that make them different church musicians, able to understand more fully–and put into practice more effectively–their responsibilities in proclamation and teaching. (The Music of the Divine Service: Propers and Proclamation pg 49 in the 2001 Journal of the Good Shepherd Institute)