I’ve just returned home from Sing! 2019 in Nashville. It was a great conference, with plenty of reconnecting with old friends as well as making connections with new ones. I spent a fair bit of time at the Beckenhorst Press booth, where I met dozens of choir directors and members—some of whom may be visiting my site for the first time.
If that’s you, welcome! Say hello in the comments, and browse my published choral music or check out my Wexford Carol, which I’m selling myself! (Christmas will be here soon, of course.)
Great to see old friends James and Rachel Pitts, Jonathan Albright, Kevin and Isetta Moses, and others. The connections formed in ministry years ago are deep and lasting, and any time we can reconnect is a sweet one.
I also spent time with “less-old” friends Andrew Huish and Trevor Manor. Andrew, Trevor, and I enjoyed some shenanigans at the Beckenhorst booth and at various other locations around Nashville.
Wednesday morning after a small bit of networking and a large bit of general confusion (“General Confusion” is my personal subtitle for the conference name), Andrew, Trevor, and I slipped in to a session where Matt Boswell and Matt Papa were discussing and singing some of their hymns. It was a great session!
Modern hymns need to work well in a variety of contexts. If a song can’t hold up without serious production values, it won’t have the kind of universality that hymns need to have. The Boswell/Papa hymns we sang in this session worked beautifully with just a piano and voices. They had a one-two punch of quality and versatility that I think will help them endure.
Joey Hoelscher Music 