Cindy Berry

Cindy Woods Berry was born in Houston, Texas, and attended Houston Baptist University. She started taking piano lessons from her church organist when she was six years old, and started composing original songs when she was a teenager. But writing/composing was more of a hobby until God "called her" to write in 1983. Since then, she has devoted about half her writing time to choral anthems (for adults and children), and half to arranging for piano. Her anthems, musicals, and piano collections are found in the catalogs of many major publishers. She has received ASCAP Special Awards for many years, and enjoys leading "composer weekends" and conferences throughout the country.

Cindy has always been active in her local church music ministry, serving as church pianist and children's choir director. Her goal in writing is to always present her music as an offering of worship and praise to God.

Lee Dengler

Lee has over 230 choral, vocal and piano works published by many of the major music publishers. Lee received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in vocal performance from West Chester University School of Music in West Chester, PA. He studied choral composition and arranging with Alice Parker at Westminster Choir College as well as in her home in New England where he participated in the Melodious Accord Fellowship program. Lee and his wife, Susan, are Ministers of Music and Arts at College Mennonite Church where he directs the 50 voice adult choir. Lee is the director of the Goshen Community Chorale - an auditioned chorale of 50-60 singers. He is a free-lance music editor and engraver. Lee taught voice and composition at Goshen College form 1996-2009. Lee is a bass/baritone soloist and has sung in numerous oratorio and operatic productions.

Tom Fettke

Tom Fettke is in considerable demand as a guest conductor, clinician and workshop leader. Tom is also a composer, arranger and producer of music and recordings for the contemporary Christian church. His published works and recordings number in the hundreds. His classic choral work “The Majesty and Glory of Your Name” is sung by thousands of church and school choirs throughout the world. Tom was the creator and Senior Editor of The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration and also the editor of The Celebration Hymnal. Both resources are well-known resources for music ministry in the church today.

Tom holds degrees from Oakland City College and California State University at Hayward. He has taught vocal music and directed choirs in both the school and church fields. Tom and his wife Jan reside in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Mark Hayes

Mark Hayes is an award-winning concert pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. His personal catalog, totaling over 750 published works, includes work for solo voice, solo piano, multiple pianos, orchestra, jazz combo, small instrumental ensembles, and choruses of all kinds. He is honored to have his works regularly featured at ACDA, MENC and Chorus America conventions. Mark received a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in Piano Performance from Baylor University in 1975. He has conducted the SWACDA & MCDA Community & Church Honor Choir and served as guest conductor at Carnegie Hall featuring his Te Deum and Magnificat. In 2010 Baylor University Center for Christian Music Studies awarded Mark the Award for Exemplary Leadership in Christian Music.

Hal H. Hopson

Hal H. Hopson is a full-time composer/church music clinician residing in Dallas, Texas. He has over 1300 published works which comprise almost every musical form in church music. With a special interest in congregational song, he continues to make a significant contribution to the new repertoire of hymn tunes and responsorial psalm settings as evidenced by the proliferation of his works that are included in newly published hymnals and psalm collections.

Mr. Hopson is a graduate of Baylor University and Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He has also done further study at the University of Erlanagen, Erlanagen, Germany; The Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, Maryland; and Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He served as Chair of the Church Music Department, Westminster Choir College and taught at Scarritt Graduate School. Mr. Hopson is currently active as a conductor and clinician, conducting choral festivals and workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Korea and Japan.

David Lantz III

Composer David Lantz III is a full time vocal music teacher in a public school system in Pennsylvania. He is also a prolific composer of sacred and secular choral music, with approximately five hundred published compositions with many major publishers across the United States. He has written for orchestra, symphonic band, jazz ensemble, and chamber groups. In addition, he is also an accomplished music editor and engraver, church choir director, and regularly performing bassist/vocalist in the pop and jazz idioms. He resides in northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife, composer Marti Lunn Lantz. He is the father of five musical children, from ages twelve to twenty-five.

John Leavitt

John Leavitt is a composer, conductor, clinician, teacher and church musician, whose music continues to captivate listeners and musicians of all ages. He received his undergraduate education at Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, a master's degree from Wichita State University, and the Doctorate of Musical Arts from The Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Leavitt is a lifetime member of the American Choral Directors Association and is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, from which he has received annual recognition for his achievements in composition.

Leavitt was the recipient of the W.A. Young Award for teaching excellence, in recognition of his career at Friends University (Wichita, KS) in the fields of choral and church music. At present, he serves on the faculty of MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, KS as visiting guest professor. Leavitt currently resides near Wichita (Andover), Kansas where he has held the post of music director at Immanuel Lutheran Church. He also conducted the community choral program, The Master Arts Chorale and Youth Chorale. His music has been performed in 30 countries across the globe and his recordings have been featured nationally on many public radio stations.

Mary McDonald

Mary McDonald is a multi-talented musician from Knoxville, Tennessee. In addition to her work as a composer, arranger, producer, pianist, and organist, she was a sacred choral editor for The Lorenz Corporation for nearly twenty years and currently serves as the organist for Central Baptist Church in Knoxville. Her music and talents have blessed choirs and congregations across the country for more than twenty-five years.

Mary is the composer of nearly 700 published choral anthems, several Christmas and Easter cantatas, and numerous keyboard collections, and still serves as an editorial consultant for Lorenz. She is also active as a choral clinician, traveling throughout the United States conducting workshops and concertizing. Her unique blend of heart, hands, and humor, combined with a wide range of writing and performing styles, keep her in constant demand. One of Mary's greatest joys has been serving as accompanist for the Tennessee Men's Chorale since 1985. In 2000, Mary served as the first woman President of the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference. She is currently on the board of the John Ness Beck Foundation and is a member of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Mary is a 1978 graduate of Carson-Newman College.

Allen Pote

Allen Pote is known nationally as a composer of sacred music as well as a clinician for festivals and workshops. Since 1975 his published choral works, which include thirteen musicals for youth and children, have been widely performed; and he continues to receive numerous commissions for new works. He has served as Director of Music at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas, and First United Methodist Church in Pensacola, Florida where he now resides. With his wife Susan, he is Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Pensacola Children's Chorus, a 20 year organization of over 350 singers. He is a former member of the National Board of Choristers Guild, and is the winner of three Muriel Shugart Awards from the Northwest Florida Arts Council for excellence in musical programming. Together, the Potes have received the Cox Bravo Award and the prestigious Liberty Bell Award, presented by the Escambia Santa Rosa County Bar Association, for their community work with young musicians.

Joel Raney

Joel Raney is a Juilliard trained pianist and composer, currently living in Chicago, Illinois with his wife Susie and their three sons. His career includes 20 years in the commercial business writing scores for radio and television commercials, theater musical direction in New York, film scoring in Los Angeles, and his current position as staff editor at Hope Publishing Company. Joel grew up in Alabama and cut his teeth on southern gospel music. He has recorded four piano solo CD's; An Instrument of Your Peace, Overtures of Praise, This is my Story, This is my Song, and Images of Christmas. With an ever-growing catalog of choral, handbell, keyboard, and instrumental music for churches and schools, he keeps busy as a choral and keyboard clinician, and often performs with organist Jane Holstein in churches and universities around the country. He currently serves as artist-in-residence at the First Presbyterian Church in River Forest, Illinois.

Ruth Elaine Schram

Ruth Elaine Schram wrote her first song at the age of twelve, and her first octavo was published twenty years later, in 1988. In 1992, she became a full-time composer and arranger and now has over 1,700 published works. Over sixteen million copies of her songs have been purchased in their various venues, and she has been a recipient of the ASCAP Special Award each year since 1990. In addition to her choral music for church and school choirs, her songs appear on thirty albums (four of which have been Dove Award Finalists) and numerous children's videos, including sixteen songs on four gold videos, and four songs on one multi-platinum video. Her songs have also appeared on such diverse television shows as "The 700 Club" and HBO's acclaimed series "The Sopranos."

Ruthie began piano and theory lessons at the age of five. She studied music at Lancaster Bible College and Millersville State College and taught Elementary Music in Pennsylvania for several years.

David Schwoebel

David Schwoebel is Minister of Music / Composer in Residence at Derbyshire Baptist Church in Richmond, VA. He is a graduate of McKendree College in Lebanon, IL and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, TX where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Voice and Organ Performance, and a Master of Church Music with an emphasis in Composition, respectively. Prior to beginning his ministry at Derbyshire in January 1997, he had served churches in his hometown of Belleville, IL, as well as Montgomery, AL and Atlanta, GA.

As an ordained minister, David administrates and oversees a comprehensive music ministry of nine choral organizations, five handbell choirs, an Orff ensemble, and a 28-piece orchestra and brass ensemble. His energetic, hands-on approach to ministry finds him working each week with people of all ages, encouraging and equipping them to discover and develop their varied musical talents and skills.