Mountain State School of Gospel Music Faculty Ladies Quartet.mpg

The videos are going up on youtube! Check out this one of the Ladies Quartet, consisting of four of the lady faculty members. From L-R: Katie Leaptrot ("Queen of the Children", children's teacher), Ashley Mahood (worked with preschoolers), Tori Holstine (MSSGM Director and taught basic music theory for adults), Ashli Samples (sight-singing assistant).

Our Students are Keeping Busy!

It is always a blessing to see our students use their gifts coupled with the things they learned during music school. This past Sunday evening, I got to see one of the children - Troy - play a piano special at church. It was precious! Probably the cutest thing was on Sunday morning after church he ran out into the parking lot and yelled, "Tori! Tori! I can play the piano!" We give all children (ages 7 - 11) who enroll in music school free private lessons in voice or piano. Troy had chosen piano lessons. He had never played a piano before, and was able to learn to play "God Is So Good" during the music school. Troy also took guitar lessons from Seth during the music school. At the Student Recital he played guitar and sang along to "Amazing Grace". He has so much potential! He's going to be a fine musician one day, and he's getting started on the right foot, by attending music schools and enrolling in private lessons. I wish more adults took their gift from the Lord that seriously!

We also work with adults, training them and encouraging them to take part in their church's music ministry. We train them to be better choir members, choir directors, pianists, organists, etc. This past year, we were privileged to have a group of men from Union Mission take part in the music school. Today I traveled to the Union Mission to accompany the men as they sang during the Staff meeting. It was an exciting day for the men and for me too!

I'm looking forward to hearing more stories of how our students are allowing the Lord to use them for His glory!

MSSGM 2010 Success!

I had intended on blogging daily, keeping everyone up-to-date with the happenings at music school this past week. However, that didn't happen and I'm sorry :(

So, here's a synposis of the entire week, including photos... Enjoy!

On Sunday, July 18, the faculty of the Mountain State School of Gospel Music sang at the Dunbar Mountain Mission Church - the location of the music school. We were able to meet several new folks, see some familiar faces, and register folks for the music school. Several people from the church had previously registered for the music school, and a good number registered after we sang.

Earlier in the year, as we were planning for the music school, we set a goal to have 75 students registered for the music school. The goal seemed attainable. We had 57 registered in 2009. On Monday, July 19, we had 55 students registered to attend the music school. We were 20 away from our goal. By the end of the week, we had 88 students enrolled in the music school.

Monday was an exciting day! We had 40 in the choir during the day, which is a HUGE number for a music school day crowd. We had no idea what to expect for the evening session, and were surprised when we had to set up folding chairs to accomodate our students in the choir loft. Even with the chairs, there were several students standing during the group singing.

We implemented a few new things this year, all of them seemed to work out quite well. The first thing we added was an Opening Assembly in which we shared a time of devotions, practiced singing shaped notes and made all necessary announcements prior to dismissing to class.

Brianna with Re

A few of our students took part in the OpeningAssembly by leading some of the devotions. Jim Young lead devotions on Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday Joe Carte - one of the men from the Union Mission - shared his testimony with the student body.

Below are some more pictures taken during the week...